Tenants celebrate Milton Keynes’ 50th with City’s Mayor | #ForAccessibleHomes News

Tree planting marks landmark anniversary on local housing scheme

To celebrate Milton Keynes turning 50 this year, Habinteg tenants and local staff have teamed up with Bell Group to welcome the Mayor of Milton Keynes, Councillor David Hopkins, to the accessible housing scheme on Wednesday 12 July.

The Mayor took part in a tree planting ceremony with tenants, and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion.

Habinteg has had a presence in and around the City since the early 1980s, providing accessible homes and inclusive communities for local people to live in and enjoy.

Staff asked visitors on the day to take part in their award winning ‘For Accessible Homes’ campaign. With just 7% of homes in England even basically accessible, the challenge to increase the supply of such homes is great. During the event the Mayor had the opportunity to hear first-hand from tenants how living in an accessible home has made life better for them and their families.

In his speech, Cllr David Hopkins, Mayor of Milton Keynes, said:

“Our city is 50 years old, but Milton Keynes isn’t just concrete cows and snow domes and everything else, Milton Keynes is the people. We are Milton Keynes – we are what makes this city such a great city. It’s such an honour to be part of that and we’ve got a great future ahead of us here in this wonderful city.

"Milton Keynes will continue to expand and we’re working on what we call the plan MK at the moment. I think that initiatives like these accessible homes are hugely positive for Milton Keynes and something we really want to encourag  

"Thank you so much for all you’re doing in Milton Keynes and it is a great pleasure to be part of it.”

Christina McGill, Head of Communications at Habinteg, said:

“It is great to see the local community coming together to celebrate such a significant milestone in Milton Keynes’ history. We are pleased to have the Mayor here celebrating with us and our tenants, and to see the positive impacts of accessible housing on the lives of local people.”

Rosanna Giarraputo, Resident Liaison Officer at Bell Group, said:

“As part of our work with Habinteg, we like to try and get involved with as many different events as possible as a way of giving something back to the local community. I jumped at the opportunity to get involved with this event because we are quite local, and have worked on this scheme before, so it was a really lovely opportunity to celebrate today.”