A TRAFFORD-based social enterprise which helps ex-offenders find jobs and greatly reduces re-offending rates has announced major expansion plans.

The Trafford Housing Trust scheme, which employs prolific offenders in a range of cleaning, removals and landscaping roles as part of a 12-month rehabilitation program, has revealed it is to move into a new 33,000 square foot unit in Trafford Park this summer.

From this new base CleanStart will be able to take on more staff, increase its capacity, and begin to bid for larger private and public sector contracts across Greater Manchester.

CleanStart has also announced it plans to work more closely with military veterans, many of whom can struggle to readjust to civilian life, with a view to helping them to find a job which makes the most of their military experience and skills.

In addition, CleanStart plans to expand its successful retail division which restores and ‘up-cycles’ unwanted furniture and household appliances before selling them on to the public.

Trafford Housing Trust’s Deborah Elgar said: “The need to rehabilitate offenders was a key theme in the recent Queen’s Speech and I’m proud that through our work with CleanStart we have already transformed the lives of many ex-offenders and have benefitted society through cost-savings and a reduction in crime.

“However through our planned expansion we aim to greatly increase the number of people we can support, including military veterans who may be struggling to adjust to civilian life.”

In August 2015 Trafford Housing Trust became the first housing association in the UK to remove the criminal record disclosure box from its job application forms in support of Business in the Community’s (BITC) Ban the Box campaign.