Minister welcomes Swansea’s steps to regeneration

Coastal Housing’s director of development Gerraint Oakley shows Wales’ Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, Huw Lewis and Leader of Swansea Council David Phillips around the regeneration of High Street, Swans

Wales’ Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, Huw Lewis, has welcomed the partnership approach that is showing progress in regenerating Swansea’s High Street and its surrounding area.

The Minister was in Swansea visiting projects that have benefited and received support from the Welsh Government Swansea Regeneration Area.

Amongst the highlights of his afternoon tour was a trip to Coastal Housing Group’s iconic Urban Village, to which the organisation has recently moved over 100 of its Swansea based staff. The Minister’s visit also took in progress on the voluntary landlord partnership initiative – an innovative multi-landowner approach to short term retail letting in partnership with Swansea Creative Hub – to improve the environment whilst promoting culture through imaginative use of spaces.

Coastal received £900,000 grant from the Swansea Regeneration Area for its Urban Village regeneration programme. It is intended to transform Swansea’s High Street, and bring Kings Lane back into use as the vibrant linkage between High Street and the Parc Tawe site. Boosting social and economic development, whilst improving the environment, the newly completed scheme results in a mixed use of up to eight retail units along High Street, with three floors of office space above.

Urban Village is the flagship development to kick-start the regeneration of High Street. It is complemented by a variety of programmes including Art Across the City and the Voluntary Landlord Partnership. Such programmes involve key partners including Coastal Housing Group, Welsh Government, Swansea City Council, Swansea Creative Hub and Swansea BID.
 

The Voluntary Landlord Partnership, a Coastal initiative working with Towncentred with the support of Regeneration Area grant funding, seeks to establish temporary uses of buildings and public space. It seeks to identify opportunities to support owners and potential users to set up arrangements including pop-up shops and re-using buildings. Art Across the City is an artist-led charity offering different ways for people to engage with contemporary art created for popular public spaces, giving everybody the chance to see and experience contemporary art without having to enter an art gallery.

The programmes complement works being delivered across Swansea under the collaborative City Centre Strategic Framework.

Huw Lewis said: “Through our various regeneration programmes the Welsh Government is helping to breathe new life into Swansea’s High Street, one of the key gateways to the city. It’s fantastic to see how the Urban Village is developing. It is a prime example of how effective the partnership approach to regeneration can be.”

Coastal Housing Group’s Chief Executive Tim Blanch said: “Urban Village is a flagship scheme to rejuvenate the area. It is complemented by a variety of innovative projects. Working in partnership, Coastal is seeking to explore opportunities to increase footfall and cultural and social activity in the area.”

Coastal Housing’s director of development Gerraint Oakley, Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, Huw Lewis, Leader of Swansea Council David Phillips and Coastal Housing Group’s Chief Executive Tim Blanch

We've moved!

We've now moved from our offices of the last twelve years in Wind Street to the new Urban Village in High Street.

Doors re-opened on Tuesday 1 May at 220 High Street.  (Our phone number has remained the same:01792 479200)

Tim Blanch, chief executive at Coastal said: “This is an exciting time for Coastal, we are moving to purpose built offices at the heart of our new Urban Village. Strategically it’s the right time for a move, we’ve been operating in Swansea for over 35 years and are continuing to adapt and expand our core business as well as move in new directions.”

“Over the years we have invested millions in the regeneration of the city, and particularly of the high street, and moving to this new flagship development confirms our commitment both to this project and to Swansea.”

“For our staff the office move will provide a much improved working environment all on one floor, with upgraded IT, dedicated meeting space and room to expand.”

“There has been a huge amount of interest from businesses wanting to take space in the Village. As an anchor firm we will be best placed to support and facilitate these companies as they begin to move to the Village.”

Spokeswoman for Coastal Housing, Caroline Williams added: “Due to the move we have a large amount of office furniture - desks, chairs, filing cabinets etc that are surplus to our needs and we welcome approaches from local charities and starter businesses – please email: caroline.belasco@coastalhousing.co.uk

We’re one of the Top 50

Best Companies to Work For in the UK 2012!

Coastal Housing was up against stiff competition for a coveted award, resulting in 32nd place in the not-for-profit sector with continued improvement in performance overall.

All employees were invited to participate in the survey anonymously and their answers revealed appreciation of Coastal’s commitment to looking after their wellbeing – ranked 10th against other organisations. Employees also felt they were getting a ‘fair deal’ in employment benefits – ranked 16th overall. 

One employee commented: “Coastal Housing Group is a fantastic company to work for. I feel it is one of the few organisations in the UK that actually cares about its employees. I can honestly say I enjoy coming to work every day!”

This positive statement shows that we continue to provide an environment and workplace where people want to work. Benefits include generous annual leave and flexible working arrangements with a strong focus on health and wellbeing – including annual health checks, holistic therapies, lunch time yoga and excellent opportunities for personal development.

This is welcome news in today’s tough economic climate despite the not-for-profit sector facing huge funding cuts.

Coastal staff are always looking for ways to improve services to tenants and we recognise that these dedicated staff are our greatest asset in delivering quality services.

We take a Lean approach to paperwork and internal processes and try to make sure that the people actually doing the work are able to make prompt decisions.

We are also in the process of forming an in-house maintenance team for tenants and at the same time create new job opportunities for the local community. These are in addition to recent recruitment of surveyors, IT and finance posts.

This employee comment on the survey sums everything up “Most of the people working for this organisation appear to genuinely enjoy working here and they support the ethos of the organisation. Each member of staff is trusted to make decisions on the ground. I think that this offers a better service to our tenants. The benefits offered to staff are second to none. I really feel as if what Coastal does makes a difference.”

Best Companies uses an accreditation scheme to recognise workplace performance and best practice. Following a Michelin star style system, it awards companies with one star for first class, two stars for outstanding and three stars for extraordinary performance. 

For a further year Coastal Housing was delighted to achieve: 

TWO STARS 

Recognising Coastal as an Outstanding Place to Work