Nigel’s Message
In the run up to Christmas with the emergence of the Omicron variant, we had real concerns about our ability to maintain services, particularly in social care. It’s been an incredibly difficult and demanding time for all of our care colleagues to support our residents while so many people were ill or self-isolating. In other services we’ve seen less impact than we feared in terms of colleagues being able to work. Hopefully we have reached the peak of Omicron and the risk to services not being available will start to decline.
However as I write this the Covid rates in Cambridgeshire remain high so take whatever precautions you need to keep yourselves, your families and your friends safe. CHS regularly reviews the position across our services to see whether we need to take any further action. This newsletter contains our annual report to you and you’ll see that we haven’t met some of our service targets. Much of this is due to Covid, for example we haven’t built as many new affordable homes as we planned, mostly because developers stopped building their and our new homes for parts of the pandemic. But we have taken action where services were weak for other reasons, for example we have appointed a new grounds maintenance contractor.
We are going through the process at the moment of agreeing a budget for the next financial year starting in April. Like all of us, CHS is facing high cost increases, including with building materials and energy costs. It is also getting harder to recruit colleagues with the skills we need to provide the services you want.
Over the next year we will be working hard in a number of areas including further costing and planning to reduce carbon emissions from your homes and our services and also implementing the new requirements on building safety.
Nigel Howlett
Chief Executive
Six million people have been affected by the removal of the Universal Credit £20 uplift in October 2021. The effect of these changes has been compounded by the weather getting colder, higher energy charges and rising living costs, all of which have left many of us struggling to make ends meet.
Our coaches have helped people get the confidence to challenge their bills and negotiate reductions. They have sat alongside people to help them address unopened bills and get things sorted. The project can cover expenses like applying for a debt relief order (DROs) or requesting a copy of a birth certificate to help people get back on track.
Why condensation occurs: Condensation occurs when warm moist air meets a cold surface. The risk of condensation depends on how moist the air is, and how cold the surfaces in the rooms are. Both depend to some extent on how the building is used.
Do you pay a service charge to CHS for your heating and hot water? This charge will be for the cost of the gas supply. As gas prices have soared over the past few months, CHS has been working to obtain the best deal possible from 1 April 2022. Unfortunately, our existing supplier went out of business in November, so a new supply contract was put in place from 1 December 2021 on the best available contract rate at that time. This contract guarantees the same rate for the next three years – though it does mean an increase of approx. 80% on the previous rates. The alternative options were more expensive, and the non-contract rate would have been an increase of over 200% which would not have been fixed.
Arthur’s Shed is a community hub based in the grounds of the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge. The activities are open to all and are led by volunteers. Arthur’s Shed is now up and running again and we warmly welcome you to attend our sessions which are free of charge and open to the public. These include Astronomy, Card Making and Paper Crafts and are run by skilled volunteers. The Shed is wheelchair accessible, and we encourage you to share any adaptions you may require to support your needs in advance, both physical and emotional. To find out more or contact us please head to 
The St Andrews Glebe social committee received a neighbourhood grant for a Christmas party. The residents enjoyed Christmas food and entertainment from a singer, John Woodhouse and they all had a lovely time. Barnabas Court and Ellis House also received grants for Christmas parties but they decided to postpone them until the situation with the pandemic improves.
What is ‘Net Zero’?
Railway House provides accommodation and support for young people aged 16-25 who would otherwise be homeless. We were very fortunate to have been awarded a grant from Mills and Reeve (via the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation) to deliver a cooking course to our residents. Each resident was provided with a complete set of equipment needed for cooking, the opportunity to complete a basic food hygiene certificate, and 6 cooking sessions. They made a range of cheap, nutritious and filling meals that could be batch-cooked and frozen, such as spaghetti Bolognese, curry, and cottage pie. Residents have reported feeling more confident in the kitchen and we have certainly noticed fewer take-aways being delivered!
CHS has built our first site in Haverhill, Suffolk and it is also the first development to have electrical car chargers – you can see them at the front of the building in the picture. The block of flats houses nine flats to rent, which are a mixture of one & two bedrooms. Each flat comes with either a Juliet balcony or larger balcony. There are no private gardens but there is a communal garden, which will be used as a drying area for clothes.