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About Us

Who we are and what we do

CHS is all about people:  our 7,000 residents, our 1850 care and support customers and our team of 250 staff. Founded in 1927, we run a broad range of services across Cambridgeshire offering people opportunities to achieve a better quality of life.  We do this by providing and managing

  • over 3000 low-cost rented and shared ownership homes
  • extra care schemes and domiciliary care for older people
  • support for young people, parents, people with additional needs or experiencing homelessness
  • money, debt, and employment advice

Our added value is based on our independence, local base and geographic focus, which enable us to

  • Be accessible to our customers
  • Deliver a wide range of services relevant to local needs and distinct from other providers
  • Invest in people and communities
  • Maintain a strong, up to date understanding of local needs and markets
  • Have the capacity and knowledge to engage with stakeholders
  • Develop new services and partnerships to tackle particular local problems.

Our governance

We are a social enterprise and charitable housing association with a turnover of £33.6m and housing assets worth £263m.  We are governed by a Board, drawn from the local community, which sets our direction, monitors progress towards our goals and ensures we meet the standards set by the Regulator for Social Housing. This work is supported by committees for Operations; Audit & Risk; Development & Asset Management; Governance; HR;  and Remuneration. Two tenant-led groups, our Tenant Committee and Scrutiny Panel, also contribute to the main Board through improvement recommendations.

Our Values

Respect – We see people as people and treat everyone with fairness, respect and dignity.
Approach –We put as much emphasis on the way we do things as on what we do.
Partnership – We work hard to develop open communication and equal relationships with our customers, staff and partners which values their contributions and enables us to work together effectively.
Openness – We are open, positive and flexible towards both new ideas and problems and we encourage innovation and creativity that improves the outcomes from our services.
Deliver – We do what we say we will do and are accountable for our actions.

Our Corporate Objectives

1. Deliver sustainable growth in social and affordable housing

2. Provide excellent services that respond to our customers

3. Ensure strong financial viability and excellent governance

Our culture is built on our social purpose, our values, excellent risk awareness and management and ensuring we continuously focus on Value for Money.

CHS Group is the trading name of The Cambridge Housing Society Limited, a society registered for the benefit of the community with the FCA under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, no. 10457R, HMRC Charity no. X81275

Our History

CHS was founded in 1927 in response to a desperate need for affordable homes in Cambridge.  Alarmed by the squalid housing conditions many of the town’s poorest families lived in and the growing council waiting lists following the First World War, members of the United Council of Christian Witness decided to form a Housing Society. Their rallying cry was to provide ‘homes fit to live, within the reach of the lowest wage earner’ and throughout its lifetime, CHS has tried to live up to this aim.

Click below to find out more about CHS and the difference we make to people’s lives

Click below to find out more about CHS and the difference we make to people’s lives

Our customers have some incredible stories. Take a look at how we’ve helped some of them to transform their lives.

View case stories

Financial information

We’re a transparent organisation. You can view our information here.

We’re a transparent organisation. You can view our information here.

Find out more

Standards and policies

We’ve made our key service standards and policies available to everyone.

Find out more

Key people

Our board is made up of a variety of key stakeholders who oversee how we operate.

View our key people

Our achievements

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved as a business. Take a look at some of our key milestones.

Find out more

90 years content image

Project 90

We celebrated our 90th anniversary with every part of the CHS community.

During the year each of our teams participated in Project 90 – setting ongoing targets for the 90th year. Here are some examples:

  • Staff joined residents who also celebrated their 90th year at a tea party at our Langdon House care home
  • On 10 June 2017, a team from across the organisation cycled around 90 miles, visiting all our residents who share our 90th birthday
  • Cambridge and County Developments, our development team, planted 90 trees and funded a piece of public art using the 90th anniversary symbol, stone, at our new development in Waterbeach
  • Our Young Parent Project planted 90 flowers to cheer up their window boxes
  • Vera James House in Ely collected 90 recipes for a book and calendar
  • We produced a video about CHS, featuring customers and staff
  • Our achievement awards celebrated the fantastic successes of our young people in our supported housing schemes
  • Staff who have worked for CHS for over 10 years were thanked and recognised at our 90th birthday party
  • Alex Wood House baked a huge 90th birthday cake
Mayor John Condor

Mayor John Condor

The first Chair of CHS. He was born in Hildersham in 1865 and was Liberal mayor of Cambridge 1926-7.

Dr Alex Wood

Dr Alex Wood

The first CHS Hon Treasurer who was Chair from 1937-50. He was a fellow at Emmanuel College, founder of the United Council of Christian Witnesses and a Socialist.

Cllr Dorothy Stevenson

Cllr Dorothy Stevenson

The first CHS Hon Secretary from 1927-33 who went on to Chair the newly formed Hundred Houses Society in 1933.

Clara Rackham

Clara Rackham

A founder member, the first female Labour Cambridge City Councillor and a feminist.

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