We're celebrating the first anniversary of our Gentogether partnership. The new, collaborative approach to modernising customers’ homes launched in April 2025 and has seen over £10.3m invested into more than 700 homes across Sunderland.
Gentogether brings together Gentoo and our trusted partners to improve the quality of customers’ homes while delivering long-term social value for local communities. The first Gentogether contracts were awarded to Esh Construction, RE:GEN Group and PHS Solutions, as we invest £170 million to modernise kitchens and bathrooms over the next 10 years.
In its first year, the partnership has delivered significant investment and improvements to the homes of our customers across Sunderland, with £10.3 million invested into the internal modernisation of more than 700 homes.
This has included:
- 571 new kitchens
- 190 new bathrooms
- 571 full rewires
Alongside these home improvements, Gentogether has also delivered meaningful benefits beyond bricks and mortar. To date, the partnership has generated £2.3 million in social value, with a strong focus on employability and community support.
This has included the training and development of apprentices, as well as a wide range of community-focused activity such as serving lunches in community centres, supporting food banks, installing new kitchens in community spaces and much more.
Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with the partnership achieving 90% customer satisfaction during its first year.
Our customer Eileen Fish received a brand new kitchen as part of the Gentogether scheme. Speaking of her new kitchen, Eileen said:
"I absolutely love my new kitchen. Everyone from Gentoo and RE:GEN was so helpful from start to finish. It feels so fresh and welcoming, my family love to visit. I adore bright colours, so being able to make it truly my own has made it even more special."
Peter Akers, Director of Asset and Sustainability at Gentoo, said:
“Gentogether was created to do things differently, to bring long-term partners together around a shared commitment to quality, value and positive outcomes for our customers and communities.
“I’m incredibly proud of what’s been achieved in our first year, not just in terms of the number of homes modernised and the exceptional quality of these works, but the way the partnership has delivered social value, supported local employment and worked with communities. This is a strong foundation, and we’re excited to build on it over the next nine years.”
As we mark this one-year milestone, plans are already in place to build on this strong start. Over the next nine years, Gentogether will continue to modernise customers’ homes while creating opportunities for local people and communities.
Andrew Harrow, Operations Director at Esh Construction said: “We’ve enjoyed a really strong start to the partnership. Our teams completed around 10 homes per week throughout the first year and kept customer experience central to our approach. Respecting customers and their homes was just as important to us as the work we were completing, resulting in our team achieving a 93% customer satisfaction rate. We’re looking forward to continuing this approach in our second year on the programme.”
Jason Oakes, Partnership Director at PHS said: “The first year of Gentogether has been a genuinely collaborative partnership where we’ve all worked together for the same goal, focusing on the resident. We’ve completed hundreds of kitchens, bathrooms and rewires and the feedback from customers has been so positive.”
Simon Watson, Operations Director at RE:GEN Group said: “We’ve had a really positive start to the Gentogether partnership. We’ve had customers involved from the start in picking their kitchen and bathroom choices, and the feedback we’ve had on communication and the work completed has been fantastic. It's been brilliant to see the social impact of the communities we’ve been working in and we can’t wait to see what next year brings.”
In 2026/27, the Gentogether partnership will continue its programme of internal modernisation and is set to improve over 900 homes.
