1st November 2023
EHA is responsible for maintaining the communal areas of its estates within Cumbria.
We are tendering out the Grounds Maintenance contract for the communal area programme starting April 2024. The tender is split up into Lots to encourage small and medium sized enterprises.
4th May 2023
The Board of Eden Housing Association (EHA) is pleased to announce that following an In-Depth Assessment (IDA) from the Regulator of Social Housing it has received their highest rating for governance – G1!
Beth Furneaux, Chair, said ”I would like to thank the Board, the Executive Team and Geraldine Kay who acted as our Interim Chief Executive during 2022 along with all our staff, for their hard work and support. This has given us a strong platform for our new Executive Team , led by Chris Fawcett, to move forward.”
Given the economic challenges facing social housing providers at the present time, the Regulator has regraded the majority of the sector to a compliant V2 rating for their financial viability. Beth confirmed that “The Association remains financially strong and we expected that, given the number of regrades to V2 for many housing associations, we would be awarded G1/V2.”
The full report from the Regulator of Social Housing following the IDA is available on
The Succeeding Together Strategy of 2021-2024 will complete next year and the EHA team look forward to a bright future, delivering for tenants.
Chris Fawcett, Chief Executive, said “I’m enjoying the role as EHA’s Chief Executive since starting in February. Given my experience working in the sector, I’ve been able to hit the ground running and we’ve completed the recruitment to the Executive Team. It’s a strong team at EHA and we’re all committed to delivering for tenants and the local community. We’ll continue to focus on being a good landlord, by maintaining the existing homes to a good standard and delivering much needed new homes.”
6th April 2023
4th April 2023
EHA has raised over £2500 for Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland, by walking 25 miles to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Celebrating its 25th birthday last year, EHA decided to mark the occasion by raising much needed funds for their corporate business partner, Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland, who were also celebrating their 25th birthday.
A team of 12 walkers left Dalemain at 7am on a chilly, misty morning, to walk the Ullswater Way, incorporating the Dalemain loop, and succeeded in walking 25 miles in one day – a mile for each year of EHA. Initially pledging to raise £1000, this was exceeded by the generosity of family, friends, colleagues and tenants, and just over £2500 was finally raised.
Beth Furneaux, Chair of Eden Housing Association commented “We’re delighted with the fundraising efforts of our staff, who not only walked 25 miles but raised money throughout the year through raffles, cake sales and bring and share lunches. The Association’s chosen charity, Hospice at Home, works tirelessly to ensure those in need can receive the care and support to remain in their own homes. Their values align with those of EHA, where we also provide support to our tenants, to remain in their homes and supported living accommodation for as long as they wish. For both EHA and Hospice at Home to celebrate their 25th birthdays together is testament to the valuable service both provide to the community.”
Kylie Palmer, Hospice at Home said “This has been a momentous year for us both as we mark our 25th Anniversaries. Founded in 1997 in the Eden Valley, Hospice at Home has been providing care and support to thousands of families living with life limiting illnesses. Although our clinical service area and patient support services have grown over the years, the invaluable support we have always received from Penrith and the Eden Valley remains. We are extremely grateful to Eden Housing Association for their continued support and partnership. Their kindness and determination throughout their fundraising mission will help to ensure the care and support we provide in our local communities is always available when needed. Although all our services are provided free of charge to the patient and their family, each provision of care has to be paid for. The Charity needs to raise over £19,000 each week, the NHS provide some of these funds (20%) with the remainder being raised through our amazing volunteers and supporters. Our Business Partners play a vital role in helping us raise awareness as well as the vital funds needed. We welcome Business Partners from all industries, sectors and size! If you would like to learn more about Hospice at Home and partnering with us please get in touch”.
2nd March 2023
The February edition of our digital newsletter, Viewpoint, is now live.
13th February 2023
Community groups supporting people across Eden will benefit from a new grant making fund.
The new Eden Rural Community Fund, administered by Cumbria Community Foundation, was set up by Eden Housing Association after the sale of its Eden Community Alarms (ECA) office in Penrith.
Grants of up to £3,000 are available to voluntary organisations and community groups that help improve the lives of vulnerable people.
Projects supported could include exercise classes for older people, befriending service to reduce isolation of carers, materials and equipment to run activities with disabled young adults, improvement of community facilities to increase accessibility and one-off grants for capital equipment will be considered.
Priority will be given to projects supporting older people, particularly those who are vulnerable and isolated, adults with physical disabilities, mental health needs and/or learning disabilities, carers and community and volunteer-led initiatives to deliver or improve access to services in rural areas.
Cumbria Community Foundation has been building philanthropic support for communities and grassroots groups for 22 years. In that time, working with individual donors and businesses, it has invested almost £60 million into local communities.
Beth Furneaux, Chair of Eden Housing Association, said “We’re pleased that the fund created by the sale of the former Eden Community Alarm offices in Penrith means that we’re able to continue providing support to the people of Eden. Though Eden Community Alarms closed some time ago, it feels like this is a positive way to ensure the legacy for supporting people in our rural communities lives on.”
Ellen Clements, Senior Grants & Programmes Officer at the Foundation, said: “We’re delighted that Eden Housing Association has set up a fund and we look forward to working with them and helping them to support to support local people. This new partnership is a great example of how we can work with organisations to support local community groups and initiatives that make a big difference to the lives of those in genuine need.”
The fund is now open for applications. To apply or to find out more, visit www.cumbriafoundation.org/fund/eden-rural-community-fund or contact Ellen Clements, [email protected] or on 01900 825760 to check eligibility.
12th January 2023
Going forward, all social landlords are required to capture and report back to the Regulator of Social Housing on a range of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).
We have commissioned Acuity, a market research company who specialise in the social housing sector, to carry out a short one-off survey of our tenants. Acuity will be surveying tenants between 16 January and 10 February.
Here’s some useful information about the survey:
• It’s a general satisfaction survey asking what you think of your home and the services provided by Eden Housing Association
• The survey should take approximately 8 to 10 minutes to complete
• If you receive a call from Acuity it will be from the following number: 01273 093939, which is a Brighton Area code
• Acuity will only make calls between the hours of 9:00am and 8:00pm Monday to Friday and between the hours of 10.00am and 6:00pm on Saturday.
• If you notice a missed call from this number and call back, you will hear a recorded message informing them that someone from Acuity tried to call them to complete a survey for their landlord
The information collected from these surveys will tell us about the issues you’re most concerned about and inform our future strategic and operational planning. We’d be extremely grateful for your co-operation if you’re contacted.
22nd December 2022
Service update 21 December 2022
In the last couple of weeks we have been experiencing extremely high call volumes and repair reports. In the main, this has been down to the extended period of cold weather.
We have had more calls and repair reports than we have experienced since the last extended cold spell in 2010. We actually ran out of phone lines at one-point last week – and that has never happened before!
Our staff and contractors have been working flat out to try and sort things for everybody before Christmas. Thank you to all our tenants who have been supportive and patient whilst we work through all the reports.
To make sure we can focus on the most urgent matters, we are currently only dealing with emergency or very urgent repairs – please save reporting non-urgent repairs until January.
If you are due to go away for a few days over the festive period or through the winter, please make sure that you leave your heating on low to help prevent freezing and bursts if we get another cold snap or turn your water off at the stop tap and leave your bath taps open. This will help prevent damage from bursts.
We understand concerns about energy costs, but it’s important to prevent your home from freezing – even when you’re not there. If you are worried about paying bills, please contact our customer advisors or housing team who can help make sure you’ve got the support you are entitled to.
A small number of tenants have been abusive – shouting and swearing at our staff. We understand that losing heating or water because of frozen or burst supplies is frustrating, but please don’t be abusive to staff or contractors – they are working really hard, in very trying circumstances to make sure all emergency and urgent repairs are sorted as quickly as possible.
Please see our separate post for opening hours over the festive period.
19th December 2022
The December edition of our digital newsletter, Viewpoint, is now live.
Click here to read all our latest news https://mailchi.mp/edenha/eden-housing-association-viewpoint-december22
30th November 2022
To celebrate National Tree Planting Week and EHA’s 25th birthday, we donated money to Friends of the Lake District to enable them to plant 25 Native tree saplings – one sapling for each year of EHA’s life.
Friends of the Lake District are dedicated to protecting and enhancing Cumbria’s landscape, taking action to protect and enhance the natural beauty of our landscapes for the benefit of local communities, visitors, wildlife and habitats.
These saplings will be planted within the Lake District National Park during the tree planting season in the New Year.
25th November 2022
Today marks the start of the International 16 days of Activism against Domestic Abuse
Domestic Abuse is an act between people who are personally connected or related. It is not just acts of violence. Domestic Abuse includes acts of physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse and Psychological and emotional abuse
Every day, for the next 10 days, we will be posting links on our Facebook and Twitter pages to services and organisations who will help you.
There are several support services available in Cumbria, including emergency accommodation for those fleeing Domestic Abuse. All support services are listed on the poster below.
17th November 2022
Following a rigorous recruitment process, Eden Housing Association (EHA) has selected Chris Fawcett to lead the organisation, which this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Chris will join in February 2023 from North Yorkshire-based Broadacres Housing Association where he is the Executive Director – Business Transformation, having worked there for the last 13 years.
The 47-year-old is also Chair of the Board of Darlington-based Railway Housing Association, so comes to EHA with extensive social housing experience.
At EHA, Chris will be responsible for the leadership and operational performance of the Association, which has its head office in Penrith and manages just under 2,000 homes, mainly in North Cumbria.
Beth Furneaux, Chair of Eden Housing Association, said: “We’re pleased to have been able to recruit someone of Chris’s calibre to Eden Housing Association.
He has a wealth of experience in the sector, and at a senior level, and he joins us from a housing association which has the same rural focus as we do.
Chris will play an important role in the future operational direction of Eden Housing Association, ensuring we deliver on our core mission of providing good value, affordable housing and being a fully inclusive, outstanding, community rooted landlord and employer with our tenants at the heart of everything we do.”
Chris said “I am delighted to be joining a well-respected organisation like Eden Housing Association which has such a strong customer and community focus.
It’s a fantastic opportunity for me and I am looking forward to leading an excellent team of colleagues who will continue to deliver for the people who matter the most, our residents.”
Chris Fawcett
