News

Local school and college students were given an insight into the wide variety of career opportunities available in building maintenance and construction at a special event organised by Magenta Living, one of the North West’s leading housing providers, to encourage more young women into the industry.

The Go Construct – Girls in Construction open day was held at Magenta Living’s Building Services Depot in Birkenhead, home to the housing provider’s team of more than 150 highly-skilled building services technicians. The team provides a broad range of specialist services to Magenta Living customers, across the 13,000 properties the organisation currently owns and manages in Wirral and throughout the North West. Services delivered include 24/7 emergency response repairs, refurbishments, maintenance, building renovations and conversions, electrical engineering, plumbing, joinery and decorating.   

Female students were invited to see the team in action, with a series of practical demonstrations and talks put on to increase awareness of the diverse career paths available to them across the building maintenance and construction industry. Plumbing, joinery,  plastering and decorating were all showcased, and students heard from Magenta Living painter Cathy Jackson who shared her own personal development story, having originally joined the organisation ten years ago via an apprenticeship.

The event was opened by Michelle Plimley, Magenta Living Head of Voids and Allocations, who explained her role in the organisation, along with Head of Business Development for Building Services, Mike Cliff, who talked about the vital part apprentices play in delivering excellent services for Magenta Living’s customers.

Students were able to take a tour around the Building Services depot, which included a session with Leona Roper, assistant branch manager for Travis Perkins Managed Services, who explained what her role is and how her company manages Magenta Living’s repair and maintenance supplies. Leona gave her audience a sneak peek into the Travis Perkins dedicated store facility at Magenta Living’s Building Services Depot, which gives repair and maintenance staff instant access to the materials they require on a daily basis.

Magenta Living also invited three of its IT high-fliers to talk to the young women attending the open day, to help illustrate that building and construction also encompasses a wide variety of business support roles. Jen Tyler and Anne Carr, who have reached the finals of this year’s Women in IT Excellence Awards, along with Paige Carr, ICT Apprentice, gave an insight into their day-to-day work and the opportunities available to women in STEM related areas of the industry.

The Go Construct event was designed in conjunction with Wirral Metropolitan College, a further and higher education college offering courses and diploma qualifications from entry level to degree. The college has been a source of local, talented apprentices for Magenta Living for some time and earlier this year, the two organisations formed a new mutually beneficial partnership. Under the agreement, the college provides insight and expertise to help Magenta Living strengthen the capabilities of its workforce whilst Magenta Living helps to shape the development of Wirral Met’s curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of its business. Magenta Living also provides work experience and apprenticeship opportunities for students.

Students from Wirral Metropolitan College joined year 9 to 11 pupils from Birkenhead Park School and Bebington High at the Go Construct open day.

Joanne Francom, Director of HR & Organisational Development at Magenta Living said, “It was fantastic to engage with young women from our local schools and colleges through this event and, hopefully, to open their eyes to the exciting variety of careers avaliable within the building maintenance and construction industry. The housing sector relies heavily on skilled tradespeople and we need to tap into female talent to help ensure we have the right skills in place going forward. We have some outstanding female team members at Magenta Living but we recognise that our organisation, along with the rest of the industry needs to do more to encourage women into building and construction.

“While there have been some positive changes in terms of gender diversity in building and construction in recent years – with more than a quarter of positions in the industry expected to be filled by women by 2020, we still have a long way to go.

“Of course it’s important that women of all ages come to see building and construction as a viable career path, and Cathy Jackson who joined us as an apprentice in her 30s illustrates that age barriers aren’t an issue to entry, but a big part of making change happen is building awareness of opportunities from an early age and helping to break down the gender stereotypes by engaging with school children and actually demonstrating to girls that they can do what would have traditionally been male-dominated roles. This was a pilot event for us but, given its success, we look forward to holding more Go Construct events in future.”

The Go Construct event was sponsored by The Liverpool City Region Apprenticeship Hub,and funded as part of the Employees Support in Skills Project funded by the European Social Fund / Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Chris Eriksen, Hub Skills Broker from the Liverpool City Region Apprenticeship Hub attended the open day and said, “It’s fantastic to see a local company opening up its business like this to help bring apprenticeships and career opportunities to life for young women.This was an excellent showcase of the types of sought after skills that can be acquired via an apprenticeship like Magenta Living.”

Carmell Denton, a joinery student from Wirral Metropolitan College who went along to the open day added, “Pro-active events like this will help to shift the balance in what has been a very male-dominated environment and encourage more women like myself to pursue a skilled trade and make their mark in the industry.”

Magenta Living has been awarded the prestigious ‘Contact Centre of the Year’ title at the recent Call North West Awards.

The Magenta Living Contact Centre was the overall winner in the small contact centre category, with a team of dedicated members of staff providing excellent customer service around the clock.

Magenta Living was invited to the Call North West awards at The Midland Hotel in Manchester following a series of challenging tasks including a written submission, presentation and short video showcasing their achievements.

Magenta Living’s Contact Centre operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and receives customer contacts through multiple channels including telephony, live chat, social media, email and face to face contact in their Customer Hub in Birkenhead.

The team also takes an active approach in ensuring the safety of vulnerable tenants by providing a community alarm service, handling a variety of calls across a range of issues, including ambulance requests and falling incidents. Magenta Living’s Contact Centre professionals also operate a dedicated CCTV room, which ensures safety within Magenta Living neighbourhoods. The Emergency Response Team, which forms part of the Contact Centre, works closely with Merseyside Police and its CCTV has recorded criminal activity in progress, leading to the conviction of offenders.

Jane Thomas, Managing Director of Call North West said: “The Magenta Living Contact Centre’s key objective is always at the heart of all they set out to achieve – making an exceptional customer journey for all who connect with the business. This was reflected brilliantly in their winning entry – Contact Centre of the Year, where the judges were blown away by their creative presentation. I am delighted for the Contact Centre Team, they should be very proud of all they have achieved – long may they aspire to keep channelling their enthusiasm and passion to future growth and opportunities.”

Brian Simpson, Chief Executive of Magenta Living said: “It is an outstanding achievement to win ‘Contact Centre of the Year’ at the Call North West Awards and to get the recognition the team deserve. Our Contact Centre Team work incredibly hard to provide the best service and put our customers at the forefront of everything we do. We were up against some tough competition, so we’re delighted with the result.”

Magenta Living residents were thrilled to win six prestigious RHS Britain in Bloom ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards 2018’. It’s the third year that Magenta Living residents have entered and the groups are going from strength to strength increasing their levels of achievement year on year.

The long hot summer meant keen gardeners had to spend far more time watering their fabulous displays and giving them extra love and care to keep their gardens in full bloom for judging day back in July. All their hard work paid off and the RHS judges were very impressed with our residents wonderful displays and commented that they have seen the highest standards being maintained this year.

This has been a fantastic achievement for all involved. The winners are:

• Jean, Karen and Connor from Bidston Rise won Level 3 ‘Advancing’ for their neighbourhood and Bluewood Park
• Josef from Neston Gardens received Level 3 ‘Advancing’ for his first year of entry
• Dee, Eddy and Mary from The Redshanks, Hoylake received Level 3 ‘Advancing’ for their first year of entry
• Julie and Lesley from Caithness Gardens received level 4 ‘Thriving’
• Alan, Chair of Prenton Residents Association, also collected two awards for all his dedication supported by Wirral Council working across all the Prenton communities, not Just Magenta Living neighbourhoods.
• Pat, Jan Dave and June from Brackendale high rise received level 4 ‘Thriving’
• Bill and Dena from Liscard House were the proud winners of the top award level 5  for ‘Outstanding’ garden of the year.

Bill said: “I’m in shock. I didn’t think we could achieve this top award and to come first in the Magenta Living Garden Competition 2018 too, this has topped such a wonderful year of gardening and we are delighted. I’m going back to discuss with the Liscard House residents about what we can add to our little oasis next year. We can’t wait for the spring to get gardening again!”

Maureen Davies Environmental Services Manager said: “I cant praise the residents enough that entered this year for the splendid work they are doing with their communities to brighten up our neighbourhoods and make them welcoming places to live and visit. All that take part are so enthusiastic and dedicated giving up so much of their time to improve outdoor spaces. We are already discussing what we can do as well as entering ‘Its Your Neighbourhoods Awards and thinking about entering all our high rise into the higher level of competition North West in Bloom Core awards 2019. Nearly all of the high rise schemes have lovely garden areas be it small or large so we believe with the help of Bill and other skilled gardeners we can raise the standards across all high rise blocks. This should also raise the profile of high rise living and demonstrate that the outside living spaces can be enjoyed just as much as the inside. Our residents are creating their own little oases of greenery all over its fabulous to see and be part of.”

Hilbre Homes, a new joint venture between Magenta Living and Starfish Group, has officially launched its Barleyfield scheme in Pensby, Wirral – the very first housing development to be completed by the socially responsible new build company.

Created last year by Magenta Living, Wirral’s largest registered housing provider and multi-tenure house builder, Starfish Group, Hilbre Homes  was designed to deliver cost-effective, high-quality and sustainable homes for sale. The joint venture aims to deliver hundreds of new homes across the North West and North Wales by 2023.

The Barleyfield development, located in the popular residential area of Pensby, comprises a range of two, three and four bedroom mid and end mews houses of two and three storeys, as well as a number of three bedroom semi-detached properties and one four bedroom detached family home.

Each home incorporates modern, flexible living spaces designed to enhance natural light, bespoke kitchen and bathroom options, along with front and rear gardens, and off road parking. In line with Hilbre Homes’ sustainable ethos, the Barleyfield properties have been developed with a focus on energy efficiency to help support sustainable living for owners and tenants. Seventy per cent of the site was reserved off plan with units selling quickly.  Help to buy options are available for potential home-owners interested in the site.

Barleyfield is the first development to be officially launched by Hilbre Homes but the company has a variety of housing projects underway across the Wirral, Cheshire, Lancashire, North Wales and Staffordshire, with new developments including a wide range of home styles and types.

Magenta Living, a not-for-profit organisation, and 60% stake-owner in Hilbre Homes will plough all of the profits it secures from the joint venture back into the development of new social and affordable housing stock, along with enhanced services for its customers.  This means that at least 60p in every £1 raised by Hilbre Homes will be charitably reinvested back into communities to ensure a positive economic, environmental and social impact.

John Feddon, Chair of Hilbre Homes, who attended the official launch ceremony at Barleyfield, said, “Barleyfield, like all of our Hilbre Homes developments is aimed at families, first time buyers, downsizers and second time buyers looking to not only purchase a house, but buy into the lifestyle of the local area, enabling the elevation of the community. We’re hugely excited to be launching this first development under the Hilbre Homes banner and hope it will set new standards. The Hilbre Homes model is built around our mission of “building better homes and communities” and with an approach focused on sustainability, community living, and profit re-investment, we know we can achieve this goal.”

Also attending the Barleyfield launch were members of the Hilbre Homes Board; Kenneth Russell, Paul Anson – Director of Business Growth and Resilience at Magenta Living, Martin Gerrelli CEO of Starfish Group and Simon Woodward, Managing Director of Hilbre Homes and Director of Starfish, along with the Magenta Living Executive Team and Board.

Residents at Hartley Place, Magenta Living’s state-of-the-art, independent living community in Ellesmere Port, were treated to a night of country music and Wild West-themed fun to mark the facility’s 1^st anniversary.

The lounge of the extra care housing scheme, which supports independent living for the over 55s and provides residents with their own self-contained home in a communal development, proved the perfect setting for a live set from professional country music act Tennessee Jack who performed in full, authentic Western gear.

Residents were also invited to mosey on down to Hartley Place’s own Lemon Tree Bistro to enjoy a hot pot supper and a slice of birthday cake. The evening wrapped up with a ‘Hartley Place’ themed quiz.

The anniversary celebrations, which came a year after Hartley Place first opened its doors to residents, formed part of a regular programme of activities and entertainment held at the extra care community.

The independent living scheme, comprising 60 apartments as well as 15 bungalows, also offers an on-site hairdressers and beauty salon, which are open to the public, along with a landscaped garden space where residents can enjoy planting and gardening. Residents can also benefit from 24-hour on-site support services and a range of flexible care packages.   

Commenting on the 1^st birthday event, Justin Danher, Head of Specialist Housing Services from Magenta Living said, “Hartley Place is a vibrant, social and inclusive community and we wanted to celebrate this with all of our residents and staff. We had a fantastic evening and our residents really got into the spirit of things. We look forward to sharing more occasions like this together as part of our ongoing community events programme.”

Magenta Living has partnered Number Seven to help connect 50 people struggling with tight budgets to a local community supermarket that could help lift the pressure - enabling you to buy good quality food at affordable prices and access to advice & support should you need it.

Number Seven Community Supermarket have expressed they have asked that you please check you the below create before using the application form:

• Do you live in Birkenhead?
• Is your household income less than £1,666 (couples) or £1,116 (individual)?
• Do you receive support through benefit payments?

Please fill in the below form

Magenta Living has been shortlisted for eight prestigious awards, across three different award ceremonies.

Our Contact Centre impressed the judges of the Call North West Contact Centre Awards and as a result, we have been shortlisted for three awards:

• Best Business Improvement Strategy
• Contact Centre of the Year
• Best Outsourcing

We have some talented IT staff at Magenta Living who have been shortlisted for three amazing awards at the Women in IT Excellence Awards. They are:

• Rising Star SME – Jen Owen
• Graduate of the Year SME – Anne Carr
• Role Model of the Year SME – Laura Vost

Finally, our fantastic Development Team have been shortlisted for two impressive awards at the Inside Housing Development Awards:

• Best Partnership
• Best Older People’s Housing Development (over 71 homes)

We will find out the results for the Call North West Contact Centre Awards in October, whilst the Women in IT Awards and the Inside Housing Development Awards will be announced in November.

Patrick McCarthy, Deputy Chief Executive of Magenta Living said: “We are extremely proud to have been shortlisted for so many prestigious awards. Our staff work very hard and it’s great to see we have been recognised across a number of different categories. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed and looking forward to attending the ceremonies later this year.”

In August we held our Block Champion Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Birkenhead Park Pavilion. Over 30 tenants came together for an afternoon of celebration to look over their accomplishments in the past year and discuss their ideas for the future of the blocks.

Guest speakers were Lynn Struve, Eco Schools Officer for Wirral Council and Pat Gibbons, Station Manager for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS). Lynn delivered a great talk and insight into the successful upcycling partnership initiative, Refresh. Block Champions were very impressed, and some were keen to get involved in the next stage of the scheme when it hopefully relocates to shop premises in the next few months. Pat Gibbons focused his presentation on the importance of keeping communal areas sterile in flatted accommodation.

Pat said: “MFRS has a strong partnership with Magenta Living, who takes the safety of their residents very seriously. They have robust procedures in place to ensure they are fully compliant with fire safety legislation. The most difficult area to manage is ensuring communal areas are completely sterile as residents for many years have been personalising them with mats, plants and various other items. However, Magenta Living has had to get strict with this and are enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, so nothing can be left to interpretation.”

Alan Dollery won the top prize of ‘Block Champion of the Year’ for 2018. Unfortunately, Alan was unable to make the event to accept his engraved glass trophy, but we know he will be delighted with his award. Alan has been proactive throughout the year, ensuring improvements were carried out to the Prenton blocks and to the services they receive. Margaret Smith from Moreton was the lucky winner of the movie night hamper which included a selection of treats and family DVDs, including the new Block Champion DVD, which you can watch below.

Karen Lear, Environmental Services Team Leader at Magenta Living said: “I have a great rapport with the Block Champions, I’m on the phone to some of them daily! They have been up and running for years before I took over the role and I can honestly say without them I couldn’t do my job. There is no way that I can physically get around 500 blocks of flats, so their observations are crucial to our striving for excellence objective. I’m really keen to try and get one or two more Block Champions in every block. An ambitious target I know, but that way we will have more people actively pushing to make things happen in the neighbourhoods where they live.

If you want to get involved as a Block Champion and help make a difference, please contact Karen Lear on 07825281024 or use the online membership form, here.

Magenta Living has recently donated £5,000 to Wirral Foodbank, providing much needed support for them as they continue to provide food parcels over the coming months. 

Wirral Foodbank has seen a 30% increase in demand over the past 12 months which has meant that they are having to buy-in more food rather than rely on food donations alone.  This has resulted in them spending an average of £1,000 per month and are expected to do this until September, when donations from harvest festival collections are provided. 

John Roach, Head of Income Management at Magenta Living said: “Unfortunately we issue Foodbank Vouchers to our tenants every week and we really wanted to give something back to Wirral Foodbank to show our support. By making this donation we will no doubt provide them with the crucial support and funding that they need over the coming months and into the autumn.”

Magenta Living has previously provided support in other ways to Wirral Foodbank, such as assisting them with adapting their Birkenhead warehouse to create a separate office, which was completed by Magenta Living’s Building Services apprentices and food donations from staff at Christmas.

Richard Roberts, Manager of Wirral Foodbank said: “Magenta Living has been a tremendous supporter of Wirral Foodbank for many years.  This very generous donation offers certainty that we have dedicated funds to purchase essential food items needed to support local people in the community.  Thank you for your commitment and support of Wirral Foodbank.”

  "Magenta Living has ambitious plans to increase its development programme by delivering 2,200 new homes by 2022.  We are delighted the regulator has recognised that Magenta Living is compliant with their regulations and has the financial ability to deliver these new homes with our continuing high viability rating.  We welcome the regulator`s input around strengthening our approach to managing risk as well as ensuring that existing comprehensive financial monitoring data is shared more widely.”

- Brian Simpson, Chief Executive