Business Excellence

When the Company was established in March 2000, one of our major challenges was to develop a business framework that would be flexible enough to deal with the complexities of providing social housing, but allow the company to grow and compete in new markets.

In 2001, we adopted the Business Excellence model as it appeared to compliment our commitment to continuous improvement and our work towards quality standards such as Chartermark and Investor in People. Using the "business toolkit" we involved the whole organisation in an examination of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and incorporated the feedback into an improvement action plan.

The benefits of using the model have been considerable.

• We continue to see year on year improvements in their business results across all key areas
• We have become a more commercially minded organisation, successfully achieving contracts for profitable third party works
• We have achieved recognition for quality service provision from The Housing Corporation
• We have expanded and diversified the business, exceeding the expectation of customers and partners

We were finalists in 2005, and in 2006 we were a Midlands regional award winner. Marina Banner, Executive Director Vestia and Corporate Services was awarded the Ambassador for Excellence status in recognition of her work in promoting the model across the West Midlands.