Putting people before process - lessons from EPIC
3 August 2026
There are housing associations that quietly get on with making a real difference. They may not be the biggest or the best known, but they understand their homes, know their communities and tenants, and continually ask how they can improve people's lives.
My recent visit to our newest member, EPIC in Stoke and North Staffordshire, reminded me exactly what effective place-shaping looks like.
The diversity of our membership, whether because of size, geography or local context, means place-shaping looks different in different places but at heart all members exist to support communities to thrive.
EPIC is a community-based landlord in Stoke and North Staffordshire. While relatively small, it has emerged from a period of significant change with a clear sense of purpose. They are an organisation who design what they do around the individual people and communities they know so well.
I was lucky enough to spend the day with Tracey Johnson, their Chief Executive, and the EPIC Leadership Team, on a hot Tuesday in July.
While most of their homes are concentrated across three estates within a few miles of each other, with their office slap bang in the middle of the biggest, there is huge diversity within those homes and they people they house.
What impressed me most about the way EPIC work is how positively they respond to that diversity, with a staff team empowered to do what is right for the home and resident, with policies flexible enough to accommodate this.
This philosophy shows up in practical ways.
Creating better homes
For homes, this means when they turn up to a damp and mould case, teams don’t just fix the immediate problem, but they look at what they can do to address the root cause while they are there. I am not surprised to hear that other organisations are looking to learn from their approach.
Supporting every resident as an individual
For residents, this means carpeting a home before a new resident moves in, because they know there will be children living there and the family won’t be bringing much with them.
This was true of the home we went to see, which felt brand-new inside, and was just waiting for the carpets and a final check before the new resident gets the keys.
Strengthening communities through partnerships
For communities, this means partnering with a local charity – “Thrive at Five” – to support families with young children, to give them the best start in life, working out of the Bentilee Family Hub at the heart of Bentilee, which was when it was built in the 1950s the biggest social housing estate in Europe.
So, what next for an organisation that has a C1 and 87% overall tenant satisfaction? They certainly don’t plan to stand still.
Through what they call the ‘EPIC connection’ they want to continue to move beyond homes and services to develop their approach to neighbourhoods and place.
Some of their communities experience long-term and entrenched deprivation, with poor health, lower life expectancy, and a reliance on health and care services that are increasingly difficult to access. So, they want to use data, insight and community voices to look at how they can support their communities to be healthier and more economically resilient.
And they want to harness the opportunities of the Pride in Place programme in Bentilee and Ubberley to build on the pride and sense of community – so evident in my visit to the Bentilee Family Hub – through new community infrastructure.
Housing associations across the country are facing enormous financial and regulatory pressures. It would be easy to become consumed by compliance and process.
But EPIC is a reminder that the organisations making the biggest difference are often those that never lose sight of the people behind the tenancy and I can’t wait to see and share what they deliver over the coming years.