New Start Homes

Read time: 3 mins Added date: 24/10/2024

New Start are making a real difference in Merseyside by helping hundreds of homeless people find a safe home, thanks to the financial backing of Lloyds.

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Since 1997, New Start has helped hundreds of homeless people find safe and secure homes across Merseyside, with backing from Lloyds.

New Start’s mission is to provide quality supported housing and residential care services for vulnerable men, women and children, making a positive difference in the lives of some of the most disadvantaged individuals and families in society.

The family run not-for-profit organisation was founded with a single property and now supports more than 550 people at around 200 sites, including hostels for men and women, supported housing and children’s homes providing therapeutic residential care for young people aged between 10 and 18.

All New Start’s service users are referred to them by local authorities within the Liverpool City Region and any financial surplus is reinvested into developing New Start’s activities and services.

A place to live

New Start CEO Neil Baynes said: “The people who live with us come from a wide range of backgrounds, which may include mental health issues and substance misuse, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are homeless and looking for somewhere safe to live.

The aim is to support them as they move towards living independently. Demand for our services is growing as people struggle with the cost of living and a huge shortage in housing in Merseyside.

That’s also proved to be a challenge for New Start as we look to expand and develop our services.”

The organisation, which employs more than 180 members of staff, has partnered with Lloyds since 2012 when we provided New Start with a £2 million refinancing facility.

Neil says that gave him the resources to acquire and lease new properties, and the security and stability to plan its service provision over the long term.

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Life-changing interventions

Lloyds is the biggest supporter of social housing in the UK and has provided more than £18.5 billion of funding to the sector since 2018.

Its partnership with the national homeless charity Crisis has called for one million social rent homes to be built by 2023.

Dave Brigden, Head of Social and Supported Housing, Lloyds Bank Business and Commercial Banking, said: “New Start does great things in the city region to provide housing and wraparound support services for people when they are at their most vulnerable.

The support provided is genuinely life-changing, and New Start has a real impact in reducing homelessness across Merseyside.

At Lloyds, we are committed to supporting housing providers through a public commitment to deploy £200m of capital to organisations like New Start because it is absolutely aligned to our vision of social impact and purpose.”

Opening doors

Neil added: “This is more than a business. For my colleagues and I, it’s our passion.

The services we provide are an invaluable part of reducing homelessness in Merseyside, and thanks to the support from Lloyds, we are now looking at new sites to develop. The financial backing has allowed us to invest in our services and create new opportunities to continue serving the local community.”

Find out more about Lloyds work championing social housing (PDF, 2.7 MB).