JPS launches building materials hub for housing associations in Leeds

Jewson Partnership Solutions (JPS) has launched its second AVAIL Housing Hub, with the aim of helping housing providers in Leeds to navigate the demands and challenges of supplying safe and quality social housing to local residents.

Following the successful launch of its first AVAIL Housing Hub in Newcastle earlier this year, the one-stop-shop building and maintenance hub in Leeds will offer social housing providers all the benefits of JPS – including stock management technology, material supply, waste disposal and expert training – to tackle changing legislation, health and safety, rising costs, and decarbonisation regulations.

A wealth of products for construction, maintenance and repairs will be made available to customers via the hub’s large external yard and warehouse. JPS will apply its automated replenishment technology to ensure levels of stock – which are specifically selected to support social landlords with their key challenges – are always maintained. A fleet of vehicles are available for delivery of products and materials to different sites and properties, either direct to operative or to AVAIL’s Smart Collection points located at convenient spots around the city.

In coming months, the hub will include an on-site ‘drop and go’ waste offer, allowing users to save valuable time in the usual waste separation process, as well as a training academy, available to any AVAIL Housing Hub customer and their tenants, offering training on new product launches and construction processes. Courses will also be available for 16–24-year-olds looking to enter the job market, delivered in conjunction with charity YouthBuild.

Social housing plays an important role in Leeds, with 54,000 council-owned dwellings in the city and a commitment in place to build 1,500 more by 2025 through the House Growth Programme. The hub is located in Seacroft, where 70 per cent of households are classed as living in deprivation – the fourth most deprived area in the city.

JPS officially opened the doors to the Leeds hub at the end of September, at an event attended by a wealth of building materials suppliers, contractors and local housing associations.

Scott Cooper, managing director of JPS, said: “From rising material costs and a shortage of labour, to environmental targets and a need to improve the comfort and energy efficiency of homes, housing associations are feeling more pressure than ever before to provide better housing for less while simultaneously raising the standards of their properties.

“The roll-out of our AVAIL Housing Hubs is designed to make our customers’ lives easier in the face of these challenges, which we know are especially prevalent in Leeds. We want to offer social housing providers a way of working that will save them money, while also providing the guidance they need to select the products required to deliver the homes of the future.

“The AVAIL Housing Hub model brings all of that under one roof, and enables us to act as a supply partner that can help them deliver on their objectives for the people who need it most.”

The hub in Leeds is open now. For more information, visit https://www.jewsonpartnershipsolutions.com/avail.