We've launched our new five-year plan in consultation with customers, confirming our ambitions to grow to more than 10,000 homes whilst continuing to invest in our existing homes and services.
We currently manage over 6,500 homes, and received over 1,000 responses from customers and colleagues as part of surveys, workshops and events which have helped us set future priorities for homes, customers and communities up to 2030.
One of these priorities is to increase its number of homes to 10,000 to meet housing demand and expand into other parts of Greater Manchester. This will include building up to 1,300 new homes for social and affordable rent, shared ownership and outright sale.
Our new Five-Year Plan which sets future priorities for our homes and communities. We’ve listened to all the feedback and while some points may not be covered in our Five-Year Plan, we are addressing these in other ways to continue making improvements in these areas.
Southway and Gecko Homes’ newly completed Unicorn Quarter in Eccles, Salford. (16 shared ownership homes) ‘Address requests for fencing, gates, and kitchen replacements.’
We’re aware that this is a significant issue for tenants. Our current boundary policy will be discussed by our People and Places Committee in July to make sure that it reflects the needs of our tenants, while remaining cost efficient and effective.
‘Modernise existing properties.’
We’re currently carrying out detailed surveys of all our homes and will have completed this by the end of 2025. This will help us understand what work needs doing as part of future home improvement programmes.
‘Focus on building homes that meet community needs and learn from past projects to inform consistency in the design of new builds.’
Since 2016, we’ve built nearly 400 new homes for social and affordable rent. We will build a further 600 homes by 2031 as we recognise the need for more affordable homes across Greater Manchester.
We’re committed to building the best quality homes and we review all our new build developments to help improve our future housing schemes.
‘Increase investment in community projects and customer engagement. Increase frequency of inclusive neighbourhood events and activities. Increase support services and advice, especially for young people and vulnerable groups.’
We spend over £1 million per year on Community Investment activities, because we know how important it is to customers, and we’ll continue to do this for the next five years.
‘Improve communication and engagement with customers.’
We’ve launched a new Customer Voice Strategy to help customers to have their say on our services and get involved with our community events and we encourage a diverse range of people to take part. We know we can do better with communication. We carried out a review of our External Communications in 2024 and are using the recommendations to make sure that we talk, listen and act with respect.
‘Increase customer involvement and emphasis on benefits to customers of a holistic approach to zero-carbon initiatives.’
We will launch a new Zero Carbon Strategy later in 2025. This will be done in consultation with customers to help them feel the benefit from new projects. We also aim for all our homes to have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of C by 2038.
‘Increase involvement with elderly tenants.’
We have had over 2000 attendances at a range of age friendly activities since 2022. Providing services to our older customers is extremely important to us and we will continue to invest in this.
‘Increase handyman services for Age-friendly customers.’
We do want to extend the handyman service to more tenants, but will only do that if it is value for money for all our tenants.
‘Modernizing the approach to age-friendly services.’
We will produce a new Age Friendly Strategy next year in consultation with our customers. We know how important it is that our older residents are not left behind by changes in technology and this will remain part of our plan.
‘Address concerns about rent increases and perceived wasteful expenditure.’
We set rents in line with Government policy. We know that cost of living worries affects a lot of our customers which is why we invest so much into community support and advice.
‘Review rent policies to make sure they are fair and reasonable.’
We will be launching a new Value for Money Strategy this year to make sure that we are using rent money efficiently to deliver the best service to our customers.
‘Ensure staff have the resources needed to deliver high-quality services.’
We’re investing in staff training and there is a section in our new five -year plan that explains what we’ll be doing. We’ve started this by enrolling all staff on Customer Care training in 2025.
Read the full plan below
Investing £5million in communities
We've also committed to investing £5m in communities to support customers’ independence, health and wellbeing.
Our new five-year plan focuses on six themes with clear actions to meet targets.
John said: “I’m delighted that our new corporate plan has been shaped by customers and colleagues. The fantastic amount of feedback enabled us to focus on what matters most to our communities and this has resulted in a plan that we believe will have a positive and long-lasting impact.
“We held a range of activities including home visits to make sure as many people as possible could have their say, and improving how we listen to customers and create more opportunities for them to get involved remains a key priority."
“Our new plan strives for continuous improvement, builds resilience to overcome challenges and puts us in a strong position to address the housing crisis.”
- John Bowker, Chief Executive
Launching our new corporate brand, strategy and customer voice
April 2025 also marked the start of a refreshed brand for Southway and a new Customer Voice Strategy which details plans for three new customer groups due to start this year. This includes a panel to oversee the customer involvement strategy and two service improvement groups; one for customer experience and one for asset management covering home improvement works.
Customers are at the heart of everything we do and we’d like to thank all customers who helped to produce our new Customer Voice Strategy.
This strategy details how we’ll listen and respond to your feedback and how you can influence how services are run.
“It’s been great to see this plan develop in close collaboration with customers, and the Board is confident that it will help to secure a strong future for Southway and its communities.”
- Hazel Makinson, Chair of Southway’s Parent Board
