A double scoop for Advance at National Housing Awards 2018

Advance Housing and Support is delighted to have won two awards at the National Housing Federation’s annual Housing Awards.  The first was in the category of `Most Innovative Home Ownership Solution’ for the HOLD (home ownership for people with long-term disabilities).

HOLD is open to anyone over the age of eighteen with a recognised long-term disability. It can be funded in a variety of ways and puts the customer in control of choosing where they wish to live.

Chief Executive, Julie Layton said: “We are rightly very proud of this scheme which has helped more than 600 people own their own homes.  It is fantastic to have the external recognition of how we support our customers to live the life they choose."

Julie was joined at the awards by Chair, Melba Wilson, Director of Housing, Ian Gilders and former Chief Executive, Stuart Rigg.  It was particularly pleasing for Stuart to be there as this year we are celebrating 20 years of providing HOLD, and he was instrumental in getting it off the ground in 1997.

The second category was for `Overall winner’ a unanimous decision by the judging panel. We were surprised and delighted to win in this category but the judge's comments beautifully summed up what we are trying to achieve at Advance.

"The judges were unanimous in their decision given that this wonderful product is making a major difference to the quality of lives of people who otherwise might be unrepresented. This scheme now has 600 people in shared ownership homes who would never have negotiated this without this help. All of us want somewhere safe and special to live, but some people’s need for security and stability is undoubtedly higher. Hats off to Advance... HOLD is a scheme the judges would like to see rolled out across every town and city in the UK."

The judges also said “It’s certainly innovative, it goes way past innovative and straight to inspirational.”

Director of Housing, Ian Gilders commented: "Although we are a relatively small housing association the judges picked up on how we put our customers at the heart of our services. They felt that the way we approached HOLD demonstrated choice, support, independence and an innovative way of helping people with long-term disabilities become home owners."