Section:GDN 1N PaGe:32 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 19:31 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Monday 12 Aug ust 2019
(^32) Financial
Rupert Neate
Wealth correspondent
F
or a couple of years
Nontando Mpofu,
known to her friends
as Lucy, struggled to
fi nd permanent work
and often found herself
reliant on the generosity of her
church and food bank.
“Life was a real struggle, and
it was very hard for me to juggle
everything – paying the rent and
looking after my daughter as a single
parent,” Mpofu, 40, says in the airy
kitchen of her fl at in Leytonstone,
east London. “I got into quite a bit
of debt and rent arrears.”
Mpofu’s life changed last
November when an unlikely alliance
between a French bank and her
social housing landlord helped get
her a job at Marks & Spencer and get
her bank account into the black. “I
was just scrolling through Facebook
one day, and I saw a post from
someone in the community saying:
‘If you’ve been unemployed for six
months get in touch, we can help.’ ”
The message had been posted by
a support offi cer employed by her
landlord, London & Quadrant (L&Q) ,
one of the UK’s largest housing
associations, which rents out close
to 100,000 homes in London and the
south-east of England. L&Q employs
more than a dozen people dedicated
to getting its long-term unemployed
residents into permanent jobs.The team helped Mpofu perfect
her CV, coached her through mock
interviews, and helped her identify
jobs suitable to her skills and
circumstances. The L&Q team also
helps unemployed residents with
the cost of travel and clothes to wear
to interviews.
Matthew Corbett , the director
of the L&Q foundation, said the
housing association was committed
to helping its tenants into work
because “it makes our communities
happy and healthier” but also
because L&Q is contractually obliged
to by its bank, BNP Paribas.
In 2018, France’s biggest bank
loaned L&Q £100m at a discount rate
on the condition that the housing
association helped at least 600 of
its residents into work. BNP Paribas
and L&Q would not say how big the
discount is, but Corbett said it was
signifi cant and would free up more
money for the housing association to
invest in its foundation.L&Q , which was founded by a
Church of England priest in 1963 ,
exceeded the 600-resident target ,
and the loan will be extended for
a further four years, with L&Q
required to increase its job search
eff ort by an additional 25 people
each year. Accountants at P wC will
audit L&Q to verify that the housing
association really achieved the
target, which built on its existing
eff orts to get residents into work.
Social housing residents are
twice as likely to be unemployed
compared with the UK average,
according to the Institute for Public
Policy Research. Those who are
in work are likely to be low-paid
and in part-time jobs. The average
weekly pay for housing association
tenants is £250, compared with £232
for local authority tenants, £348
for private renters and £454 for
owner-occupiers.
BNP Paribas said the idea to
off er the discount “sustainability-
linked” loan came about after the
bank changed its corporate social
responsibility policy to do more to
“create a positive impact in society”.
After the success of the deal
with L&Q , BNP Paribas has signed
a similar deal with Optivo , another
housing association, which owns
47,000 homes occupied by close
to 100,000 people. Gates, said the
Optivo loan was “about getting
people back into work, which is
good for individuals, families, the
economy and society”.
Greg Beales, the campaigns
director of the housing charity
Shelter , said it was important
that banks such as BNP Paribas
were making it easier for housing
associations to build more homes,
particularly at a time of government
cuts. “This shows the private sector
stepping in to provide fi nance
when the public fi nances have been
incredibl y stretched,” he said.
“ The terms of the Optivo loan
have not been disclosed , but it is
understood the target will ask the
housing association to signifi cantly
build on the 1,000 residents a year it
currently helps into work.
On the frontlines helping
Optivo residents fi nd work are 17
employment specialists from the
social landlord consortium Give Us
a Chance , such as Whitney Henry.
Henry, who got her job through
the same programme, said the most
important aspect of her work was to
give other residents “the confi dence
to believe in themselves”.
“Some people have been out of
work for a long time, and they have
lost some of that confi dence ,” said
Henry, who works with residents on
the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, one of the
most deprived parts of the UK.
Her personal target is to get
50 people a year into work, last year
she found jobs for 126 – including
every member of a family of four.
The father secured a job as a school
caretaker, the mother got part-time
cleaning work in the school, the
daughter took an IT course before
getting a job at PC World, and her
brother is studying the same course
while working at Greggs.
“It is so rewarding when they get
into jobs,” Henry said. “It’s probably
the best feeling in the world that
you have helped them achieve, and
you feel like you have achieved with
them. I am so proud of all them.”Work from homes Social
landlords and banks team
up to fi nd residents jobs
▼ Nontando Mpofu strugg led to fi nd
permanent work for two years before
London & Quadrant helped her fi nd a
job PHOTOGRAPH: LINDA NYLIND/THE GUARDIANJillian Ambrose
Energy correspondentHundreds of Asda stores will help
power the UK’s electricity system this
winter by using their fridges as virtual
battery packs for the energy grid.
Britain’s third-largest supermarket
chain has signed up 300 stores and 18
distribution depots to schemes that
can earn it extra revenue while helping
to balance the electricity grid.
Under the long-term deal with
National Grid the supermarket’s
nationwide networks of freezer aisles
and storage fridges will make up a
13 megawatt power source – enough
energy to power about 8,500 homes.
Asda has also signed up to a new
trial that could mean its fridges are
called on at only 10 minutes’ notice
to act as an 11th-hour safety net if thereis an unexpected power plant outage.
National Grid pays out about £1bn
worth of contracts through its energy
capacity market. Most are awarded
to power plants so they are ready to
increase their generation but they can
also be given to companies that can
cut their electricity use to help reduce
overall demand on the grid.
Peter Smith, Asda’s energy man-
ager, said the deals are a “no-brainer”
for the supermarket, which can eas-
ily cut the electricity to its fridges
and air conditioning when needed
while keeping the temperature of its
stores stable. All industrial fridges are
turned off at least once a day as part of
a standard defrost cycle to remove ice
buildups in the system, but new tech-
nology means supermarkets can earn
extra revenue by matching the down-
time to Britain’s energy needs.
Asda is working with Flexitricity, an
Edinburgh-based energy fi rm, which
uses technology to aggregate the
energy potential of companies across
the country.
Tesco has also started using mini-
power cuts to its freezer aisles to help
balance the grid.Asda fridges to be
used to boost power
of National Grid
‘Some people have
been out of work for
a long time, and they
have lost some of that
confi dence to believe
in themselves’Whitney Henry
Employment specialistРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS