To truly invest in the future, England needs its own Well-being of Future Generations Act

This scheme has been a long time in incubation – Mosscare had done a great job in developing and planning the idea and securing the site, it was caught up in that daft fiasco over Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates and supported housing, has been fraught with hurdles to overcome, and the MSV team has done a simply amazing job, working in partnership with the local community, Rowlinson and MCC – and it was wonderful to see that hard work over four years come to fruition.

Elmswood Park is unique in that it is an extra care scheme situated on the old Stagecoach bus depot site in a dense urban intergeneration village. We are also completing the final sales of 30 brilliant shared ownership homes next to the scheme, there is a mix of ownership and rent on the whole site and next up is our latest HAPPI scheme and some step-down apartments with MCC. All 72 apartments at Elmswood Park are fully for social rent, with a richly diverse community, and it will be the first extra care scheme in the area to pilot ‘Pride in Ageing’ as an LGBTQ-friendly scheme.

“COVID-19 has potentially put back the hopes and dreams of a generation of young people – but the good news is that if we act now, we can do something about this”

The whole site, street scene and the scheme in particular has the finest architectural good manners, state of the art facilities, brilliant design and decor and we just cannot wait for the first residents to move in next week.

Just up the road from The Depot site is our old office in Moss Side, which we have been planning for redevelopment to residential for the past two years (I wonder how many more will do that in the post-pandemic world!). This is now on site and will provide much-needed new one-bedroom social rent apartments (some for care-experienced young people) and a community facility.

In total, in this one area, we are investing in the old office conversion, the Stagecoach site, other sites with a range of new large family homes and apartments, the complete refurbishment of two sheltered schemes, the capital investment programme, £7m of retrofit decarbonisation measures, the extension of the local church, and a focused effort to work with partners on community projects, youth engagement and work and skills opportunities.

We are also really pleased to be involved in the Next Steps bid in Greater Manchester – the start of four years delivering social rented one-bed homes, which are in massively short supply across the board.

There have also been some moments of profound sadness, with tragic events leading to loss of young lives in the past few months, and we have done all we can to put our arms around a community that is grieving but also determined to focus on the positives, play our part in supporting people with their hopes and aspirations to ensure they do not feel left behind.

Which leads me to the absolute need to invest in young people more than ever before. We have a very deep-rooted philosophy at MSV about supporting young lives and believing in people to achieve – our Foyers have been a shining example of this for 21 years.

COVID-19 has hit many people adversely and has laid bare the inequalities we all knew existed. It has also potentially put back the hopes and dreams of a generation of young people – but the good news is that if we act now, we can do something about this.

Interestingly, in the many Zoom/Teams sessions we have had with the community and other stakeholders, one very interesting point for me has emerged – this was in a session about a new Young Person’s Guarantee in Greater Manchester and embracing new schemes such as Kickstart.

One young person from Moss Side commented that it is refreshing, less intimidating and very levelling to join an online Zoom meeting – everyone is the same size tile (no titles needed), most are at home with pets and children in the background, you don’t have to enter an office or a community centre, and no one is sat in a suit ‘bossing’ the meeting at the head of a table. Food for thought.

“Why do we always think and plan for the short term and not test the impact of decisions and policies made today on the well-being of future generations?”

At this session, we were discussing the need for a Well-being of Future Generations Act-type approach that is so prevalent in Wales – but no such thing exists in England. Why do we always think and plan for the short term and not test the impact of decisions and policies made today on the well-being of future generations?

Currently, young people have experienced gaps in their education, 700,000 young people have left education during lockdown – many of whom feel they are in limbo. More young people are claiming Universal Credit than ever before, and they (notably including many women and BAME people) were 2.5 times more likely to work in sectors that are now closed.

What we do to recover and reset from COVID-19 will affect this current generation and those in the future – the feedback so far is that we need to think about removing stigma; addressing climate change; boosting green transport schemes and homes; providing good mental health support, access to meaningful work and apprenticeships; digital access; removing economic barriers; and most of all retrieving a sense of hope and happiness.

Surely we can play our part in helping.

Charlie Norman, chief executive, Mosscare St Vincent’s