Unity Homes and Enterprise has won Best Social Value Project of the Year at the Housing Executive Awards 2026.
The Leeds-based BME organisation was also “Highly Commended” in the Housing Association of the Year category.
Cedric Boston (right), Unity Homes and Enterprise Chief Executive, receives the Housing Executive Award for Best Social Value Project from Paul Smith, Head of Frameworx at NHMF Frameworx.
The Housing Executive Awards celebrate the UK’s most innovative projects in the social housing sector, as well as the people that make them happen.
The Best Social Value Project Award recognises initiatives “explicitly aimed at enriching the lives and communities of residents, beyond building homes.”
The winner’s trophy was presented to Unity Homes and Enterprise Chief Executive Cedric Boston at an evening ceremony held at the home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.
Unity was formed in 1987 with the objective of building a strong, BME-led, community housing association to address the needs of black and minority ethnic communities in Leeds.
It now manages almost 1,400 properties for tenants from all communities and ethnic backgrounds, including developments in Huddersfield and Cleckheaton.
Making the association unique in the social housing sector, Unity actively promotes entrepreneurship as a career to individuals who are not traditionally encouraged by the sector to follow this path.
Alongside the provision 153 affordable business units for more than 140 diverse businesses employing over 1250 people in Leeds, Unity offers a range of advice and support services for people to become self-employed, receive training and education, and gain a job for the first time or after a long period of economic inactivity.
Cedric Boston, Unity Homes and Enterprise Chief Executive, said: “We are thrilled to receive the Housing Executive Best Social Value Project Award, one of the sector’s most prestigious national accolades.
“It is a credit to the efforts of a fantastic team at Unity which is absolutely dedicated to improving life chances for people living in hard-to-reach communities in Leeds.
“We offer the full range of business advice and wraparound support services that start with outreach in the community, encouraging local people to see business as a career opportunity.
“Support can begin in our low-cost business hub, where people can develop and launch their ideas, and continue as they expand into one or more units before growing beyond our centres with stability and ongoing professional assistance.
“Over the past 12 months, we have achieved an outstanding business tenant satisfaction rating of 9.25, underlining our reputation as a supportive, responsive, relationship‑driven provider of business space. Our tenant retention rate remained at 99%.
“It is fantastic that these achievements have been recognised by the awards judges.”
Harry Palmer, Editor of Housing Executive magazine, said: "Unity Homes and Enterprise is a well-documented organisation here at Housing Executive, and we're strong supporters of the good work done by the whole Unity team.
“It was great to see this reflected in the judges’ decisions on the night, winning Best Social Value Project and being Highly Commended in our Housing Association of the Year category.
"A massive congratulations to Cedric and the wider team, and I can't wait to see their positive impact continue to grow."