Pictured above: (l-r) Chair of Whitefriars Mick Rawson, chair of Bell Green tenants and residents association and Whitefriars resident Janet Leadbeater, head of customer services at Whitefriars Pauline White, Whitefriars' area services manager Bal Basi and Whitefriars' housing director Rachel Hobbs

Coventry's largest social landlord celebrated a decade of providing affordable homes to people in the city with residents and staff on Friday (September 24).  

Whitefriars Housing, which owns and manages 18,500 homes across the city, marked its tenth anniversary with residents, staff and the Lord Mayor of Coventry Councillor Brian Kelsey.

Residents, some of whom became tenants in the same week as the housing association was formed, were invited to join staff at celebration events at Whitefriars' offices across the city.   

Janet Leadbeater, who has lived in her home at Bell Green for 20 years, said: "There has been a great atmosphere amongst staff and residents and it was lovely to celebrate the 10th anniversary together.

"As chair of the Bell Green Residents Association I have a lot of contact with Whitefriars staff and they are always very supportive and as a tenant I find the organisation very helpful."

The housing association was formed in 2000 following a customer vote to transfer Coventry City Council's homes to Whitefriars, making it the city's largest landlord. It was also the largest single housing stock transfer in the country at that time. 

In ten years Whitefriars has:

• Invested more than £340million upgrading and improving homes in the city

• Let around 20,000 properties 

• Given 1,800 young people and adults training 

• Dealt with in excess of 15,000 cases of anti-social behaviour

Roger Griffiths, is a former executive director at Whitefriars and is now chairman of WM Housing Group, which is the parent group of Whitefriars Housing. He said: "Since Whitefriars was launched in 2000 the organisation has played a key role not only in providing homes to people living in the city but in working with partner agencies to tackle worklessness and anti-social behaviour, and provide financial help and other services which help some of the city's most vulnerable people. 

"We are extremely proud of what we have achieved and this would not have been possible without the time and energy dedicated by our tenants, staff, board members, stakeholders and partner organisations. 

"The hard work of our staff meant that we successfully fulfilled all of the promises we made to tenants at the time of transfer within three years. We have continued to build on this and we exist to create places where people are proud to live and work."  

Whitefriars has gone beyond just providing homes. It has created a training and development agency, which continues to provide skills training and employment opportunities to residents and non-residents.

Working in partnership with the police and other agencies it has taken a proactive approach to anti-social behaviour, which has established Whitefriars as a national expert in this area. 

Whitefriars has also been established as a regeneration expert. As the project leader of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) regeneration project in Wood End, Henley Green, Deedmore and Manor Farm, Whitefriars is playing an integral part in the 15 year project which will see the north east of Coventry redeveloped. 

In 2009 Whitefriars joined Harden, Kemble and Nexus housing associations as a member of the WM Housing Group, formerly West Mercia Housing Group, which together own and manage more than 24,000 homes, and is also a lead investment partner of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and heads up the Spectrum Development Consortium Partnership in the west midlands.