7 August update

Good evening

This update follows your meeting with Jane Williams, Luke Chandler, Vikki Walker and other key members of the Southern Housing team on Tuesday 30 July.

In her email last Thursday, Jane explained that I’d be in touch to discuss the fortnightly updates agreed during that meeting. I’ll be working closely with the Construction and Sales teams to coordinate updates and responses to any queries.

This is the first of the updates and begins with our responses to your questions. I’ve also included information about and a link to a new Greenside webpage that I hope you’ll find useful.

Responses to queries

Several people emailed with questions following the Teams meeting. We’ve summarised the questions and our responses here:

Q1. Why has expected date of completion moved again (this time by 6 months)?

The last update before our meeting on 30 July advised that Mulalley anticipated practical completion on August 27th, with Building Safety Registration to follow in September. This would have allowed for handover in mid-September and occupancies from late September. We emphasised that this timeline was uncertain and subject to change but we shared it in good faith.

Just before the meeting, we were advised this was no longer possible. Further delays had resulted in a change to this forecast. We've asked Mulalley to clarify the cause of these delays and provide a detailed programme of outstanding works.

Until we have this, we believe it best to inform you of a potential worst-case scenario of a further six months. It's not our intention to delay occupation but six months does enable many affected by the latest delay to renew or extend tenancies with more security. Our intention is still to obtain the relevant practical completion and handover for occupation as quickly as possible.

Q2. Can we have a copy of the schedule of works to see what is still outstanding?

Mulalley has not provided a detailed programme of works. However, our in-house programme planner attended site on Tuesday 6 August to assess works against the programme. He has advised that mid-October is a realistic completion date.

Regarding outstanding works, Mulalley has identified a design issue to the lower ground floor of Blocks B and C, which is causing water ingress. This is being investigated by Mulalley and we'll also invite our technical team to inspect and comment. This could delay registration of Block B and occupation of the lower ground floor flats in Block C.

We'll provide a full update in two weeks’ time.

Q3. Can we meet with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) to urge them to speed up the process of registration?

Registering with the Regulator will only take around one week. However, we must then provide a full suite of documentation within 28 days of registration. The Regulator is not able to influence how long it takes us to gather that documentation.

We must be confident we can provide all the required documents BEFORE we register Block B with the BSR. The risk we have if we register before we have everything, is that we're unable to obtain key documents from our contractor within the required timeframe.

We're working with our contractor to make sure these documents are provided in a timely way, but they're not legally bound to provide them until practical completion.

Q4. Can flats in Cyprus House (Block C) be occupied before Yew House (Block B) is registered with the BSR?

Yes, Block C can be occupied once we obtain practical completion.

All blocks have to be signed off by building control, with building warranty CML’s (Council of Mortgage Lenders). This enables them to be issued with practical completion certificates and other important compliance documents.

Once we have these documents, we will register Block B (which is over 18m) with the BSR.

Summary:

• Block C can be occupied once we obtain practical completion.
• Block B – is subject to building registration after practical completion (so cannot be occupied until we receive sign off from the BSR)
• Blocks A & D – these are the Extra Care homes. Once we obtain practical completion there will be a 3-month period for the care provision to be set up with the Council.

Email updates

These will continue as previously but more regularly, with an email every other Wednesday, beginning with this one.

Emails might include the following content (feedback welcome):

• written update of progress on site
• outstanding tasks
• summary of responses to queries (other than those that are urgent or only apply to individuals, which we’ll respond to in person)
• invitations to meetings or viewings (as required)
• A link to the Greenside webpage.

Webpage / engagement platform

In addition to the email update, we’ve created a webpage where you and your future neighbours at Greenside can keep up to date with progress, see the latest photos and look back over previous updates and minutes of meetings.

The site is still being developed but it’s ready to visit and already contains more information than we can include in an email. You can register for it here. The requirements to sign up are minimal but if you have any difficulty, please email me at alison.white@southernhousing.org.uk

The advantage of the webpage is that it collates information in one place for you to look at in your own time. It’s also interactive and contains tools that encourage discussion (if you wish). We’ll add more information as it becomes available and in response to your requests.

The webpage currently contains the following features (some are more developed than others):

• General information about the development (to be added)
• Your questions – for you to add questions and read what others have asked
• Updates - contains fortnightly updates.
• Quick poll – included as an example of how this feature can be used
• Who’s listening – details of key contacts
• Progress – a timeline of key milestone (to be developed)
• FAQs – This can be added to but currently contains four questions received following the meeting, and our responses.
• Document library – for minutes of meetings, brochures, previous Q&As etc
• Photos – more can be added.

There are other tools that could be added if there’s an appetite to use them.

Access requirements

• You’ll need access to a SMART phone, tablet or computer
• Option for the user to translate the content into many different languages (Select language, top left of screen).

Next update

The next update will be on Wednesday 21 August.

You can contact me by email at alison.white@southernhousing.org.uk or by using the webpage Ideas feature (scroll down to tabs at bottom of page and choose ‘Ideas’). Please note that I’ll be on leave from Monday 12 – Wednesday 14 August. I’ll respond to any queries on my return.