A journey through time
1930s
1939
The Garths in Sunderland receives national recognition for positive house building.
NEHA has completed a total of 8,155 new homes in its first four years of existence.
December 1935
The North Eastern Housing Association (NEHA) is founded.
November 1935
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin arrives in Newcastle and announces the Government’s intention to found a housing association in the North East.
1940s
1948
The National Health Service is established by Health Minister Aneurin Bevan.
1945
Changes in legislation saw the North East development area increase to include most of Northumberland and North Yorkshire.
1940
Gone with the Wind wins
Best Picture at the Oscars.
1944
NEHA built 883 new homes in Cumberland, mostly to accommodate workers from wartime industries.
Keen to be part of the post-war rebuilding efforts, NEHA approached all councils it had previously worked with to understand their needs.
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
2000
1990
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1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
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2020
2010
2000
2010
2019
Home Group develops its Customer Promise with the support of customers.
2018
Gateshead Innovation Village is envisioned as part of the Great Exhibition of the North held in Newcastle. The innovative development would complete a year later to national attention.
Home Group launches Persona Homes, a subsidiary aimed at building homes for sale with profits being reinvested into Home Group.
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2016
The first issue of Home Group’s customer magazine, Homelife, is published. The magazine has seen development over the years and is now available in a more sustainable, digital format.
2012
Home Group’s redevelopment of Rayners Lane in London becomes an exemplar for the London School of Economics’ Regeneration Framework.
2011
Home Group launches a dedicated customer contact centre to improve support for customers.
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It is the 2010s.
The world’s best descend on London to compete for Gold. At the same time, Home Group is also standing out from the field as it regenerates part of Harrow. Further innovations come, as does a strong focus on our customers.
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It is the 1930s
Change is happening across the UK, with slum housing cleared and new homes built.
In the North East, the decision is made to found a housing association – Home Group.
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1938
NEHA completes its first homes in West Cumberland.
It is the 1940s
Peace rings out across Europe and the world. Back on home shores Home Group continues building new homes at pace!
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1947
The microwave oven is invented.
1946
A new government Act trebled the value of subsidy compared to 1939 aimed at encouraging building on a larger scale to higher standards.
1959
By the end of the 1950s, the UK had built almost 1.8 million new social homes since the end of the war.
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1958
The UK’s first motorway, the M6 Preston bypass, marked the beginning of a new major era in road infrastructure .
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1954
The Housing Repairs and Rents Act relaxes rules on rent control, though rent increases were still decided by local authorities rather than the association.
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1953
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
Mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
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1950
Work in housing looked very different in the 1950s. One colleague in the Cumbrian office, Bill Ivison, described getting around on the office motorbike and maintenance staff travelling by bus with lengths of timber!
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It is the 1950s
We have summitted the tallest mountain and Blue Peter taught us how to craft and get creative; but back at Home Group much of the decade was spent navigating political rivalries.
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1969
The Rolling Stones played to over 500,000 people in Hyde Park – the largest concert of the decade.
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1966
Many of the first homes built started to need modernising. New legislation meant coal fires in some homes had to begin to be replaced with smokeless fuel alternatives.
England win the football World Cup at Wembley.
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1963
United States president John F Kennedy is assassinated.
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It is the 1960s
It is the 1960s. Football has come home, and Concorde first takes to the skies.
For Home Group, work started on modernising those first homes built and growing new partnerships across the North.
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1975
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female Prime Minister.
1974
To secure more Government funding and greater independence the NEHA created a new organisation, North Housing Group (NHG), that sat alongside the NEHA.
1973
The UK enters the European Economic Community (EEC).
1970
NEHA expands outside of its northern base for the first time, acquiring homes in Yorkshire and the Midlands.
It is the 1970s
There’s a new decimal currency, punk rock has burst onto the scene and the Silver Jubilee celebrations are in full swing.
For Home Group, expansion is on the cards as we begin to move outside of our traditional stronghold in the north.
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1975
North Housing Group is involved in its first major area regeneration, working with Newcastle City Council on the regeneration of Arthur’s Hill.
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody reaches no. 1 for nine weeks.
1984
The miners’ strike takes place.
1983
The North Housing Association acquires 350 Tyneside flats marked for demolition in Northbourne Street in the west end of Newcastle. It begins a regeneration scheme which rehabilitates 343 flats to provide 321 homes. The scheme receives a national award.
1982
E.T. becomes the highest grossing film of the year.
1981
Charles and Diana marry in the ‘wedding of the decade’.
1980
Northern Housing Group expands into the South for the first time.
NEHA passes the necessary resolution to begin merging the NEHA and NHG and transfer its homes under a single company, the North Housing Association (NHA).
It is the 1980s
Conflict and strike action mark the decade, though Live Aid highlights the power of collective good. EastEnders debuts, while Home Group continues its march towards a national footprint.
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1988
The first wave of new homes is built nationally, with 540 homes and flats across sites in Keswick, Silloth, Blyth, South Shields, Durham City, Derby, Peterborough, Milton Keynes and Waltham Abbey .
1989
As development ramped up across the country and a national workforce is recruited, new offices open in Derby and Peterborough.
2008
Home Group’s current CEO, Mark Henderson, is appointed .
2003
Yorkshire-based Nashayman Housing, a Black and minority ethnic housing association, becomes part of Home Group.
2001
The World Trade Centre disaster occurs in New York .
2000
Gladiator wins Best Picture at the Oscars.
It is the 2000s
A decade which started in tragedy. Facebook and the iPhone began shaping the technology we know today.
Home Group adopts its charitable status and welcomes in a familiar face at its helm, Mark Henderson.
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2020
2025
Home Group is recognised among the Top 10 UK employers for a seventh consecutive year in the UK Great Place to Work survey.
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2021
Home Group becomes a founding member of the Greener Futures Partnership, a collaboration of five housing associations to lead the net-zero agenda in social housing.
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2020
Home Group is voted Landlord of the Year in the UK Housing Awards for the second consecutive year.
Home Group introduces its Financial Inclusion team.
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It is the 2020s
The world shut down temporarily and we all adjusted to a ‘new normal’ but it didn’t slow Home Group down. A new office, green investment and customer and colleague wellbeing shape our new direction.
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1965
Home Group takes over management of 135 flats in Tynemouth owned by the Sir James Knott Memorial Trust. Due to difference in the organisations’ registrations, a new body was eventually set up – the Knott Housing Society and in April 1969, it purchased the flats outright from the trust.
2004
Following a large-scale voluntary transfer of homes from Copeland Borough Council, Copeland Homes forms as a subdivision of Home Group.
Home Group adopts charitable status.
Facebook is launched.
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1936
NEHA begins work on 1,500 new homes across the North-East.
Gateshead Council hands over Deckham Hall, which became NEHA’s first large estate.
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1990s
1998
To reflect its national profile North Housing Association changes its name to Home Group, but very much keeps its roots in the North.
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1997
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is published.
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1996
The Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabee spends seven weeks at no. 1 .
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1992
Home Group agrees a redevelopment programme for The Garths – the largest redevelopment project in Britain to be undertaken by any association on its own stock, and costs around £19m over five years.
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1992
NHA begins work on housing as part of the £200m, 200-acre Royal Quays development project in North Shields. It becomes the first to provide housing for sale on the site, which was used as a market tester for other builders.
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1990
North Housing Association completes mergers with Warden, Stonham and Cleghorn in Scotland.
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It is the 1990s
Between the Channel Tunnel and the World Wide Web, we are more connected to the world than ever before.
At Home Group, we get involved in a number of large regeneration projects in the North East.
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1970s
1975
North Housing Group (NHG) is involved in its first major area regeneration, working with Newcastle City Council on the regeneration of Arthur’s Hill.
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July 1974
To secure more Government funding and greater independence The NEHA created a new organisation, North Housing Group (NHG), that sat alongside the NEHA.
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1970
NEHA expands outside of its northern base for the first time, acquiring homes in Yorkshire and the Midlands.
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1973
The UK enters the European Economic Community (EEC)
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1978
NHG acquires a group of late Georgian properties in central Newcastle, St. Thomas’
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1980s
1989
As development ramped up across the country and a national workforce is recruited, new offices open in Derby and Peterborough.
1988
The first phase of new building begins, with sites in Keswick, Silloth, Blyth, South Shields, Durham City, Derby, Peterborough, Milton Keynes and Waltham Abbey.
A total of 540 flats and houses were built in this phase, with the second phase including new building in Workington, Hebburn, Hartlepool, Darlington, Harlow and Carshalton.
1983
The North Housing Association acquires 350 Tyneside flats marked for demolition in Northbourne Street, in the west end of Newcastle and begins a regeneration scheme rehabilitating 343 flats to provide 321 homes. The scheme receives a national award.
1980
NEHA passes the necessary resolution to begin merging the NEHA and NHG and transfer its homes under a single company, the North Housing Association (NHA).
1981
Charles and Diana marry
in the ‘wedding of the decade’.
1982
E.T. becomes the highest grossing film of the year.
1984
The 1984 miners’ strike occurred because the National Coal Board (NCB) and the Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, announced plans to close many coal mines, threatening 20,000 jobs and mining communities.
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1990s
1998
To reflect its national profile North Housing Association changes its name to Home Group, but very much keeps its roots in the Nort-East.
On 19th February, Anthony Gormley's landmark sculpture, the Angel of the North, is erected at Gateshead.
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1997
Titanic is regarded by critics as the most famous film of the 1990s.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is published.
Diana, Princess of Wales dies in a car crash on 31st August 1997.
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1996
The Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabee spends seven weeks at no. 1.
On 29th July, Alan Shearer becomes the world's most expensive footballer when Newcastle United F.C. pay £15,000,000 for him.
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1992
Home Group agrees a redevelopment programme for The Garths – the largest redevelopment project in Britain to be undertaken by any association on its own stock, and costs around £19m over five years.
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1992
NHA begins work on housing as part of the £200m, 200-acre Royal Quays development project – and becomes the first to provide housing for sale on the site, which was used as a market tester for other builders.
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1990
North Housing Association completes mergers with Warden, Stonham and Cleghorn in Scotland.
Nelson Mandela was released in February after spending 27 years behind bars.
The Gulf War, (1990 – 1991), saw the largest use of British troops deployed since WW2.
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