1. Paul Bordoni Working with Broxbourne Housing Association 21 April 2009
MBA BEng(Hons) IEng MIFireE
Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service
21 April 2009
Good afternoon every body and thank you for giving me this opportunity to share our experience of working Broxbourne Housing Association.

2. Hertfordshire
On the national index of deprivation, Hertfordshire is twelfth amongst 149 county and unitary authorities.
However, this masks a number of pockets of deprivation within the county, and exceptions to the overall picture of affluence and success.
Average house prices are 10 times average annual Hertfordshire earnings, causing problems for young people and key workers trying accessing the housing market. 

3. Borough of Broxbourne
The Borough of Broxbourne covers 20 square miles in south east Hertfordshire and has a population of about 89,000.
In particular, the Stevenage and Broxbourne Districts have:
higher levels of ill health, unemployment, numbers of lone parents, people on benefits;
and
lower average earnings, educational attainment and qualifications.

4. Highest 10 IMD scores for County
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Not only that but when you look at the IMD scores for Super Output Areas within the County you will see that 4 Out of the top 10 are clustered within Broxbourne.
We were experiencing the range of problems that you might expect. A higher than county average for casualties in dwelling fires and a high number of deliberate secondary and property fires. Associated with this were higher than average reports of anti social behaviour.

5. Why Broxbourne Housing Association?
Over 4000 properties within the borough
Sees itself as more than just a landlord
Were receptive to partnership working
I’d like to tell you that we came up with an idea, identified a suitable partner, formed a partnership and pressed GO.
However, as you will see what we currently have has evolved.
BHA was chosen as our start point because of the profile of its clients, its large property base and their locations. But it was only possible because they were on-board with what we were trying to achieve and this was in no small part down to individuals, namely my Station Commander and their Estates Manager.

6. BHA wrote to 100-150 tenants about scheme BHA purchased
Initial working
BHA wrote to tenants about scheme
BHA purchased
detectors through HFRS
HFRS would inform BHA when list near completion
HFRS crews would book and conduct HFSC
At the time (2003) HFRS were already fitting smoke detectors in dwellings. However while these properties constituted a high level of risk we were mindful of BHA’s responsibilities as landlords.
BHA were looking into hardwiring detectors but the cost was prohibitive to do all at once.
Detectors were purchased through HFRS purely because we were already purchasing large quantities and could get them cheaper.

7. Other opportunities
Improved community engagement via introduction by BHA including access to tenants association
High profile and visible via BHA website, posters in public areas, quarterly news letter to tenants and staff awareness
Access to HA network
Sponsored students for LiFE scheme
Site familiarisation
Training facilities and venues
Very simple process but we did have a few hiccups.
When we contacted some tenants they said they knew nothing about the scheme.
However the benefits far outweighed any problems. In particular the access to the Housing Association network. We weren’t going in cold and we had an active scheme to promote.

8. Broxbourne LiFE scheme
BHA wanted to more than just be a landlord and their sponsorship of students on our LiFE scheme was something that they were keen to support. This picture is lifted from their web-site.
As part of a varied programme of activities to reduce deliberate fires in Broxbourne we saw a 23% reduction over three years as opposed to a County average of of 13%.
This contribution was a crucial factor in the Service meeting its LPSA stretch target and receiving £350k in reward funding for each of the following 2 years.

9. Further developments Community Rangers Review of the partnership
New target of offering all 4200 properties HFSC within next 18 months
BHA installing hard-wired detectors on refurbishing premises
Links to other partnerships
Enhanced role for 22 caretakers rebranded as:
Community Rangers
In 2007 we reviewed where we were. While many hundreds of dwellings had been fitted with detectors or had a HFSC, there were still many more to go.
BHA were fitting hard wired detectors as they refurbished premises.
We are also in other partnerships, linked to a handy man scheme and took referrals for crime safety and will shortly be providing a gateway service for many other County and health services.
BHA were also enhancing the role of their caretakers.

10. Community Rangers
Their new role will be far more than just maintenance and cleaning.
They have now been trained to undertake a home fire safety check and fit detectors if required.
Again a minor hiccup in that crews went to book a HFSC only to find it had already been done by a Community Ranger.

11. Community Rangers
Training was undertaken on a half day basis, in groups of about 8-10.
All training was provided by the local station personnel at no cost to BHA.
Again all of these pictures have been lifted from the Housing Association web site.

12. Further developments
This partnership has worked because both sides are achieving visible results.
For BHA, they are seen as an active contributor to the community not just a landlord, doing something that enhances the living environment for their tenants. They have just submitted an entry to the above award citing the partnership working between BHA and HFRS.
For us we are getting to a target group and getting introductions to other HA. While not all want to engage with us we have another scheme just about to start in another part of the County.

13. Thank you