Making Abbots Langley cleaner and greener

On Thursday 14 September lots of our staff were out and about in Abbots Langley carrying out a range of activities to make the neighbourhood tidier and promote biodiversity!

We had teams tidying up communal areas and customers' gardens, another team building bird boxes and making up wildflower seed packs for our residents to collect at Saturday's Abbots Autumn Fest, and finally another team going door-to-door letting our tenants know all about the great work we do in terms of biodiversity.

We had teams working on eight gardens across Abbots Langley – here is what one of our residents had to say about the volunteers' efforts: “It’s challenging maintaining such a big garden on my own while I’m working full-time with three young children, so I really appreciate the help. After this I’m looking forward to getting on top of it and being able to manage it myself!”

The following Saturday our Community team and a few other volunteers headed to Abbots Autumn Fest. We are pleased to say that we gave away around 130 bird boxes to our tenants and lots of wildflower seeds and bulbs to anyone who popped by the stall. As proud sponsors of the event, it was lovely to see so many of our tenants and chat to them about how they plan to improve the biodiversity in their own gardens.

Thank you to all our wonderful partners who made it a success! Through the Pretium Framework, building and trade supplier Travis Perkins provided the tools and bird boxes. Accuro, our cleaning and grounds maintenance contractor, provided plants and helped with the gardening, while the bulk of the sponsorship was provided by insulation provider SCIS, which is currently carrying out extensive works to improve the energy efficiency of our homes. The event also had support from partners at Hertfordshire County Council and Three Rivers District Council.

Helen Town, our Group Director of Property and Partnerships said: “As a community gateway housing association, it is so important to us to support thriving local communities and we are proud to have been able to put on an event that focused on improving biodiversity. 

"By giving Abbots Langley residents bird boxes and wildflower seeds it allows them to create their own flourishing habitats for wildlife and take improve the biodiversity of their neighbourhood through their own gardens.

"Together with our partners, we made a massive difference for the local community in just a few short hours.”

Jessica John, Director of Framework Partnerships for Pretium Frameworks said: “Social Value is built into the Materials Supply and Managed Services framework, enabling all partners to give back to the communities in which they work. We’re delighted to have been able to play a part in supporting Watford Community Housing, the Contracting Authority for the framework, with the delivery of this project.”

Nicolas Gillanders, CEO of SCIS, commented: “It was a privilege to support Watford Community Housing Group’s remarkable contributions to creating greener community spaces, beyond our joint projects that are well underway to improve the energy efficiency of local community housing.

“More and more, people are looking for solutions that can improve their living conditions and wellbeing, without negatively impacting the environment, and this is a prime example of this in action.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the positive, longer-term impacts of our collective work to rejuvenate local community homes and urban spaces, for the benefit of people and planet.”