We have launched a new Strategic Business Plan, setting out our ambitions for the future and how we plan to maintain and improve the services we provide for residents and the wider community.
We're the city’s largest social housing landlord with more than 16,000 properties providing homes for more than 35,000 people across the city.
As well as managing homes for affordable and social rent in Plymouth and the surrounding area, we also develop and sell homes for shared ownership and open market sale through our sales brand SO Living, and are a commercial landlord for 170 shops and commercial buildings, including Plumer House in Crownhill.
Today, we are launching a new Strategic Business Plan for 2023 – 2028 which features a new Mission to help the organisation improve its services for the benefit of residents and local people, alongside a new Vision to guide the organisation in its work. This Vision is supported by clear objectives to help prioritise work, underpinned by targeted metrics to measure performance.
The plan is the result of more than a year’s work by the Board, Executive and Senior Management Teams to create a new Mission and Vision for PCH, and four themes with clear priorities which set out how the organisation will achieve its ambitions to become more efficient, more sustainable and remain financially strong so it can continue delivering first-class services for residents.
The new Mission, and primary objective, for us over the next five years is to ensure we deliver:
A high quality affordable home for everyone
This is supported by a Vision to ensure we are:
Providing homes and communities where people want to live
Staff will be guided by our core values, which remain as:
Care
Respect
Listen
Do the right thing
There are four main themes in the new business plan:
- Customer and Community
- Homes and Spaces
- Planet and Places
- Efficiency and Effectiveness
Within each theme are three key priorities, and beneath each of these priorities are three metrics, or targets, for us to meet.
The priorities are also underpinned by detailed service plans prepared for each department with a series of specific targets.
There are targets around the development and delivery of new affordable homes and improving services, as well as new targets to help us become a more sustainable business, working towards carbon net zero, and to ensure it is listening openly to feedback from residents and acting on it.
John Clark, Chief Executive of Plymouth Community Homes, said: “I’m hugely proud of what we have achieved as an organisation in the seven years I’ve been here. PCH is recognised as a high performing, resident-focused housing association and an efficient and effective business in Plymouth, well respected for the excellent work we do for our residents and the wider community.
“But we’re not sitting back, and instead we’re looking to the future as we plan how best to manage the challenges facing organisations like ours in the current economic climate. We’re setting ourselves ambitious new objectives to help us improve what we do for the benefit of our residents and for the communities we work within.
“Our new Strategic Business Plan sets out clear targets to help us shape the future development of our existing services, and ensure the work we do really does deliver real, impactful change for the people who live in our homes and for the city of Plymouth.
“We want to make a real difference in peoples’ lives, working very much in partnership with our stakeholders and like-minded organisations in the health and social care sectors, as well as our funding partners.”
Along with the Strategic Business Plan, we're also launching a new website with a fresh, clean look designed to be much easier to navigate, especially from a mobile phone.
The site layout has changed to make it simpler to find information, and there are new, helpful tools and functions for residents, including a Find my housing team search facility.
The site combines sub-websites for SO Living and for Plumer House as well.
Internally, the organisation is rolling out a new Behavioural Framework to guide staff actions and ensure people working for PCH are living the values of the organisation, and able to support the delivery of the new business plan through their work.
The framework sets out a clear vision for how staff behaviours should align with our business objectives, and will be used to support staff development, monitor progress, manage performance, and help with recruitment.
