News

We are delighted to have been commissioned by Flagship Group to help them update their Design Brief. We have a strong track record in this area, having authored the National Housing Federation’s Standards & Quality in Development, Achieving Building for Life for the HCA, and many design guides for housing associations. An effective Design Brief …Read More »

We have been commissioned by several housing associations to provide them with our wiki-based, flowchart-driven process maps and procedure guides. The combination of visual appeal with explanatory text and standard documents being easily available is very appealing. Importantly, authorised users can easily edit the content themselves, with the benefits of: making it easy to keep …Read More »

We are delighted that 80% of the students on our 2012 Project Management for Affordable Housing Development course passed the Foundation Certificate in Project Management (aka the APMP qualification), and are therefore professionally qualified PMs. As the national average pass rate for the APMP qualification is less than 70%, we are very pleased with the …Read More »

We were commissioned by the Greater London Authority to review the standards of housing being developed in London in 2009/2010 i.e. before the GLA published their Interim London Housing Design Guide. The purpose of the study was to take a snapshot of pre-Guide housing standards so that future studies would show the effect of the …Read More »

  We are delighted to report that all of the candidates at our Introductory Certificate in Project Management courses in April and both courses in October passed the APM’s exam and are now the proud owners of APM Certificates.   Congratualtions to them all.   This maintains our 2012 track record of 100% success, and …Read More »

4 Housing Group are embedding their move to a project-based culture by providing accredited training in professional project management. We ran the two courses in-house for the Group in October (including the Introductory Certificate course) for staff from all operational teams. Everyone passed the APM exam, which was very pleasing. The tools and techniques learned …Read More »

Four Housing Group have asked Andrew Drury to act as Interim Head of Development for a six month period with immediate effect. Andrew’s role will be to support the existing award-winning Development team, assist with the strategic direction, and help with the department’s continually improving processes balancing internal control with flexibility and responsiveness.   Dawn …Read More »

Over the long term – even allowing for the occasional “wobble” – house prices have run well ahead of inflation for decades. Rising house prices has been seen as an economic  feel-good factor, socially divisive (the asset-rich and the asset-poor), and as a substitute for state benefits covering pensions and care in old age. Is …Read More »

In February we helped Housing Plus to recruit a Senior Development Officer. The work involved advising on which competences should be assessed by test, and which by interview, devising technical tests and being part of the interview panel. The recruitment process proved successful and we wish Housing Plus and their new Senior Development Officer all …Read More »

We are working with a housing association and private developer to obtain Get Britain Building funding from the HCA. Although a relatively small pot of funding (£420m), announced in the Government’s Housing Strategy published in December, it is a classic example of a little going a long way. We hope that this application will allow …Read More »