ABOUT US
We’re passionate about Building Communities and our culture of Profit for a Purpose – it’s why we exist and why our staff come to work every day.
We’re a housing organisation that owns and manages 39,000 homes and has around 100,000 customers. We work in the Midlands, the East and South East regions, and parts of London. That’s a lot of communities to build, but we understand and work with customers, stakeholders and staff to do the best job possible.
The national organisation is Orbit Group, but the regional and local housing associations are Orbit Heart of England, Orbit East and Orbit South. Our staff understand what makes our customers and communities tick and work closely with them to meet their needs. We don’t just provide general needs homes, but also serve some of the most vulnerable people in the community. This is done through Orbit Independent Living, which offers sheltered and supported housing, as well as a range of specialist services.
Orbit Homes is a bit different. It’s our development and sales arm, working across all areas of the business. It develops according to local need, but uses size and scale to meet and exceed national design and build standards. Rather than giving profits to shareholders, every penny is reinvested to build more affordable homes for people who need them. On the subject of buying a home, we’re also the Help to Buy agent for the West and East Midlands. This means we help people get on the property ladder in a way that’s affordable.
Like in any organisation, our frontline teams couldn’t do their job without some support.
This is where Orbit Services comes in. It provides the IT, finance, HR and so on that helps our frontline teams concentrate on their customers. Not only that, Orbit Services also sells services like audit, procurement and our customer service centre to other landlords within the housing sector and beyond. This is done under the name Service Matters and, as with Orbit Homes, any profit made is reinvested.
No matter what part of the organisation our staff work for, they’re all in it together for the long term. Giving customers what they need binds everyone together.
BUILDING COMMUNITIES SINCE 1967
In 2017 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our inception as a housing association. Although much has changed, our commitment to make a difference to the people and communities where we work remains as strong as ever and in some senses, even more important.
We have been ‘Building Communities’ since 1967 and this year some £3m of the profits we generate will be invested in local communities to provide advice, training and jobs to those most in need of a helping hand.
In recent years we’ve demonstrated our ability to influence and engage Government in areas such as tackling fuel poverty and supporting home ownership through Shared Ownership. In our 50th year, we are focusing on future generations and addressing child poverty.
