Reoffending rates for those developing their construction industry skills under the initiative are much lower than the UK national average.
UK impact investor Resonance is collaborating with local organisations in southwest England to employ ex-offenders to refurbish rundown housing stock to make it suitable for homeless people and those in temporary accommodation.
The initiative is the result of a partnership between Resonance, the Developing Health and Independence (DHI) charity and community interest companies (CICs), Bristol Together and Gloucester Together.
Earlier this year, Resonance allocated £20m (€23m) from its National Homelessness Property Fund 2 (NHPF2) for the purchase and refurbishment of 90 properties in the county of Gloucestershire earlier this year, having previously acquired housing in the nearby city of Bristol.
Rather than working with a regular commercial contractor on the refurbishment of some the acquired housing stock in the two areas, Resonance chose to work with Bristol Together, which has been providing paying jobs and training in the construction industry for ex-offenders since it was founded in 2011.
The partnership has been working in Bristol for the last two years, with Gloucester Together newly created as an offshoot of Bristol Together to test whether the concept can be expanded in the local region.
Martin Chuter, head of property portfolio and development at Resonance, told Impact Investor the tie-up with the CICs made sense from both commercial and impact perspectives, providing an extra layer of social impact on top of housing the homeless by helping to provide above-minimum-wage employment to ex-offenders
“This relationship works for both parties, with the dual aim of being commercially minded and making an impact. This is financially workable for everyone, so all parties get maximum benefit,” he said.
The added impact is reflected in reoffending rates among those employed through the initiative which run at around 10%, compared with national figures of 56% for individuals serving sentences of less than 12 months, and 26.5% overall.
All workers hired by the CIC either join directly from prison or must have left prison within the previous six months. Overall, it has employed more than 100 people who have served custodial sentences for their crimes.
Aside from the benefits gained by the ex-prisoners in terms of income and improved skills, and by communities through greater social cohesion and reduced crime, such schemes also save the authorities a significant amount of money. The average cost of keeping one inmate in prison for a year in the UK is estimated to be around £50,000.
Replicable skills
The scheme has so far upgraded 63 properties – 37 in Bristol and 26 in Gloucestershire. After refurbishment, the properties are leased by Resonance to housing manager DHI, which then rents them to tenants who would otherwise be homeless.
Bristol Together originally used to buy, refurbish and sell houses, but now focuses more on the less volatile business of contracting work for both residential and commercial projects.
Paul Morgan, the organisation’s managing director, said the ex-offenders it employs learn skills that prepare them for work in demand elsewhere in the construction industry, which is facing a skills shortage.
“When Resonance and DHI came to us, what they wanted was right in our wheelhouse. It is the perfect kind of work, because everything is replicable as they move from house to house, for instance by using the same the type of kitchen or bathroom products. This means that, from the training perspective, the workers get a much better opportunity to practice their skills,” he said.
The partners are now looking at whether the ex-offenders scheme can be expanded to other regions of the country, where the housing crisis engulfing the country is most acute, but they have yet to make a decision.
The UK government has set a target of building 1.5m homes by the end of its current term in office, due to end in 2029, to help alleviate the crisis. To that end, it has highlighted the efforts of investors such as Resonance to expand available housing stock.
Chris Cullen, Resonance’s head of homelessness property funds, told Impact Investor earlier this year that it was seeking to broaden the investor base for its funds to include pension funds, insurers, foundations and others.
The investor now has some £444m of assets under management and aims to expand that to £1bn in the next five years, comprising £800m for property and £200m for other impact investments.
Resonance launched its first property fund in 2013, and had helped provide homes for over 4,000 individuals, including almost 2,000 children in over 1,350 properties in cities across the UK by end-2024.
