Social value at believe housing 2025/26

We do not want to stand still. We want to focus our funding to tackle issues that most affect our communities. That is why we’re committing to do the following in 2026/27:

• spending time talking to partners, local people and colleagues in our business to identify the areas where our funding can make the greatest difference
• working with other funders to work together to make a greater impact across the county
• working collaboratively with the North East Housing Partnership to achieve economies of scale across the region to shape supply chains, regenerate communities, decarbonise our region, create and prepare people for jobs and support people to live longer, healthier lives
• supporting the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority to tackle child poverty through the Child Poverty Action Plan.

We support local charities and community groups through targeted grants. Grants are money given to help build skills or tackle local issues.

This way our investment goes to those already working in communities who know them and are best placed to deliver change. 

We’re proud to work with organisations that partner with local people to make a real difference.

How we choose projects

We use local data, insights and knowledge from our customers, colleagues and stakeholders to set priorities and make sure our support meets real community needs.

In 2025/26, we funded projects that focused on:

• health and wellbeing, supporting mental and physical health, and building confidence
• employability and training, including volunteering and skill-building activities
• increasing household income, through debt advice, benefits support, feeding families, and employment
• a greener, fairer future, promoting recycling, reusing, and reducing waste
• tackling inequalities from the cost-of-living crisis, including ‘Keep Warm, Keep Well’ grants for community organisations running warm hubs.

In 2025/26, our community investment funding:

• supported 138 people to become regular volunteers
• provided 474 people with training
• helped 90 young people to feel more confident
• supported 595 people to improve their diet
• supported 74 people to feel a sense of belonging in their neighbourhood
• empowered 51 people to take up regular exercise.

Our Employability Team gives friendly, personalised help to anyone who needs their support.

We talk with people to understand what they need and what they hope to do in the future. We can then connect people with other helpful services in or outside our business.

Our team understand that everyone is at a different stage in their journey and can support people to not only find a job but also to help access volunteering activity, community support, work experience, training courses and accredited learning opportunities through local education providers.

We help people find paid jobs, but that’s not all we offer. We can also support people to volunteer, access training or start their own business. We have an In-work Support Coordinator who works directly with people offering tailored support taking account of their specific circumstances to help people  find long-lasting and better-paid work.

Our Employability Team also provides one-on-one help. We can help people with writing CVs, applying for jobs, and getting ready for interviews. We can help people with physical or mental health needs find support from organisations and professionals. Our work empowers people to feel in control of their health and future.

In 2025/26, we:

• supported 136 people to access secure, sustained employment
• supported 9 people to access volunteering opportunities
• referred 62 people to other specialists such as local foodbanks, debt and mental health support
• referred 23 people to external employability support
• hprovided over 150 people with employability support
• supported customers to repay £13,651.26 of rent arrears
• created a social value of over £1.3m.

We can support our customers with any unexpected issues that they might encounter.

Our Money Matters Team works with people one-on-one to make sure they get the help they need to have a healthy home.

We work together across the business to help customers by:

• doing checks to understand what support they need
• looking at their money situation to help them keep their home
• finding out if they can get any benefits or payments
• guiding them to other helpful services or groups.

We can also help customers who go through a sudden life change. This could be losing someone close, a relationship breakup, or losing a job. We can give advice about money and help them find other services that can support them during this time.

During 2025/26, the Tenancy Sustainment Team:

• supported 4,540 customers
• secured more than £2.9m of additional welfare benefits
• created more than £5.2m of social value.

We work to provide homes in places where people want to live that are safe, secure and well looked after.

We know people in our communities are struggling with rising living costs, higher energy bills, and price increases. As a company, we are working towards all our homes having an energy rating of at least C by the year 2030. This means our customers will be able to live in homes that are more efficient to run and better for the environment.

Our ‘capital works programme’ is a home improvement plan to help make sure our homes stay up to a decent standard. We also focus on helping homes use less energy and be kinder to the planet. And we try to plan and combine work in a way that causes the least disruption for our customers.

This year, we made energy improvements to 936 homes.

As a business, we can’t do everything on our own. We use our procurement policies to buy goods and services from external suppliers.

We are proud to be in the County Durham Pound initiative. This initiative ensures all public sector procurement in the county maximises investment. It also supports delivering social value and activities in our communities and neighbourhoods.

As part of the Social Value Act, companies who work with us must show how they will help the community alongside doing their job. This could include things like running job events at schools or hiring people who live nearby. Our Procurement Team checks that suppliers meet these commitments and the outcomes.

We also use something called the Social Value TOMs framework (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) to keep track of what we do across the business. This helps us show how our work makes a positive difference in local areas. It also shows our suppliers that we care a lot about helping the community.

During 2025/26:

• we awarded contracts to 46 suppliers, with 26 of them based in northeast England (12 of which were based in County Durham)
• we awarded 19 new contracts, of which 10 contracts contained provision for TOMs-defined social value activity
• suppliers committed to £1,115,377 proposed social value, as per the TOMs framework
• the total social value created by believe housing, as per the TOMs framework, is £722,193.

In September 2025, our colleagues and contractors took part in the Great Giveback. This was a three-week volunteering event to help community groups across County Durham.

This is just one of the ways colleagues can use the four days of paid volunteering leave available to them each year. This benefit gives colleagues time to support local charities, community groups and good causes while making a positive difference in the communities we serve. Volunteering also helps colleagues build new skills, gain confidence and meet new people.

During the Great Giveback:

• 72 colleagues and contractors volunteered their time
• volunteers gave almost 300 hours of support
• 14 charities and community projects received help.