News

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

Magenta Living Environmental Services has been out and about again working with their partners Birkenhead BID and Wirral Council with help from Community Pay Back. They all worked extremely hard to clean up Park Street and St Anne’s Street as part of Operation Sparkle. WBC have installed new street lamps as part of their lamp renewal programme which is already improving security in the area.

Lee Lundy, Environmental Services Supervisor at Magenta Living said: "We have worked with partners in this neighbourhood before as it is recognised as one of our hot spots for environmental crime. We are determined to continue to work with local residents and shop keepers to ensure they are as committed as us in keeping the area clean and safe. We are educating people of how to present their waste properly and how to swiftly report any graffiti and fly tipping. It’s getting better just not where we want it yet. However working in partnership like this is far more successful than trying to tackle environmental problems without the multi-agency support."

Ian Davies, Town Host said “Operation Sparkle has been really successful, we want to thank Magenta Living, Wirral Council and the Probation Service for supporting this very important clean-up operation today. It’s been very worthwhile and local residents and businesses are thrilled that we are working with them to improve their neighbourhood.

"There are still areas of concern around litter so Birkenhead BID, an initiative of Wirral Chamber of Commerce, will be working with Wirral Council’s Enforcement Team and Kingdom in tackling the problem in delivering on-the-spot- fines to identified litter and waste culprits. It’s not fair for local residents and traders that they should have to suffer due to the small minority who refuse to do the right thing and dispose of their litter responsibly. The main area is at the rear of the shops in Roberts Street so we will initially target this area with Kingdom. I’m looking forward to more collaborative working with Magenta Living again across Birkenhead neighbourhoods in the future.”

Patrycja Marekwica, one of our mobile cleaners, has won a prestigious award at the Reachout Wirral Partnership Awards.

The awards are to celebrate individuals who have overcome adversity to get their life back on track and gain employment. Pat scooped the Wirral Change BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic Communities) Award and her recognition was thoroughly deserved!

Pat was recognised because she faced her own challenges finding employment with language barriers and cultural differences. With support from Wirral Change, she managed to overcome the difficulties she faced. They helped her with a CV and prepared her for interviews and as a result, she got a job in Environmental Services at Magenta Living in August 2017, and Wirral Change recognise her as a major success. Pat collected her award at a ceremony held at the Platinum Lounge at Tranmere Rovers FC with some of her team mates there to support her.

Congratulations Pat from everyone at Magenta Living!

We want to provide you, our customers with a choice of communication channels which you feel comfortable using, whether that’s online, telephone or face to face. We have recently launched a Live Chat feature which gives you the option to ‘chat’ with one of our customer access advisors anytime between 9am and 3pm, Monday – Friday on our website. Look out for the Live Chat banner to start a chat!

Will this affect Magenta Living’s main contact number?

No. Our contact centre will continue to provide a 24/7 telephone service on 0808 100 9596.

We’d like your feedback!

If you have already used our Live Chat feature, we’d like to know what you thought by providing us with your feedback. Head to www.magentaliving.org.uk/live-chat-feedback

The Charted Institute of Housing and ITN Productions have produced a current affairs-style programme exploring how to tackle the UK's housing crisis. 'Solving the Housing Crisis?' brings to life how we can provide more affordable homes and showcases the housing associations, local authorities and housing professionals leading the way.

The below video features Magenta Living's Crossways Estate in Birkenhead, highlighting the recent efforts we have undertaken to improve the neighbourhood.

Wirral Festival of First is kindly offering a total of five free places on either of the below courses: 

Cartoon Workshop with award-winning Tony Husband

For more information:  Cartoon Workshop with Award winning Tony Husband.pdf [pdf] 502KB

An introduction to Stop Motion Animation

For more An Introduction to Stop Motion Animation.pdf [pdf] 413KB

Please use the below form to register your interest. As there are limited places for these workshops, places will be given on a 'first come, first served basis' following confirmation that you are a Magenta Living customer. If our Community Regeneration Team is unable to contact you to confirm your place then we will offer this to the next person. 

Paul Anson, Director of Business Growth at Magenta Living is taking on the ultimate challenge this summer in aid of Claire House Children’s Hospice. Paul hopes to cycle 2,745 miles from Canada to New Mexico, pushing himself to his limits to raise funds for an incredible charity.

The Great Tour Divide is the world’s longest off-pavement cycling route and travels through Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the United States of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.

Paul will depart from Canada on Friday 8^th June and is hoping to arrive in New Mexico approximately four weeks later. During his time cycling, he will climb nearly 200,000 feet, which is the equivalent to summiting Mount Everest from sea-level seven times, and will cycle for around 14 hours every day.

To prepare for this incredible journey, Paul has put himself through a gruelling training regime, although nothing can compare to the challenge he is facing.

Paul said: “This is a challenge I have wanted to do for a while. The Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race is one of the toughest races in the world. The event combines mountains and desert and goes through wilderness in Canada and the USA finally ending at the Mexican border. Without a doubt it will push me to my limits. Through fundraising for Claire House I hope to make the journey one that also helps others and I cannot think of a better cause. Claire House is a local charity which has helped so many families and children at times of great need  and makes a real difference to people’s lives”.  

Sophie Chilvers from Claire House’s events team said: “We are so grateful to Paul for taking on this massive challenge in aid of Claire House. This adventure will no doubt be really tough, and hopefully Paul will be encouraged knowing that every penny he raises will be spent on providing vital support to seriously and terminally ill children and their families. Everyone here at Claire House would like to wish Paul the very best of luck!”

You can help Paul reach his £5,000 target by donating via his JustGiving page here www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paulstourdivide and you can also follow his Tour Divide journey at www.facebook.com/paulstourdivide