Wednesday 20th May is the #BigHousingThankYou, a day dedicated to celebrating frontline housing workers who have been the invisible heroes of the country’s Covid-19 battle. We're sharing some of the amazing work that's been going on at NPH to support our residents.
We recently caught up with Laura Elliott, our Project Manager who has been keeping work going on our new build developments during lockdown. Here's what she had to say about her experiences during lockdown:
"I oversee a number of our sites where there is building work going on. My role has changed a lot since the coronavirus outbreak started. It’s been a turbulent time, but I’ve been able to settle into a routine in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been working on our sites two days a week, and at home the rest of the week. It’s really struck me that I’m classed as a keyworker. Of course, I know that building affordable housing is essential, but this has really brought it home to me. My focus has been on keeping our new build sites going.
The sites and the staff on the sites have been amazing throughout lockdown. My colleagues Helen and Chris went to extraordinary efforts at the start of lockdown to make sure work could continue, and we’ve worked really hard to resolve problems as they’ve arisen.
We have a number of live building sites across Northampton, including one with 21 new houses being built in a close. These homes are almost finished internally, but we’ve had to put the external work on hold, so although progress is being made, to the passer-by it wouldn’t look that way! Unfortunately, this work has been delayed as one of our subcontractors has been hit hard by the coronavirus; they’ve lost one person, and had two others hospitalised. They’ve just come back to work this week. It’s devastating to them, and you can see how affected they all are – they’re especially cautious about social distancing and having the correct PPE as they’ve seen how easily it spreads first-hand.
Not that our other contractors aren’t taking this seriously. There are a lot fewer workers on-site, and those who are have PPE and are socially distanced. I’m really impressed by how quickly their health and safety teams have implemented the guidance they’ve been given. Everyone has been affected by the current situation in some way; everyone has loved ones they want to see, or knows someone who has had the virus. So, when it comes down to enforcing the social distancing rules, wearing PPE, and washing hands, they’ve been really up for following the rules!
It’s quite eerie on the days I’m out, but I love the face to face contact with other people outside of my family! Despite the obvious challenges, our contractors have been amazing at keeping morale up, keeping works going, and solving problems as they arise. It’s meant some of our work is slightly ahead of schedule. Rather than sticking to the usual schedules, they’ve been creative which means things have kept moving.
Members of our office-based team who can’t do their usual jobs have been doing work that’s way outside of their job descriptions! They’ve been doing a lot of manual labour in a building we’re converting into flats for keyworkers. It was an office block before, so they’ve been pulling down suspended ceilings, amongst other things. It’s moved us forward a step despite contractors not being on-site – it’s great to see some creative problem-solving.
Some areas of our usual work have suffered though. Sadly, we’ve had to put estate regeneration works on hold. Usually we’d be replacing windows and doors on properties, but we can’t do this without accessing people’s homes. Instead, this team has started surveying for next year’s work. This means we have information now that we wouldn’t usually have until October, so at least we’re ahead of the game with that!
I do really miss the social side of being in the office though. My colleagues are a great support network. We all have stressful jobs, and lots of us are really involved in our tenant’s lives, which can be really challenging at times. Not being able to reassure people with a hug and a cuppa and commiserate, but also celebrate together, is hard. We’re a sociable bunch, so we’re really missing each other, but we’re finding new ways of keeping in touch with each other, I’m so grateful that I can catch up with everyone virtually!"