Nicola Adams is Guest of Honour at Unity's AGM!

On Wednesday 30th September, Unity celebrated another year of providing housing choice, improving life opportunities and addressing inequalities.

The meeting was held at the Northern Contemporary School of Dance, opposite Unity Housing’s office on Chapeltown Road.

Chief guests at the meeting included Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan; and Olympic Gold Medallist, Nicola Adams.

The meeting began with a welcome from Chair of the Unity’s Board, Shruti Bhargava. Shruti joined the Board in September 2014, bringing experience from a range of different backgrounds including both the private sector and the public and non-profit sectors, taking over from former chair Karen Morley (also present at the meeting) who served on Unity’s Board for a total of 11 years.

At the meeting, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan spoke about some of the challenges facing the housing sector in the coming years.

Entertainment was provided by the students at the Northern Contemporary School of Dance who performed their individual Year 2 assessments. In addition, singer Christella Litras performed two of her own songs, accompanied by another vocalist and a guitarist.

Also at the meeting, guests had the opportunity to quiz Olympic medallist Nicola Adams on her career. Nicola Adams made history at the 2012 London Olympics by becoming the first woman ever to win a gold medal for boxing. Since then Nicola has appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year’s Honours list and in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Nicola won gold again.

Unity expects tenants and our organisation to face a number of challenges in the coming years, with further changes to the welfare system likely to affect tenants’ income and their ability to pay rent – meaning that we will place a greater emphasis on Value for Money than ever before.

On the other hand Unity has plans to add a further 200 units to its housing stock over the next 4 years, providing much needed affordable housing in the area of Leeds. For this reason, we have every reason to be optimistic about the future.