Severn Vale Housing Society

Cause for celebration as Housing Association wins Midlands Excellence award

There were celebrations all round at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham on Tuesday night as firms from accross the Midlands area went head to head for a highly prized Midlands Excellence Award.

As one of ten companies shortlisted for this accolade Severn Vale Housing Society (a housing association based in Tewkesbury) scooped two awards from the prestigious Midlands Excellence group which manages the annual event.

The Midlands Excellence Awards recognises the all round performance of companies using self assessment and the EFQM Excellence model.

The awards are given to companies that demonstrate exemplary performance in several areas of business through use of the model to help run its business.

It is the third time that the not-for-profit group has entered the awards since adopting the model in 2002. Special mention was made of the high level of performance that the Tewkesbuy based company managed to achieve despite the challenges of dealing with 95 flooded properties after the disastrous floods in July 2007, which devastated the Gloucestershire town.

Progress for the medium sized social landlord has been steady over the past two years. The development programme has included the provision of student accommodation for the University of Gloucestershire and Worcester and low cost affordable housing developments around the county and in nearby Worcestershire.

Their policy of achieving high levels of customer satisfaction is met by honouring promises made to their customers and measured through telephone monitoring and other survey work.

Since the last time they entered the awards in 2005, they have been working towards achieving even higher levels of satisfaction in areas of financial planning, business management, development and they were rewarded with an 'Investors in Excellence' award which underpins their dedication to the whole system.

Chief Executive Dave Richards was pleased with this year's result. "It's been a very challenging year for everyone at Severn Vale and we have come through the difficulties presented by the floods. We have demonstrated the need for close team working and co-operation in order to help those customers whose homes were devastated by rising waters.

It emphasises how fully we have integrated the EFQM model into every aspect of our business. I wish to extend a big thank you to our workforce who made the award possible and also to our customers and stakeholders who have supported us over the past six months both during the assessment process and in our efforts to bring normality back to our customers' lives."