The Role Unipol fulfils four distinct but connected roles:
- It has its own Housing Section which develops, takes into ownership and manages refurbished properties and lets them directly to students. Unipol is currently responsible for housing around 3,000 students (including over 210 student families) located in Leeds, 270 students in Nottingham and 59 students in Bradford - It runs three Housing Hubs providing a forum in which owners (including Unipol) can advertise their properties. Although owners are asked to pay a fee for Unipol’s services the Housing Hubs are partially funded by the institutions listed above. Unipol’ s websites, which centralises all private sector vacancies, are a major source of information and advice for students and receives around 100 million hits a year - Unipol runs a number of successful voluntary accreditation schemes for owners letting to students that covers 79% of student housing need in Leeds, 65% in Nottingham and 99% in Bradford. The Codes are designed to maintain and improve property and management standards. In Leeds Unipol runs the Leeds Rental Standard for the City Council and in Nottingham Unipol, together with DASH (Decent and Safe Homes) runs the Nottingham Standard. Unipol has a stake in two Government Approved Codes of Practice dealing with larger student developments in the United Kingdom. Unipol currently accredits an estimated 340,000 student bed spaces. - Through its training arm “Unipol Training” Unipol is the main national trainer in the niche market of student accommodation, running a full annual programme. The training arm also undertakes some bespoke in house training and a number of briefings for different constituencies. Unipol has in-house training facilities in both Nottingham and Leeds. Unipol is currently following a Forward Look designed to maintain and upgrade its services to meet the increasing needs of its student clientele and increase its own accommodation services. A copy of this can be found at http://www.unipol.org.uk/footer/governance/cor- porate-documents-policies/forward-look-2015-2018. A new Forward Look will be formulated for the beginning of 2019 and will cover 2019-2022 Unipol is organised into six operational areas: i) The Senior Management Team consists of the Chief Executive, the Deputy Chief Executive, the Director of Finance, the Assistant Chief Executive - Housing, the Assistant Chief Executive - Hub Services, the Assistant Chief Executive - Standards and the Assistant Chief Executive - IT and Communications. The Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive are supported by an Office and Homestay Coordinator. ii) The Standards Team is headed by the Assistant Chief Executive - Standards who over- sees all accreditation and tribunal systems which is coordinated by the Unipol Codes Administrator and a National Codes Administrator together with the Complaints and Code Investigator. Marketing, both in respect of brand and lettings, falls within this team and is undertaken by the Digital Marketing Coordinator and the Marketing Coordinator.
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