Category Archives: Information

Join our team! Job vacancies for two CBS Community & Communications Officers

We are looking to expand the CBS client team with two permanent Community & Communications Officers, to undertake a range of duties in relation to the provision of community led housing.

Community & Communications Officer

Salary: £28,440 – £34,254 pro-rata (depending on experience)

2 x Permanent posts: Full-time, part-time or job share welcome

Leathermarket Joint Management Board (JMB) is an established self-financing TMO that manages and maintains 1,500 homes in Bermondsey. The Leathermarket Community Benefit Society (CBS), the JMB’s sister company, was established to deliver affordable housing on JMB estates.

We are looking to expand the CBS client team with two permanent Community & Communications Officers, to undertake a range of duties in relation to the provision of community led housing. This will include resident consultation; allocation of new build affordable homes; managing the interface, communication and co-ordination between the residents, affordable housing delivery team, stakeholders and JMB service areas; providing governance and administration support; communicating the work of CBS through the use of social media.

To be successful you will need to demonstrate:

A track record and commitment to working with communities to provide community facilities:

 An understanding of the issues around the provision of affordable homes.
 Ability to establish and maintain robust policies, procedures and governance.
Ability to develop and maintain strong and supportive relationships with a wide range of residents, colleagues and stakeholders, through a wide range of channels – including the use of social media.
 Ability to work on your own initiative as well as part of a team

Closing date: 23rd October 2017

Interviews: 2nd November 2017

Application Form

Role Profile & Person Specification

If you require further information, please contact Jane Mepham on 0207 450 8023 or at Jane.Mepham@Leathermarketcbs.org.uk.

See the latest designs for the new CBS homes on the Joseph Lancaster site

On 9th August, 30 residents came along to give their views on the latest designs for the new homes on the JMB’s Lawson Estate.

Hari Phillips, from Bell Phillips Architects provided a review of the previous three residents’ consultations to explain how we have got to the current designs, incorporating the comments and feedback received from residents throughout the design process.

Residents discussed the following:

Car parking
Daylight and Sunlight
Height and Massing
Views around the site
the location of the new homes and the height and massing options.

View the latest designs for the new homes (large file 53MB)

If you missed this consultation and would like to provide your comments on the design, please send your feedback to Jane Mepham at Jane.Mepham@LeathermarketCBS.org.uk or call on 020 7450 8023

Southwark Council praise as CBS secures Government Estate cash

Southwark Council has praised the success of Leathermarket CBS’s resident-led approach to developing new homes, after securing £385,000 of government grant to support the CBS’s plans for new homes on the Joseph Lancaster nursery site on the Lawson Estate.

The Council issued the statement below following the award fo the Government Grant.

Research has shown that council tenants and residents prefer to have the autonomy to deal with the things that matter most to them in relation to their homes.

The council has worked for a long time to ensure that tenants are given this freedom and support to manage their own housing estates and homes as much as possible.

The successful Tenant Managed Organisations (TMOs) in Southwark have gone from strength to strength with their expansion planned as part of the council’s new home building programme, which aims to deliver 11,000 more council homes.

Recently, at Long Lane, (Villiers Court), underused pieces of land and old council buildings have made way for 21 new council homes, which have been included in the hugely successful TMO, Leathermarket JMB, allowing new residents to effectively take control of the running of their homes. These have contribute to the council’s target to build more new council homes.

Southwark Council leads the country in its support for tenant management. Together with Leathermarket JMB – and its resident-led Board – and the Department for Communities and Local Government, Southwark developed the JMB as the country’s first self-financing TMO, changing the law for others to follow in the process. Southwark Council is one of the few authorities in the country actively seeking to develop tenant management as a real option for residents and its leadership and support in this area has been recognised in a series of national awards.

This month, the council has was awarded a grant £385,000 in the first wave of the Government’s Estate Regeneration Fund in order for it to work with Leathermarket Community Benefit Society (the new-homes arm of the JMB). This will support the building of even more new council homes on the former Joseph Lancaster Nursery site on the Lawson Estate and bring forward plans across the other Leathermarket estates. Provided that the scheme works out, and planning permission is granted, the intention is to start on site by the end of the calendar year and to look at other possible sites for new council homes within the Leathermarket area in the near future.

Chair of Leathermarket CBS, John Paul Maytum MBE, said: “We’re delighted that Government has recognised strength and power of the partnership between Southwark Council and the Leathermarket residents who are leading the design and development of new homes across our estates. We’ve had first class support from the leadership of the council and are particularly grateful to the council officers who pulled out all the stops and burned the midnight oil to make sure we got the bid in and secured this development money.”

Councillor Stephanie Cryan, Deputy Leader and cabinet member for housing at Southwark Council, said, “We have worked long and hard to achieve such a fantastic model for self-managed social housing with Leathermarket JMB – the feedback from residents says it all – they are more satisfied with where they live and they feel in control of their housing. We’re proud to be expanding and building more council homes for them in the north of the borough as part of our borough-wide new homes programme.”

Kipling Garages green space design workshops

Future residents of the new homes attended two design workshops with Oobe, CBS Landscape Architects, on 8th & 22nd March.

At the first workshop residents shared their ideas on how they would want to use the communal roof garden, on the fourth floor of the building. Suggestions included vegetable and flower planting boxes, quiet areas for sitting and reading and low maintenance planting at varying levels.

Oobe incorporated these ideas in their designs which were presented to residents on 22nd March.

View the presentation here. OOBE Greenspace Workshop Presentation

Residents preferred Option 1 for the design of the roof garden. Residents really liked the idea of vegetable and flower planters designed to be easily accessible for wheel chair users. They also preferred smaller, easily moveable tables to allow for different sized gatherings.

Residents were asked to consider the options for the defensible space at the front of the building. They preferred Option 3, which provides a strong barrier between the ground floor maisonettes’ front gardens and the public footpath.

A play area for under 5s is required within the communal green space to meet planning requirements. Residents wanted the play area, located at the back of the building, to be open and accessible for all Kipling Estate residents’ to use.