Around 300 new jobs are being created at North East housing organisation Home Group as it moves into new areas of work.
The firm – which is set to move into a new city centre head office this year - is on the hunt for new staff to support its expansion into new and existing areas in the North East and further afield, with the North East jobs part of a recruitment drive which totals almost 500 across England and Scotland. Areas in which staff are required include healthcare, housing support, maintenance, IT and customer service. The jobs include almost 150 people needed to support the growth of its healthcare and supported living provision in the region.
Home Group said it is investing heavily in order to help tackle the growing number of people who need support with mental health issues, following the impact of Covid.
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Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last year showed that the North East has the highest suicide rate in England, with the region seeing a rise of 11% in 2020 during the pandemic. The company owns or manages 55,000 properties across England and Scotland and has close to 120,000 customers - around 12,000 of whom have mental and physical health issues.
Susan Fulton, director of people at Home Group, said the new workforce would complement the 3,000 colleagues currently working across the organisation.
She said: “We have grown our colleague base substantially over the past decade. This recruitment drive is one of the biggest to date as we look to support our existing customers, new customers, as well as grow new parts of the business and make ourselves more sustainable in the process.”
Last year Home Group agreed a £125m funding package with Lloyds Bank to support plans to build more than 1,000 new homes a year. The credit facility included a range of environmental and social targets Home Group has to meet to secure discounts on its funding, including enhancing the energy efficiency of its housing stock and employing more apprentices.
It later announced a surplus before tax of £18.6m, slightly ahead of expectation though slightly lower than the equivalent period in 2020/21. The firm, a Living Wage Foundation provider, has made it into the top ten Best Places to Work in the UK over the last three years and in 2021 was placed seventh in the UK and was the highest placed North East organisation.
