Alongside a sizeable council contribution, the TIF funding was designed to facilitate the installation of external wall, underfloor and loft insulation in 30 park homes on the Orchard Park site in Elton, as well as heat recovery ventilation in half of these properties. No customer contribution was required.
The NEA was closely involved in the monitoring the temperature and humidity of the park homes before installation and continues to carry out post-installation testing to determine the effectiveness of the measure combinations, alongside the collation of anecdotal evidence from residents.
Cornerstone worked with CWaC and the Site Manager to ensure communication with residents was consistent and well managed, keeping them well informed and demonstrating fairness in the selection of properties for inclusion in the scheme. Following award of the funding, we worked with CWaC to seek expressions of interest from residents of the site in the insulation measures and to determine the condition of their properties. Every park home owner expressed interest, with the age and condition of the property used to prioritise funding recipients. Co-branded letters were distributed at the start and end of the scheme, with our site based team working closely with the Site Manager to provide updates to individual residents and the wider site community throughout the works.
Cornerstone managed the end to end customer journey, from initial engagement with the residents to property surveys, measure installation and aftercare. We appointed a dedicated Site Manager who also took responsibility for resident and Site Manager liaison. This Site Manager was based at the park home site five days a week and managed a team of experienced insulation engineers. At a senior level, our Regional Director visited the site on a fortnightly basis to monitor progress and meet with CWaC officers and NEA representatives.
All members of our site based team were customer service trained, and therefore equipped to engage professionally with residents and provide the support they required. Our Regional Director also made a point of engaging with residents during his fortnightly tours of the site, demonstrating that the satisfaction of every customer is important to our business at the highest levels.
Critical to the success of this project was the support of site owner Wyldecrest and the buy-in of Site Manager Ann Raywood. A resident of Orchard Park, Ann has excellent site knowledge and a strong bond with many of the park home owners, as well as first-hand experience of insulating her own property. By working closely with Ann at each stage of the process and allocating dedicated site management resource, Cornerstone gained the trust of this close knit community.
Ann commented: ‘Every single resident expressed interest in the insulation scheme – it has been so popular and made such a difference to the living conditions of our residents. I only have good things to say about Cornerstone – their work is excellent and they have become part of the Orchard Park family over recent weeks. I hope more residents are able to benefit from schemes like this in the future.’
Each park home was signed off by the resident, CWaC, the NEA, our Site Manager and our Regional Director, who each brought their own perspective and expertise to this collaborative process. Our system provided Alumasc was also closely involved in the project and provided technical expertise throughout the scheme, ensuring best practice detailing and finishes were achieved. As a result of this partnership approach, the Orchard Park scheme was one of the TIF’s highest performing projects, and finished comfortably within the NEA’s completion deadline. Additional funding from the NEA was allocated to the project as a result, which enabled us to insulate more of the site’s 109 park homes. In total, 52 of the most energy inefficient properties received insulation measures.
Cornerstone has worked across a number of park home schemes, and this project reinforced our sense of these sites as a community where trust is hard to earn but is vital to the effective delivery of a scheme. For example, we ensured that we consulted the community in regards to the stationing of a site compound, and consulted residents on their preferred insulation colour and finish.
On completion of the scheme, we sent all residents a thank you letter and a £10 voucher for Marks and Spencer, which was very well received and attracted numerous letters in return complimenting the service we had provided:
The resident of 99 Orchard Park commented: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank Cornerstone on the excellent job you did on insulating my home. Both Matt and his team have done a superb job and have worked very hard. I was particularly impressed on how polite and efficient every member of the team were at all times. Once again, thank you.’
Cornerstone Case Study – Orchard Park
