Coastline’s Income and Inspiring Futures team have been crowned by their colleagues as ‘team of the year’ for the work they do to help local people back into the workplace, decreasing their reliance on benefits and more.

The team won after a vote by colleagues at the company’s annual performance celebration which, this year, included a rousing speech by David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation.

Over the past year, the Inspiring Futures team has worked hard to help customers via its back to work programme, which is now being used as a model of good practice by other housing associations nationally.

Since the start of the back to work programme in 2014, the team has seen 111 customers return to the workplace and seven per cent of Coastline customers overall have been able to reduce their reliance on housing benefit due to the support from Inspiring Futures.

The programme also offers two very popular rounds of eight-week work placements each year across the Coastline group, for customers or others looking to return to the workplace or training.

Meanwhile, the Income Team has been working hard to help customers cope with the new austerity measures being implemented by the Government this year, ensuring they continue to maintain their tenancy amidst the background of welfare reform. Thanks to the team’s creative approaches to helping customers manage their tenancy, Coastline’s arrears figures continue to be at a record low and amongst the very best nationally.

Allister Young, chief executive of Coastline Housing, said: “I’m extremely proud of all the teams at Coastline and the good work they do day in, day out. The Income and Inspiring Futures team has done some really fantastic work in the past year though, which has had a genuinely positive impact on the lives of lots of customers, helping them to change their lives for the better. Clearly, their colleagues across the group recognised this and were very proud of it.”