Association's 2021 AGM | The Almshouse Association

Association’s 2021 AGM

Our seventieth AGM will take place virtually on 29 September 2021 at 10am.

Our sixty ninth AGM took place virtually at 10am on 1^st September 2020 by webinar. For a recording, please click here

Main Business of seventieth AGM:

Approval of minutes of sixty ninth AGM held on 1st September 2020 via webinar.
Election of Board Members
Presentation of 2020 annual report and accounts.

All members were cordially invited to attend the webinar. The nominated representative for each member charity are invited to cast their vote. One vote per member charity.

Deadline for voting is Wednesday 22nd September 2021.

The main contacts for each charity will receive an email invite.

Please click here to register for the webinar
If you are the main representative for your charity, please click here to vote.
One vote per member charity.

Should you require hard copies of the voting form, please contact admin@almshouses.org.

23 June 2021; last updated 31 August 21

Policy & Governance: 31.08.21 update

The Almshouse Association regularly posts a news summary of the latest Policy and Governance legislation that could impact / requires action from our member charities, with links to further information where applicable. Please find below our latest summary

Property and Planning

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Opens – The first wave of the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which is worth £160m, has opened for bids.

Members who are Registered Providers and interested in applying should talk to their local authority who will need to bid for funding on their behalf as part of a consortium.

The competition will be open for 8 weeks with applications being accepted from 23rd August to 15th October 2021 and details of the competition can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-housing-decarbonisation-fund

Community Housing Fund Opens – The long awaited £4 million fund to increase community led affordable homes has opened. The Community Housing Fund Revenue Programme 2021 to 2022 is funded by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and will help community-led housing groups in the latter stages of pre-development.

The Community Led Homes Partnership (CLH) will manage the grant programme, assessing all applications and administering the grants. Applications opened on 23 August 2021 and will remain open until all funds are allocated or until 31 December 2021, whichever occurs first. The programme will close in March 2022 – all work funding by the grant must be completed by this date.

To apply for the fund, groups will need to complete an eligibility checker on the Community Led Homes website. If eligible, groups will be emailed an online grant application form.

Wales

A new standard for building Affordable Homes in Wales – Welsh Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, has announced the ‘Welsh Development Quality Requirements 2021 – ‘Creating beautiful homes & places’. The standard promotes low carbon designs as well as moving away from fossil fuels for domestic heating and hot water systems.

Beyond low carbon targets, the requirements also stipulate new properties to be ‘gigabit ready’, meaning fibre optic broadband or gigabit wireless technology is available, alongside a choice of internet service providers. Where this isn’t in place, infrastructure to enable future installation without disruption must be provided.

These changes, along with a recognition of the need to consider space for home working, are in direct response to the pandemic, which saw much of the country needing to learn and work from home.

The new standards also favour good design and generous space to ensure people live well within their homes.

The standard will come into force from 1st October 2021 and will apply to new affordable homes funded by the Welsh Government. More details can be found here.

Posted 31 August 21

Association joins National Housing Federation

The Almshouse Association is pleased to announce that we have officially become members of the National Housing Federation.

Almshouses are the earliest form of social housing in the country, and as such, the National Housing Federation and The Almshouse Association share similar values wishing to support social and community housing so that we can continue to offer good homes to those in housing need.

We believe that the expertise of the NHF will allow the Association to offer more advice and support to our members, as well as allowing us further opportunities to engage with government and other stakeholders.

Posted 24 August 2021

Christ’s Hospital Almshouses join our 75th celebrations!

Gillian Kent, Clerk to the Governors at Christ’s Hospital Almshouses in Abingdon sent us in some wonderful photos of their almshouse party that took place held on 30th July 2021 as part of The Almshouse Assocation’s 75th anniversary celebrations.

Gillian writes:

“When the call came from The Almshouse Association to show our support for their 75^th Anniversary, there was no question that the staff would rally round. We have tapped into their endless resources of forms and policy templates, training and general good advice and we felt as though this was the perfect opportunity to ‘give back’.
So much planning, so much preparation, consideration and a lot of weather watching – the day finally came, and the weather was indeed appalling. Nevertheless, we held our nerve. We kept calm and carried on! The health and safety briefing was held in the garden with the residents in their waterproofs and then it was time to open the doors and hang on valiantly to the gazebo and the teacups as the wind tried to whisk us away! It was incredibly fortunate that we had an empty almshouse available that could be opened as a ‘show home’ on the day, without too much disturbance to other residents. We opened our Long Alley historic hall and also the very private back gardens to Long Alley.

With the opening up of the almshouse and gardens being a complete one off, people’s curiosity got the better of them despite the rain. We had around 150 visitors on the day and they were treated to tales from the residents, information about the almshouses and The Almshouse Association, of which we are proud members, and all the history we could muster from our incorporation in 1553 by King Edward VI’s royal charter to the present day. The staff, trustees and residents who volunteered to help all seemed to thoroughly enjoy ‘showing off’ what we have achieved. The event was attended by Abingdon Town’s Mayor.

The Hospital Hall will again be open for Heritage Open Days – Saturday 18^th September 10am to 4pm.

Posted 24 August 2021

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Policy & Governance update: 16.08.21

Property and Planning

GLA Launches Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator:

The Greater London Authority has launched the Social Housing Retrofit Accelerator which is aimed at helping housing providers as they develop bids for the first wave of the £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which is worth £160m and set to open in the autumn.

Social landlords will now be able to access the GLA scheme to get free technical guidance on retrofitting their homes to cut carbon emissions and reduce heating bills.

It is backed by £3.45m in funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is intended to help speed up energy-efficiency work in social housing across the country.

Bids for the SHDF open on August 23^rd. Members who are Registered Providers and interested in applying should talk to their local authority who will need to bid for funding on their behalf.

Charity

Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for the charity sector:

The government has updated its Covid-19 guidance for trustees. This includes advice for trustees on holding meetings remotely or postponing or cancelling meetings to reflect the lifting of restrictions in England and Wales.

As restrictions lift, some members may choose to revert to physical meetings. However, Coronavirus is still impacting on events and so it is still reasonable to make adjustments to suit your needs. Further guidance can be found here.

Wales

Coronavirus Restrictions Lifted:

Most of the remaining Coronavirus restriction in place will be lifted from August 7^th. This includes rules on the number of people who can meet indoors as well as social distancing will end.

Wearing a face mask in shops, health and social care settings and on public transport will still be required.

16-08-2021

Covid-19 update: 13-08-2021

Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for the charity sector

Wales

Coronavirus Restrictions Lifted

Most of the remaining Coronavirus restriction in place will be lifted from August 7^th. This includes rules on the number of people who can meet indoors as well as social distancing will end.

Wearing a face mask in shops, health and social care settings and on public transport will still be required.

13-08-2021

Andover Charities Trustees hold a garden party in their orchard

Last weekend Andover Charities Trustees joined in The Almshouse Association’s 75^th celebrations by holding a garden party.

Eighteen residents and trustees enjoyed a picnic afternoon tea in their beautiful community orchard. To make sure everyone kept safe, the Travelling Cupcake made sumptuous individual food boxes with a range of finger food that went down a treat!

Clerk to the Andover Charities Trustees Katherine who sent us in photos from the day, said

“It was really wonderful to be able to sit together and socialise for the first time in over a year!”

Andover Charities Trustees look after 19 properties in the centre of Andover, along with the nearby common acre.

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Policy & Governance: 02.08.21 update

Property and Planning

National Disability Strategy – The Government has published its National Disability Strategy which seeks to improve the life of disabled people across the country. Part of the strategy focuses on housing, particularly accessibility, with some immediate measure including:
- boosting the supply of housing for disabled people by raising accessibility standards for new homes, increasing the supply of affordable homes, including supported housing, and accelerating the adaptation of existing homes by improving the efficiency of local authority delivery of the Disabled Facilities Grant, worth £573 million in 2021 to 2022
- extend disabled tenants’ rights on accessibility
- ensure the safety of disabled people in buildings, for when there are emergencies

Building Beautiful Places – Members who are considering developing new almshouses may be interested in the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and new National Model Design Code which place ‘beauty’ at the heart of new buildings.

Charity

Charity Commission – updated guidance on charity accounting – The Charity Commission has updated its guidance on Charity reporting and accounting: the essentials November 2016 (CC15d) and on Independent examination of charity accounts: guidance for trustees (CC31) to include advice on the use of electronic signatures on the balance sheet, trustees’ annual report and independent examination.

Adult Social Care

Help with anti-social behaviour for social housing tenants – MHCLG has published guidance that clarifies the roles of the agencies responsible for tackling anti-social behaviour and the help and support available for residents. Although the guidance refers to ‘tenants’ it is generally applicable information.

Environment and Energy

Government Consultation Opens on automatic energy switching – The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published proposals to trial automatic switching for customers on expensive default energy tariffs to cheaper deals. The proposals include trials of a new system (to take place in 2024) in which some consumers on costly tariffs would be automatically switched to cheaper ones on the market unless they opt out. BEIS has published a related policy paper and consultation – closing 15 October 2021.

Miscellaneous

Risk management template for event organisers – DCMS has published a Risk management template for event organisers, which it offers as a resource to help event organisers to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission in event settings. This may be of interest to members thinking about holding a celebratory tea party as part of The Almshouse Association’s 75^th anniversary.

Posted 2 August 21

Its blooming marvellous at St Mary’s Hospital almshouses!

The St Mary’s Hospital almshouses in Chichester opened up the gates to their beautiful gardens as part of the National Gardens Scheme this July.

The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,600 exceptional private gardens in England and Wales, and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake. Thanks to the generosity of garden owners, volunteers and visitors, the National Garden Scheme has donated over £60 million to nursing and health charities. The National Garden Scheme doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – they are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. They also support charities doing amazing work in gardens and health and grant bursaries to help community gardening projects.

Over the 2 days, St Mary’s Hospital almshouse trustees, staff and residents welcomed 310 visitors raising £1,553.05 for the NGS health, mental health & gardening charities with the refreshments stall raising £347.00 in donations to St Mary’s.

Scheme Manager, Monica Winnett , who sent us in these stunning photos (mostly taken by Mrs Vivien Ruddock) writes:

“This was a real community effort – the setting up was done by me, the gardens are single-handedly cared for by Ray Winnett, who is also responsible for the maintenance here and the refreshments stall was run entirely by residents on both days, who reported that they thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with visitors and were delighted with the money raised.
Our Custos (Chaplain) Canon Bruce Ruddock was also on hand on the Saturday to speak to visitors and muck in as needed”.

Such a brilliant demonstration of a community working together!

Monica is hoping that they will soon be able to reopen for the monthly tours they offer to members of the public – we hope so too, those gardens really need to be shown off!

Ray Winnett, the man with the green fingers!

Posted July 21

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Celebrating 90 years! Goodly Dale Cottage Homes

Goodly Dale Cottage Homes almshouses in Windermere are celebrating 90 years since their very first trustee meeting on the 6^th February 1931!

The party takes place on 7th August with entertainment from local singer Fiona Hanlan , a few words from Chairman Bill Smith and a delicious afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones and cakes.

Bob Pow, trustee, told us that he has read through every single ‘minutes of the meeting’ reports from the past 90 years, twice! As part of the special commemorative day, he will give a reading from their very first trustees meeting along with other interesting minutes from the last 90 years.

The original homes were constructed by well-known local builders, Pattinson’s, to provide homes for those meeting strict qualifications in relation to their age, character, local origin or longevity of local residency. Today the almshouses provide 20 homes comprising of the original cottages and six more modern bungalows built in the 1970s with very similar occupancy qualifications to those established in 1931. They are occupied by a mix of single and married couples with a resident Warden support.
Bob Pow, Trustee

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