latest news 

PHASES has successfully applied to the Enterprise Development Programme – funded by Access, The Foundation for Social Investment.  The funding is towards the development of ‘ Construction Buddy ’ – a recruitment agency-type project which will support homeless candidates into jobs and apprenticeships with construction firms. Once placed, candidates will then receive ongoing support from our ‘Construction Buddy’ to ensure successful career progression in the industry. The project will go fully live in September when we will bring you further news.

We were delighted to be named as one of the Big Issue’s ‘Top 100 Changemakers’ in its January 14th edition. This is a list of 100 people and organizations that Big Issue believes will change things in 2019. It features campaigners and campaigns, people working in tech and business, In music and the arts, in literacy, in sport and in charities and social policy.

The Big Issue’s Top 100 Changemakers 2019: Housing

To mark the centenary of the First World War armistice, the Big Issue produced a special edition, featuring organizations working with ex-services personnel. We were pleased to be included with a piece that focused on one of our former trainee – Bhakta Dhenga – a veteran of the Ghurka Rifles who now lives in one of our previously renovated empty properties.

After extensive research and preparation for our proposed Brockley new build project, uncertainty has recently arisen concerning its financial viability. This is frustrating for all of us, although it does not mean the project will never go ahead. In the meantime, however, we are scoping another smaller project in Brockley, which would involve extending one of our existing properties. We’ll bring more news on this in due course.

About a dozen people from Brighton visited PHASES’ projects in London on a ‘fact-finding’ mission to see our social enterprise in action. The group, ‘Brighton & Home’, are looking to start-up something similar. They were shown around our workshop in Rotherhithe and visited one of our renovated properties in Brockley, where they also met former trainee, Bhakta. Feedback from the group was that they were really inspired by the day and definitely now intend to press ahead with their plans on the south coast.

One of the GLA’s area managers, responsible for partnerships to support regeneration, homes and jobs, visited our completed empty homes projects in Brockley and saw the site of our proposed new build project there. He also met one of our former trainees. The visit was arranged through one of our major funders – The Big Issue Invest. The visit went very well and we understand it will help to cement the relationship between the GLA and Big Issue Invest for future investment opportunities. 

As preparations continue for the new build project at Brockley Road, Phases are excited to confirm that they have provisionally identified David Sheard Ltd as building contractor partner. David has a wealth of experience on new build, as well as high quality refurbishment work. Moreover, he is very interested in the social side of Phases’ operations and we look forward to developing a strong working relationship with David over the coming years.

The first ten sites under the TFL/GLA’s ‘Small sites Small builders’ Programme were released for bidding. Phases put in a bid on one of these sites, in Edmonton, with the help of David Corley Architects. That bid was unsuccessful but this is only the start of a Programme which will see many sites released over the next few years and Phases hopes to be successful in future rounds.

Phases were invited, as a community housing organization, to the National Housing Federation conference in London. The conference is mainly for housing associations but Phases took part in sessions on community-led housing and on modern methods of construction.

This show at London’s Excel Arena featured many of the main players in the rapidly emerging world of offsite construction. We were able to speak to a number of companies (Caledonian, Extraspace Solutions and Premier Modular) about proposals for one of our new build projects in Bexley and they took away drawings and specifications to consider There were also interesting presentations by the Offsite Management School on the future direction of the industry’.