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A week in the life of… a regional director
Tom Hill, regional and board director at house builder Hill, describes his week of visiting construction sites following a phased reopening, working at the office as well as from home, and visiting an online bar
Monday
We recently underwent the phased reopening of our construction sites with social distancing measures in place. The first order of business for the week was to make sure everything was running smoothly across the projects and holding an online meeting to discuss all pre-orders for the week.
I then spent the rest of the day on site, visiting two of our 11 Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) affordable and private housing developments: 236-home Ironworks and 295-home Cromwell Road. I met with the teams working on site and checked on the production for the day.
The new measures mean we are operating at about 80% to 90% of our usual productivity, but it is a small price to pay when it comes to the health and safety of our staff and contractors as well as the local communities we’re operating in.
Tuesday
Today I headed to the office in Cambridge to work on some logistic plans and preliminaries for upcoming schemes. The office has only just reopened after being closed for the past couple of months and it’s very strange to see it so quiet. Where we can, everyone is encouraged to work from home.
While in the office I heard from the team that we have pushed the button on the planning submission for our first ‘Foundation 200’ homes for homeless people in Cambridge as part of the CIP initiative – a real milestone. These six modular, turnkey homes will be delivered working with our partner, Cambridge City Council, and this submission marks the start of our wider £12m initiative to build and gift 200 homes for homeless people over the next five years.
I’m really excited to get this under way, especially with the CIP, and so proud of my dad [Andy Hill, chief executive of Hill] for committing to such a worthwhile cause. From a technical and geeky perspective, it will be my first 100% modular build and I can’t wait to get my factory visit booked in!
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Wednesday
In spite of the current climate, we are still growing the business. So I spent the morning conducting interviews of potential candidates for our team of 45 staff (across the region) via the new normal of video calls.
While at the home office I also had our weekly CIP catch-up meetings with Cambridge City Council members and then the wider team to discuss the existing development sites and potential new opportunities. Before the social distancing measures, we would all get together fortnightly to review all projects in detail at live and development stages. We’re now doing this virtually and I’ve been really impressed with how seamless the transition has been. Microsoft Teams has been a real lifesaver.
Thursday
Today was our monthly management meeting to discuss the Investment Partnerships business. I gave an update on the CIP sites. We also have a partnership with Rushmoor Borough Council, which has three sites including two town centre regenerations. We are regularly in discussions with a number of other councils across London and the South East about the Investment Partnership model, but this has increased following COVID-19.
The local authorities we are speaking to are increasingly worried about their housing stock, given the data emerging linking high coronavirus and mortality rates with poor-quality and high-density housing, so we are very sensitive to the urgency surrounding this and working hard to help them address their housing needs.
Friday
By the end of the week I always try to make sure I have met with most of the teams on site, so I went to Akeman Street (14 homes, plus a community centre and three commercial units), Ventress Close (15 homes) and the Garage Sites (15 homes) to check the progress and ensure everyone is happy with the health and safety measures.
I also visited Anstey Way, which is our first development for the CIP that is now nearing completion. The scheme has replaced 26 ageing council homes with 56 one, two and three-bedroom council rented apartments for local residents. So far we have handed over 48 new homes, with a further eight to be handed over in two weeks, so I want to make sure we are on track with the forthcoming handover and to ensure the residents who have moved in are happy in their new homes.
After visiting the sites I went back to my home office to draw up my task list for next week. Our online bar opened at 6pm, where we all got together online and had a drink. Not quite the same as heading to the pub but given the circumstances, it is really great to see familiar faces and have a slice of normality ahead of the weekend.
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A week in the life series
Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.
Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week.
We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.
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