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Southway Housing Trust
Discover how Frontier PR positioned Southway Housing Trust as a pioneering social landlord, leading on the decarbonisation of housing in the UK.
The Challenge
Following a major project to successfully improve 400 social rent homes in South Manchester, Southway Housing Trust wanted to share its experience with other social landlords across the country.
The Frontier PR Solution
Using our experience of social housing to work with Southway staff and its residents to shape a powerful narrative on the benefits of decarbonisation and secure high-value media coverage.
Who is Southway Housing Trust?
Southway Housing Trust owns and manages around 6,000 homes, mostly across South Manchester.
In 2021 the Trust secured a £1.95 million grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to help support the decarbonising of Arrowfield, a majority social rent neighbourhood on the edge of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
Southway’s plan was to decarbonise 400 homes by installing air and ground source heat pumps and improve the fabric and energy-efficiency of properties.
Once completed in 2024, this the project will radically reduce neighbourhood’s carbon emissions for many years to come, but also make homes cheaper to heat.
Retrofitting this many homes at this level of density is not without its challenges and is a task that many social landlords will face in the coming years. To help other social landlords and assist in their future decision-making, Southway was keen to share its learning and experiences with its peers.
This included highlighting how local electricity supplier Electricity North West had to improve Arrowfield’s electrical infrastructure to ensure it could carry the extra power load required, which meant resident engagement had to start early and continue throughout the installation and post installation phase.
To support residents, Southway established an information hub in an empty home on the estate, with staff on the ground to answer questions and demonstrate how the heat pumps work.
The first homes were retrofitted in 2022 and the rolling programme is ongoing.
How Frontier PR helped
Frontier PR positioned Southway as a pioneer in the mass low carbon retrofit of a traditional neighbourhood, making the Trust an expert source of information, case studies and lessons on how such an important project can be achieved.
To launch the campaign, Frontier PR generated news in all the major trade and local publications announcing the ERDF funding secured by Southway, setting out the Trust’s ambitions and project goals.
The next step was to create a sense of place and narrative for Arrowfield by working with a specialist photographer to capture images of the neighbourhood, homes, residents, and heat pumps being installed.
This included high-quality aerial drone photography of Arrowfield, which put the neighbourhood’s location in South Manchester in context.
Frontier PR carried out interviews with Southway staff and Arrowfield residents to provide a compelling insight into both sides of the story, the challenges and ultimately the benefits.
Once a 360-degree narrative had been agreed, Frontier PR pitched various aspects of the case study to key media titles, offering them access to copy and photography, and the opportunity to visit Southway and the Arrowfield estate to meet staff and residents, and to view completed homes.
The two highest value and profile pieces of coverage included a front-page lead in Housing Executive Magazine in Spring 2023, using The photography commissioned by Frontier PR, and a double page spread in Inside Housing, that featured interviews with residents and key staff.
Matt Maouati, Assistant Director of Corporate Services
“Frontier PR understood Southway’s brief and grasped the national significance of the Arrowfield project. I’d also say they demonstrated skill and tenacity to make sure we gained as much media profile as possible.
“We were particularly impressed by Frontier PR’s knowledge of housing and their willingness to be hands on when engaging with our team and customers. That clearly helped bring this story to life because the press covered Arrowfield from a number of different positive angles.
“But most importantly we were delighted with the media coverage Frontier generated, particularly the front cover of Housing Executive Magazine, Southway’s first ever cover story.”
Outstanding Campaign Activity
Six news stories on ERDF funding award in 2022
High quality photos of Arrowfield neighbourhood and homes
If you’d like to talk to Frontier PR about this campaign, or share in Sutton Housing Society’s success story email david@frontierpr.co.uk or call 07939 137 098 - or download Frontier PR’s latest brochure for social housing below.