The North-East-based association, which has 55,000 homes across England and Scotland, has been working hard to support those customers most in need.

A new £100,000 Emergency Support Fund has been established to assist customers who are finding it difficult to afford essential goods, such as food, toiletries and baby items. The fund has already acted as a lifeline for many customers across the country.

The fund forms part of a wider set of measures Home Group has put in place to support its customers through this challenging time, which include significantly enlarging its financial advice team, and re-deploying - rather than furloughing - under-utilised staff in to order to support customers directly.

There have been countless stories of colleagues going over and above what is expected to support customers, and each other, throughout the lockdown.

Matt Forrest, executive director of operations, at Home Group, said: “We have spoken with over 30,000 customers since lockdown began so we know that some are facing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19. That is why we have introduced a number of measures to ensure we offer as much support for our customers as possible. The messages we are getting back from customers is they are working. We will continue to assess how best we can help throughout this period.”

• Read all of our articles relating to COVID-19 here.