On 21st March, the Chancellor will present his Budget to the House of Commons. As in previous years, the Consortium will be making a submission to the Treasury setting out a strong case for housing in the North of England. Last year's NHC Budget Submission was well received, and received coverage in the national media as well as the trade press. We are pleased that one of our major demands last year - an extra £1bn of investment for the Regional Growth Fund - was eventually picked up by the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement.

A number of housing associations including RSL's and Local Authorities have been fined up to £20,000 for exposing residents to asbestos during refurbishment works. Consortium Procurement is currently undertaking a procurement exercise to populate a four year framework, designed to deliver a range of associated services for the management and removal of asbestos.

As part of developing our services for contact centres and customer demand, we would love to hear case studies from our members which detail your approach to measuring and learning from avoidable contact/failure demand.

Government plans for a reinvigorated right to buy must take account of varied local housing markets, the Consortium has warned. Responding to the Government's consultation on the 'Reinvigorated right to buy and one for one replacement', the Consortium has argued that the amount of discount available is only one factor affecting levels of Right to Buy sales. Wider economic factors are likely to constrain demand at present, just as a growing economy and plentiful mortgage availability continued to drive Right to Buy sales in the North even after discounts were reduced in 1999.

All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North The APPG for Housing in the North met on the 24th January at Parliament. The theme for the meeting was Challenges and Opportunities to deliver homes in the North. Deborah Mclaughlin from the HCA attended to update parliamentarians on the progress with the HCA delivery programme and gave a very useful insight into the state of the northern housing markets. MP's were particularly interested in the state of the private rented sector and direction of rent levels - we agreed to do some further work on this.

With the ongoing recession and impact of welfare reforms, there is growing concern about the likely increases in household debt, particularly amongst low income households. There are also fears about how some of these households will finance the essential things they need for their homes. Research indicates that social housing tenants are particularly vulnerable to exploitation from the sub prime lending sector, and around 20% of social housing tenants have used a doorstep lender at some point.

The Welfare Reform Bill was returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday 1st February where the amendments which had previously been won by the peers, were overturned by the coalition. Ministers said the defeat would have cost the treasury at least an extra £4 billion by 2015, and on these grounds the coalition have applied for the Bill to be considered for financial privilege, which will deny peers the chance of another vote when the Bill returns to the Lords.

We are currently updating our website and you will see the completely new site in the summer. As part of this we are doing some immediate changes to help us deliver better services.

Customer services centres (CSC) are dealing with more and more of your customer requests. While most contact centres have technology in place to help measure this, pressures on staff time and interpretation of customer requests can give misleading results.

Changing demographics, increasing long term medical and care needs, and the need to realise public sector efficiencies are key drivers for housing services to support vulnerable people to live independently for longer. Practical solutions such as telecare and telehealth technologies provide the tools that enable people to manage at home, sometimes supplementing other support such as social care or assistance from family and friends.

Spring is fast approaching and following mild winter weather, brings with it the need to maintain the appearance of your neighbourhoods and communities. The Consortium Procurement grounds maintenance framework has been designed to meet all of your grounds maintenance needs and includes the provision of grass cutting and specialist planting.

As part of your membership of the NHC we are pleased to provide presentations to your Boards, senior management teams, staff or tenant conferences providing an update on government policy and its impact on the North or a more bespoke presentation on a particular topic.

Grahame Morris MP for Easington proposed an early day motion asking MP's to support our campaign for the housing sector to be recognised as a legitimate and fundamental partner in health improvement. The motion, number 2431 - which can be viewed on parliament's website - has received cross party support.

On 20th December 2011 the Department of Health published further details on the design of the new public health system. In a series of factsheets, Government sets out its vision for "local authorities to use their new responsibilities and resources to put health and wellbeing at the heart of everything they do". Subject to Parliament, each upper tier and unitary authorities will have a new duty to improve health. The goal is to improve health for all but to improve the health of the poorest fastest.

On 21st March, the Chancellor will present his Budget to the House of Commons. As in previous years, the Consortium will be making a submission to the Treasury setting out a strong case for housing in the North of England.

Working with a leading Northern university, we're planning a major piece of research looking at the impact of housing organisations on the Northern economy. While we'll be seeking to involve all members in the project in due course, at present we're looking for a number of members to act as 'case studies'.

We would be keen to hear from members who do (or are planning to) provide Local Authority Mortgages as to how successful they are, levels of interest and take up - we are interested to see

As the housing sector faces the biggest change in over 30 years through the Welfare Reform proposals, The main elements of the bill include the introduction of universal credit, changes to housing benefit and reform of the employment and support allowance, NHC members are facing some real challenges ahead in terms of:

The Northern Housing Consortium is pleased to announce, that in conjunction with our accommodation and venue sourcing supplier Naked Events we are able to offer all NHC members access to discounted hotel stays and event venues.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published a summary of the 464 bids received for the first round of the £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund.

Exploring practice from across a range of sectors, this annual conference will assist customer contact centres to innovate and achieve excellence in customer service whilst also delivering on the modernisation and efficiency agenda for public services

This conference will consider opportunities for housing providers and local authorities to contribute to local economic growth; consider implications from changes to the local planning regime; and opportunities for redesigning public services and empowering local communities.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our paper exploring the cumulative impact of policy on the North which questions whether government will achieve its ambitions to drive growth in every region, to promote fairness and mobility.

This week saw the submission of 56 LEPs as part of the Governments action around economic growth. Proposals set out economic partnerships at a variety of different spatial arrangements - from county to city region or amalgamations of neighbouring local authorities.