Group Chief Executive’s Summary

Group Chief Executive Summary

If someone had told me this time last year that we would be facing a global pandemic that would completely change how we ‘live, work and play’ I would not have believed it. The onset of COVID-19 completely changed the way we work at Cartrefi Conwy and will continue to do so for some time. We quickly closed our offices and all our office-based colleagues were enabled to work from home (including our call centre). All our developments and improvement programmes, alongside non-essential repairs, were put on hold. We then redeployed our colleagues that couldn’t do their normal jobs to provide intensive support to our tenants most in need. Our priority during this time was to ensure we kept tenants safe and remained compliant whilst protecting the long-term sustainability of the business. I’m so proud of the Cartrefi Conwy team who have truly gone above and beyond to make sure our tenants have everything they need during difficult times. From providing financial advice and support to tenants whose income has been decimated because of the pandemic, to our trades who have worked tirelessly to make sure we meet our legal obligations. But despite all this, we have had a hugely successful (and busy) year here at Cartrefi Conwy. Back in July we opened our first Creating Enterprise Modular Build Factory in Holyhead, to build our own Passivhaus homes. Working in partnership with Beattie Passive we are now building carbon zero homes for a range of partners across North Wales. We have also stepped up momentum on our ambitious new development programme and have created 103 new homes this year. We were delighted to win 3 awards at the prestigious CIH Welsh Housing Awards, including the Positive Placemaking Award for our Tre Cwm Regeneration programme. A great way to celebrate the amazing work taking place across the group. One of my proudest moments was during a tour of the Tre Cwm estate when Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, said “If we could bottle what Cartrefi Conwy have achieved here and use it elsewhere then Wales would be a far better place.” We have also started a transformational leadership journey. 27 colleagues have joined the Frontline Futures programme which will empower our front-line colleagues to help us shape the future of our business. We also established our ‘Innovate’ programme to ensure all colleagues have an active say on what we do and how we do it. This culminated in the co-production of our new Business Plan which outlines our ambitions for the next 5 years. The new business plan outlines our plans for a more agile, flexible workforce that can work from anywhere at any time. We aim to offer our workforce a truly flexible working environment that meets both customer’s and colleague’s needs. These are exciting times for Cartrefi Conwy as we continue to grow and diversify, and I would like to thank every one of our colleagues who is joining us on this journey. As we grow as a business, at our core we will always strive to ‘create communities to be proud of’. Andrew Bowden Group Chief Executive