More than 25 organisations sign up to Places for People’s housing skills academy

Other housing organisations that have signed up to the academy include Wates Group, Anchor, Havebury Housing, Amplius Housing, Futures Housing Group, Thrive Homes, Saffron Housing Trust, East Midlands Homes, Alpha Living and Plymouth Community Homes.

Derventio Housing Trust, Nottingham Community Housing Association, Warrington Housing Association, West Kent Housing, Novus Property Solutions, Gilmartins and Breck Group have also joined the scheme.

PfP said that the partnerships would deliver “bespoke training programmes” designed to address the skills shortage in housing and construction.

Training and accreditation will be supported by the Retrofit Academy, City and Guilds, Construction Industry Training Board, Chartered Institute of Housing and Study Academy.

Tom Arey, director of PfP Thrive, said: “The skills shortage is one of the greatest challenges facing the housing and construction sectors today. The only way to solve it is through genuine cross-industry collaboration, and that’s exactly what we’ve built with these partnerships and look forward to supporting more organisations across our sector.

“By working together, we can equip both the existing and new housing workforce with the skills, knowledge and behaviours the sector needs to thrive. This is about securing the future of our sector, our workforce and, ultimately, the homes we build and maintain.”

Earlier this year, Greg Reed, the chief executive of PfP, told Inside Housing that he hoped the academy would be able to provide apprenticeships to smaller housing providers.

“I think community-based housing associations are brilliant,” he said.

“Will they be able to put up an academy? Probably not, but they can use ours.”