Housing Quality Magazine April 2023

ISSUE 13: APRIL 2023

The decent homes review – why are things taking so long?

Mandatory qualifications for housing managers

Hannah Fearn on housing jargon

ANDY BURNHAM –EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Awaab’s death should be our ‘Cathy Come Home’ moment on housing standards

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8 The decent homes review

Three years on from the Social Housing White Paper, the review of the Decent Homes Standard continues to drag on. Neil Merrick investigates why it’s taking so long.

14 Interview: Andy Burnham

The Mayor of Greater Manchester talks to HQM about the ‘shockwaves’ created by the Awaab Ishak case, the inadequacies of some social landlords and his ‘friend’ Michael Gove.

20 Talking heads

In our new regular series, we seek the views of sector experts on a key housing issue. First up: mandatory qualifications for social housing managers.

Editor’s welcome

In our cover feature this month, Andy Burnham makes some interesting points about the state of housing in this country and it’s good to see him make the explicit link between people’s health and the quality of their homes.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has called on the next government to put public investment in housing “on an equal footing to health” – to address inequality and drive-up standards in the social and private rented sectors.

It’s interesting to note, however, that it’s taken the tragic death of an infant in a Rochdale property riddled with damp and mould to make politicians sit up and take notice of the inadequate state of much of the UK’s housing stock, in the same way that the Grenfell fire shone a light on lax building safety regulations.

Now that there’s a focus on these issues, and Michael Gove deserves some credit here (as Andy Burnham acknowledges), it’s vital that the momentum is maintained up to and beyond the next general election – with positive words matched by proper investment in bringing homes in the social and private rented sectors up to a decent standard.

To underline my point, our other main feature this month takes a look at what’s going on with the long-awaited review of the Decent Homes Standard. Promised in the Social Housing White Paper back in 2020, we’re still waiting for concrete proposals to stem from the review. More action, less talking, please.

Another common thread between the Awaab Ishak case and the Grenfell disaster is the failure of the social landlords involved to listen to their residents and act on issues raised. The inadequacies of both social and private landlords is not lost on Andy Burnham and his honesty and determination to do something about it is to be welcomed. You can read the full interview from page 14.

Elsewhere in this edition, we ask our expert ‘Talking Heads’ to debate the new mandatory qualifications for social housing managers; we showcase an innovative housing project for care leavers in our Housing in Practice feature; and we hear, in his latest column, from Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway about the direct link between mergers and complaints.

Jon Land Editor, HQM

What do you want to see in the new housing qualifications? Here’s my stab at what the syllabus should cover.

Years ago, I did a postgraduate course to qualify as a community worker. Yes, I know that’s not me in a million years. But it was either that or signing on for a GIRO at the social. So, off to college in Edinburgh I went.

And the course was amazing. There was no technical content whatsoever. We did say to the tutors, “surely if we are to work with folk in deprived areas, we need to know the ins and outs of benefits and maybe how to get a council house?”

Our tutors were having none of it. “You’re graduates, you can pick that up when you need to” was their indignant retort. Instead of rote learning they worked on us as people. If you think I’m bad now you should have seen me before. It was a year of intense group work –sometimes brutally honest – to make sure we saw the other side of the story and dealt with people properly. There are all sorts of ways of doing it, but you can teach empathy. And this must be at the core of the qualification.

Peabody are under the cosh because no one had the humanity to ask, “is Sheila OK?” So, Sheila lay dead and undetected for years in her flat. No doubt the staff had all manner of qualifications.

My first job after college was at Camden Housing Aid. Now, that was technical! The private rented sector then (and maybe now) was a Rubik’s Cube of complexity. Our boss, Mildred Levison, wouldn’t let us near the public until she’d trained and tested us to within an inch of our lives. But she also drummed into us the need for empathy.

An angry woman stormed into the office like a tornado every day. In truth, she was very disruptive and monopolised the photocopier. That was a key piece of kit back in the day. Anyway, there was talk of banning the lady, so Mildred sent me to visit her and get to the bottom of things. The flat really was as damp as she said it was, so it was tough on her and the kids. She was also on the receiving end of totally unfair victimisation by

the police. (Will the Met ever change?)

Sometimes people aren’t reasonable because no one is reasonable to them. Well done to Mildred for seeing the person not just the fury. If only the staff at Grenfell had put aside their antipathy for some of the tenants for a few minutes the world would be a better place.

What do we need to teach apart from empathy?

You need tip-top research skills. Laws will change. Technology will move on. New risks will come along. Look at all the fires caused by scooter and bike batteries today. That just didn’t happen a few years ago, did it? The birth rate is in free fall. How will that affect voids and lettings? A housing qualification today might well concentrate on rationing homes. By the end of your career, it could be a totally different story.

Housing professionals must be strong at handling data. I’m just agog at the analysis of rents and repairs people can now do on Microsoft Power BI. It’s streets ahead of anything I used to do. And that’s before we get to grips with the potential of AI. How do we split tasks between the computer and the human? Housing is a job for life as long as you never stop learning.

I’ve been in hundreds of landlords over the years. More often than not, it’s the accountants that call the shots. That’s just the way it is. If you don’t strain every sinew to get on top of finance, you might not carry enough respect to cut it. So, hard sums ought to be in the test. And you’ve got to be a clear writer. Poor English dents your credibility but vague instructions can cost lives.

At our first day in college the tutor pinned up a sign saying “Knowing what thou knowest not is in a sense omniscience”.

During the Grenfell Inquiry we heard from many people who didn’t know what they didn’t know, with fatal consequences. Housing qualifications need to be about showing relentless curiosity each and every day, not just hanging certificates on walls.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

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THE DECENT HOMES REVIEW –WHY ARE THINGS TAKING SO LONG?

Three years on from its announcement in the Social Housing White Paper, the review of the Decent Homes Standard continues to drag on despite it being a priority for secretary of state Michael Gove. So, what’s going on? Neil Merrick investigates.

To start with, it was mostly about kitchens and bathrooms. From the mid-2000s onwards, social landlords spent billions upgrading flats and houses, with special attention paid to the most dangerous hazards.

But two decades later, what exactly constitutes a decent home? As we move further into the 2020s, residents don’t just want homes that are fit for human habitation – they want ones that are safe from the risk of fire and meet higher environmental standards. It’s also nice to have good broadband and be within walking distance of a park.

In the Social Housing White Paper, published in 2020, the government announced a review of the Decent Homes Standard (DHS). Discussions are taking place over equivalent standards in Scotland and Wales.

But in spite of the media attention generated by the tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in a mouldy flat in Rochdale, the review in England appears to have ground to a halt. A ‘sounding board’ made up of 18 housing bodies, which was

proposing ways to improve the standard, hasn’t met since last August.

In a letter to senior coroner Joanne Kearsley in January, Michael Gove said concern over damp and mould showed the necessity of ongoing reviews of both the DHS and the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS). So, while Gove steps up his TV appearances and threatens to use the law against errant landlords, why are things taking so long?

Gove’s appointment as housing secretary in early 2022 came after part one of the decent homes review confirmed the DHS needs updating. As the second part got underway, he announced (through the Levelling Up White Paper) that the standard should also apply to the private rented sector.

Complications

This had the effect of slowing things down. “It has created lots of complications,” says Matthew

What is the Decent Homes Standard?

For a property to be considered ‘decent’ under the DHS it must:

• Meet minimum standards under the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS). Homes with a ‘category 1’ hazard are classed as non-decent

• Provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort

• Be in a reasonable state of repair

• Have ‘reasonably modern’ facilities and services.

According to the English Housing Survey, 10% of homes in the social rented sector failed to meet the standard in 2021. This is lower than for private rented (23%) and owner-occupied (13%) homes.

4% of social housing had a ‘category 1’ hazard, also less than in the other sectors. The most serious hazards in the social rented sector are potentially dangerous stairs and damp and mould.

Where a landlord faces serious difficulty removing a ‘category 1’ hazard, government guidance says they should do their best to reduce risk and avoid placing vulnerable tenants in such properties.

Warburton, policy adviser at the Association of Retained Council Housing and a member of the sounding board. “It’s difficult to have different standards for the PRS and social housing, so we go at the speed of the hindmost.”

By the time the Conservatives stopped changing prime ministers last autumn and Gove returned to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the review had been running for nearly two years. A second team of civil servants is now in charge.

But the main reason for the delay is almost

certainly cost. Areas such as thermal comfort, which require buy-in from the Treasury and other government departments, have been shelved, at least for now. Instead, the board was left considering issues such as ventilation, electrical safety and home security.

Thermostatic mixer valves and refuse management also entered discussions. “We were surprised by some of the elements on the table,” says Eamon McGoldrick, managing director of the National Federation of ALMOs. “It’s like everyone was saying what they’d like to see in an ideal world.”

Beyond the DHS

This is not to doubt the desirability, or need, for a higher standard. Some housing associations and councils already go beyond the DHS for new homes, especially in relation to energy efficiency, and upgrade existing properties accordingly.

Oxfordshire-based Soha Housing has a standard, agreed with tenants and staff, that includes weathertight doors, double-glazed windows, communal areas, and fencing and footpaths. “Residents’ expectations in terms of the quality of components have risen,” says Lee Hayward, its director of property services.

Social landlords aren’t just seen as home makers, but place shapers. That means taking responsibility for the surrounding environment. “I hope the review won’t just focus on four walls but look outside the home,” Hayward adds.

The DLUHC may be pushed towards a fuller standard by other parts of Whitehall. In January, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published an environmental plan advocating that future homes should be within 15 minutes’ walk of green space or water. It also called for fewer leaky loos.

Michael Gove says concern over damp and mould shows the necessity of reviewing both the Decent Homes Standard and the housing health and safety rating system

“It’s difficult to have different standards for the PRS and social housing, so we go at the speed of the hindmost”

Matthew Warburton, Association of Retained Council Housing and member of the decent homes sounding board

In Scotland, the government is a strong supporter of 20-minute neighbourhoods, allowing people to get to work and elsewhere without a car. The Scottish government is proposing a tenure-neutral quality standard with a stronger environmental focus, covering all rented housing and owner-occupied homes.

Ministers in Wales have proposed radical changes to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, which could see landlords responsible for water efficiency, biodiversity and noise levels [see box].

But all of this comes at a cost. “It’s about how far you push the minimum,” says Louise Attwood, executive director for property at Cardiff-based Linc Cymru. “It’s about finding a balance between a great customer outcome and being able to afford everything.”

Will Jeffwitz, head of policy at the National Housing Federation, says there’s an appetite among associations to make homes more energy efficient and keep pace with tenants’

Wales aims higher – but at what cost?

expectations. “Whatever new requirements are introduced, there should be a realistic assessment of costs and how they’re going to be met.”

In Cornwall, Coastline Housing carries out community standard inspections that cover wider concerns, including grounds maintenance. They can lead it working with local authorities over issues such as the condition of roads and waste collection.

It’s not unheard of for a parish council, or residents’ group, to take over a park or play area that was inherited by the association when stock from Kerrier Council (since abolished) was transferred in the late nineties. “People want more vibrant green space rather than just a patch of grass,” says chief executive Allister Young.

It remains to be seen whether the decent homes review concludes that social and private landlords should meet the same standard, or different ones. If the latter is the case, says Young,

Since 2021 virtually all social housing in Wales has met the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS). Introduced in 2002, it exceeds the Decent Homes Standard by requiring homes are located in “an attractive and safe environment” and, where possible, meet the needs of people with disabilities. However, a revised WHQS that could be in force by the end of this year is poised to stretch the idea of what constitutes a quality home even further.

Draft proposals for WHQS2, published by the Welsh government last year, suggest homes might be assessed for water efficiency, their impact on affordable warmth and the environment, and biodiversity.

The new standard could also cover flooring, noise nuisance and whether the home encourages active travel by, for example, providing space to store a bike.

The Welsh government received more than 200 responses to its consultation, half of which came from tenants. While tenants were generally keen on the proposals, most landlords questioned whether they’re achievable, partly due to cost.

Community Housing Cymru says it will cost associations at least £2.05bn to upgrade homes to an energy performance certificate rating of A by 2033, as proposed. The timeframe for moving to WHSQ2 is also seen as impractical.

As proposed, the revised standard will require extensive work, says Louise Attwood, executive director for property at Linc Cymru – thus could be stymied by supply chain problems and shortages of contractors.

Linc regularly installs air source heat pumps at new properties, as well as providing rear patios and garden sheds. But significant new requirements could push up service charges. “The more you add on, the more it costs,” Attwood says.

social landlords are likely to face a broader standard.

Alternatively, if both sectors face the same minimum standard, social landlords might be required to achieve higher outcomes through regulation. “It’s perfectly fair that our responsibilities do not end at the front door,” he adds.

Providing a place and home for living

It’s two years since Sovereign Housing Association began assessing homes against a more ambitious science-based benchmark. Its home and place standard is based on a wider concept of what constitutes a good home, including the immediate environment, energy sources and resident well-being. The standard, devised with residents, has four themes – customer, home, place and sustainable future.

Homes in the pipeline are given a rating of good, very good or excellent. “We use it to score every property or piece of land we’re looking to buy, to inform investment decisions,” says Jim Dyer, Sovereign’s director for built environment.

With Sovereign building about 2,000 homes per year, the standard evaluates not just whether they are affordable and promote good health, but their proximity to schools, transport and potential jobs. Are they within easy reach of green space?

A ‘very good’ rating meets revised building regulations that came into force last year. ‘Excellent’ is in line with the future homes and building standard, due to take effect in 2025. “If you’re going to make something better tomorrow, you need to know where you’re starting from today,” says Dyer.

The association’s existing stock of 60,000 homes has also been scored against the standard, but retrofitting presents a greater challenge. From 2035, all social housing in England is meant to achieve an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of C. Sovereign wants as many homes as possible to reach EPC B or better.

In March, the association received £9.4m from the social housing decarbonisation fund that will be used to install air source heat pumps, battery storage and other low-carbon technology. But it’s outside the home that residents will eventually notice most difference.

There will, in future, be more emphasis on landscape and biodiversity, with residents encouraged to use public transport, or walk, rather than rely on cars. “If our job is to provide for those most in need and create thriving communities, we have to consider place as much as the home,” he says.

The search for higher-quality benchmarks doesn’t negate the need to address basic standards. Research by the Building Research Establishment shows that about 5% of social housing in England has a ‘category 1’ hazard, such as damp and mould, with a potential cost to the NHS of £65m per year.

According to Matthew Warburton, the existing DHS is being taken more seriously in government because of what happened in Rochdale. “My feeling is we won’t stop there,” he says. “Either the Regulator of Social Housing or the DLUHC will be asking questions about other category 1 hazards.”

Ponderous progress

All of which makes the review’s ponderous progress more frustrating. No date has been set for its conclusion, but ministers have an ‘ambition’ of halving the number of non-decent

Sovereign’s homes and place standard is based on a wider concept of what constitutes a good home, including the immediate environment, energy sources and resident well-being

homes in all rented sectors by 2030. Results of a consultation over the extension of the standard to the PRS, which ended in October, have still to appear.

In Exeter the council isn’t just building to Passivhaus standards, but retrofitting so existing homes achieve an EPC rating of A or B+. To date, about 10% of its 4,000 homes have been

upgraded with solar panels and other features. “Standards need to be there,” says deputy leader Laura Wright. “When people complain about something or raise an issue, it should be responded to.”

Jenny Osborne, chief executive of Tpas, says extending the standard to the private rented sector is a “laudable ambition”, but raises major questions. “It’s difficult to see where the drive is coming from to enforce in the PRS,” she adds.

In some cases, social and private renters live on the same street, making it unlikely that ministers will plump for different quality standards in each sector. “We all want to see the PRS involved,” says Osborne.

In a statement on the current state of the decent homes review, a DLUHC spokesperson said: “Part 1 of the decent homes review concluded in autumn 2021. In March 2022 we brought together representatives from across both rented sectors to discuss what might be included in a revised DHS that applies to both sectors.

“The government has set an ambition for non-decent homes in all rented sectors to be reduced by 50% by 2030 with the biggest improvements in the lowest-performing areas.

“Part 2 of the DHS review will now consider how best to deliver on this for both social and private rented sectors.

“To ensure a logical approach to the review and prioritise developing a new standard that meets present day minimum safety and decency requirements for both the social and private rented sectors, we consulted on applying the DHS to the private rented sector as an initial step.

“Once we’ve reviewed the conclusions from that piece of work, we’ll consider how best to take forward the wider DHS review.”

“Whatever new requirements are introduced, there should be a realistic assessment of costs and how they’re going to be met”

Will Jeffwitz, National Housing Federation

‘SADLY, YOU CAN’T ASSUME A SOCIAL LANDLORD IS A GOOD LANDLORD’

Andy Burnham is a man on a mission to make housing a top priority for Greater Manchester and the next Labour government.

He believes the tragic death of Awaab Ishak should be a ‘Cathy Come Home’ moment for the region and the country and that the standard of housing in both the social and private rented sectors has been ignored for too long.

In this wide-ranging interview with HQM, Manchester’s Mayor discusses the potential impact of the trailblazer deal he has signed with government, the issues he has with some social landlords, his ‘friend’ Michael Gove and whether his beloved Everton will stay in the Premier League. Jon Land asks the questions.

Jon Land: You’ve just signed the trailblazer deal with government for Greater Manchester. What are the implications for housing in the region? Does this mean you’re a fan of Michael Gove’s Levelling Up agenda?

Andy Burnham (AB): I think it has reasonably significant implications for housing, both in terms of new build, but also improvements to the existing housing stock. On the first part of that, it does give Greater Manchester greater flexibility over the Affordable Homes Programme and, in particular, gives all 10 of our boroughs access to funding for social housing, which they don’t currently have. So, it’s quite a step forward in that respect.

JL: Are we talking about genuine social rented housing here or the affordable rent regime?

AB: A bit of both is the truth, Jon. I set an ambition for the city region of building 30,000 net-zero homes for social rent over the next 15 years, and we’re in the very early stages of that. What we’re trying to do at the moment is just understand the policy barriers to building net-zero socially rented homes, and they are quite significant. We’ve got a few flagship schemes around the city region. We’re having to find a bit of cross subsidy through public land or other things to get things moving.

The trailblazer only adds power to our elbow on the existing stock. This is becoming, I would say, a kind of top order national issue, isn’t it? Housing standards in both private rented and the social rented sector. We made a case to Michael Gove that we wanted measures to underpin the forthcoming Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter because we think this issue needs a local focus.

It’s all very well passing big pieces of legislation at a national level, but it still needs to be meaningful to our residents. Our residents need a way of knowing – which they don’t at the moment – who’s a decent landlord and who isn’t. And to be honest with you, that’s probably in the interest of landlords as well, or certainly the good ones, because they all get tarred with the same brush. There’s a lot of good landlords out there and they’ve no way of getting that recognition, whereas this charter will give them that.

In the trailblazer, there are new flexibilities

around selective licensing giving us the ability to bring in licensing without recourse to ministerial decision. And there’s a very early stage proposal to consider linkage of housing standards with the question of local housing allowance paid through universal credit.

Is it ethical that landlords are, if you like, indirectly receiving public funds via tenants for rent when the landlord isn’t maintaining that home to a decent acceptable standard? It’s important to start to link those two issues because housing benefit expenditure could be quite a big driver of housing improvement if used cleverly and carefully.

Does this mean I’m a fan of Levelling Up? As I grow older, I would say I’m becoming more of a fan. Michael Gove and I have worked together a lot in the past, to be fair. We get on well. I recognise someone who actually is a doer. He gets things done, he seeks to resolve issues, he seeks to take on board legitimate issues and then tries to find solutions. He’s an effective minister and he’s good to work with. I think in terms of a process, this devolution trailblazer process was one of the most constructive processes that I’ve been involved in with any government, to be honest.

JL: I think that probably reflects the views of the social housing sector. We’ve been through so many housing ministers in the last 10 years but, actually, as a secretary of state, Michael Gove has made quite a significant difference. That’s not to say there aren’t still issues.

AB: I don’t know whether the number of housing ministers is a reflection of the sector or the government, but anyway!

JL: The tragic case of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale obviously caused shockwaves around the country and has shone a light on the poor quality of our social housing stock. A few months on from the inquest, have you had time to reflect on the case and the subsequent fallout?

AB: I can certainly say without fear of contradiction that the shockwaves are still reverberating around Greater Manchester. But when I look at what’s going on in the national

“To the five missions that the Labour Party has set out, I’d like to add a sixth. And in some ways, it’s almost the foundation mission, which is housing as a human right in UK law. And not just housing, good housing, safe housing”

media, particularly ITV’s pretty determined focus on this issue of housing standards in the social and private rented sectors, it feels finally that it’s become a national political issue, which is great, I think, and not before time.

I kind of feel that what happened with the death of Awaab is almost our ‘Cathy Come Home’ moment. I think it’s deeply sad and tragic that it took this to catapult housing standards to the top of the political agenda. But now that it has done that, I think it’s incumbent on everybody to feel the shockwaves and then turn the concern into action.

Certainly in Greater Manchester, we’re determined to do that. And the Good Landlord Charter is our vehicle to do that. The GM housing providers have made a commitment to a social rented part of the charter, if indeed we decide to have a separate set of standards for social landlords.

I think this is a challenging point, but I’m going

to make it. When people hear about social landlords, they just think they’ll all be ethical and they’ll all be working to very high standards. Some of the learning for everybody through this process has been that there’s a lot of variation, if I can put it that way? Within how [social landlords] work, how they treat their residents, how they treat elected officials and councillors. Sadly, I don’t think you can make an assumption that a social landlord is a good landlord.

JL: This leads on to my next question, because I know you have a good relationship with many social housing providers. Do you feel the sector’s reputation has been justifiably dragged through the mud nationally in recent times, or do you feel that there are other factors in play here?

AB: Let me start by saying many social landlords are good landlords. I’m almost rephrasing the

On Michael Gove: “We get on well...He gets things done, he seeks to resolve issues. He’s an effective minister and he’s good to work with. I think in terms of a process, this devolution trailblazer process was one of the most constructive processes that I’ve been involved in with any government, to be honest”

Andy Burnham addresses housing campaigners in Manchester city centre

last thing I said there, but some are not. Has their reputation been unfairly dragged through the mud? Well, in some senses, the country hasn’t focused enough on the issue, has it? It hasn’t put enough funding into the whole question of housing standards, maintaining decent homes for everybody.

When I was a minister in the Labour government, we had a focus on housing reform, which some would say, rightly or wrongly, led to more stock transfers and ALMOs. But if I remember, it did often come with funding to maintain homes to the decency standard. That certainly was true in Wigan, where I was an MP. But that was done more than 20 years ago now. And there hasn’t been the focus on that issue of homes being maintained at a decent standard.

I’ve got a lot of time for a lot of social landlords but there’s something about culture here, and there’s something about ways of working that haven’t gone in the right direction. It can be the case when you see sectors set up arm’s length organisations or academy schools or foundation trusts: you can sometimes see an emergence of a sort of management culture. That’s not what you would want.

I think there’s an issue of excessive pay. Just let me be honest about that. There’s also an issue of excluding elected representatives and a pushing away of the scrutiny and accountability that comes with that. That’s not a healthy thing at all.

I wouldn’t want to tar everyone with the same brush, but I think to some extent or another, all organisations have got elements of these issues that they need to address, maybe some less than others.

And the risk is you get an organisation that’s in a bit of a silo, it has a lot of – let’s say – middle income professional people and can develop quite a derogatory attitude to some of the people who are their residents. And at its worst, it’s not just derogatory, it can be discriminatory.

We saw that, I think, with the Ombudsman’s findings [into the Awaab Ishak case]. I’m

never somebody who wants to have a downer on a whole sector or whole group of people. However, is there poor practice within the social landlord sector? Definitely. Is there excessive pay within the social landlord sector? Definitely. Is there an unhealthy culture in parts of it? Well, yes to that as well. So there’s no point in sugar coating that. These are issues that now need to be put on the table and discussed.

JL: Presumably there’s no quick fix because there’s a number of issues at play here that are not easily resolved? I suppose trust with residents ultimately is at the heart of it all and that seems to have broken down in many cases.

AB: We do need to be proportionate and careful and balanced. And I’m trying to be but I’m also not going to hold back from things that need to be said. But absolutely, I do want to come back to the point that it is complex, it is linked to our failure as a country to prioritise housing and to the extent that where there’s been a housing debate in the last 20 years, it’s been endlessly obsessed with how many new homes are we going to build. It’s always about quantity and new-build as opposed to our existing stock.

That’s meant that social landlords have been working in a challenging environment where the policy focus often hasn’t been favourable to them. So, no easy fix but actually there are quick ways to start the process of improvement.

I can’t see any justification anywhere in the country for a social landlord to exclude the involvement of elected representatives from their work. Because councillors often are the

“The bill that a lot of people are waiting for in Greater Manchester is the Renters’ Reform Bill and that’s been promised more times than a new striker for Everton”

people who know what’s going on in homes in their ward better than anybody else.

That feedback should be valued and appreciated, not greeted with a roll of the eyes or a shrug of the shoulders. Councillors are in a position on the ground, talking to people, where they can give feedback and it should be seen as helpful, rather than unhelpful. I do think social landlords need to recognise that they are operating in and around the public sphere and be open to appropriate levels of scrutiny and accountability.

“Is there poor practice within the social landlord sector? Definitely. Is there excessive pay within the social landlord sector? Definitely. Is there an unhealthy culture in parts of it? Well, yes to that as well”

JL: Do you feel the government’s getting it right with the Social Housing White Paper, the Regulation Bill and Building Safety Act? In June, we’ll be six years on from the Grenfell disaster and the pace of change, certainly from the sector’s point of view has been almost glacial.

AB: Belatedly and it’s back to my friend Michael. I think he’s given a massive impetus to these issues and I think often it takes the personal intervention of a minister to show to the world that this isn’t business as usual anymore – this is being treated differently and I think he’s done that.

It pains me to see how slowly the debate and the issues falling out of Grenfell have moved, to be honest with you. But I think laterally now there’s some energy around all of this and a sense of priority and emergency even. The regulation bill is making its way through [parliament] and I think there’s been some welcome amendments already to strengthen it. That said, the bill that a lot of people are waiting for in Greater Manchester is the Renters’ Reform Bill and that’s been promised more times than a new striker for Everton.

I was out in Moss Side at the invitation of the Great Manchester Tenants Union. I was looking at some private rented properties in the Moss Side area. What some of our poorest landlords are getting away with is just not acceptable – leaving residents in homes that are risking their lives and their health, taking large amounts of money and not being accountable, not dealing with routine

issues, not being contactable. It’s an unregulated wild west.

In the private rented sector there are many good landlords trying to do the right thing, but at the moment it’s just impossible for people to differentiate. And some are really unscrupulous, handing out no-fault evictions like confetti.

JL: Would you like to be more radical with housing reform? And are there any ideas on what you would like to do if you could start again with housing policy, perhaps under a Labour government?

AB: To the five missions that the Labour Party has set out, I would like to add a sixth. And in some ways, it’s almost the foundation mission, which is housing as a human right in UK law. And not just housing – good housing, safe housing.

I’d like to develop our version of the Finnish housing first, because housing first is a philosophy rather than a project in Finland. People cannot have a good life without good housing. So, if you want people in this country to have a good life, good health, kids to have a good education

Andy Burnham and Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davison (centre) at the signing of the Greater Manchester ‘Trailblazer’ devolution deal last month

and a good start in life, everyone has to have a decent home, don’t they? It’s the foundation for everything.

How do you build a healthier nation in a situation where millions of people are living in homes that are physically unsuitable or tenancies that are way too insecure, or where there’s a dysfunctional relationship with the landlord and the landlord is bullying them or doing something else to damage people’s mental health?

I’d say good housing should be enshrined in UK law, and actually, if it was enshrined in UK law that everybody has a safe home on a reasonably secure basis, I think we’d save so much public money in so many other ways. Other investments we make in the health service, in education or the benefits system will be better spent rather than constantly dealing with crisis situations.

Housing shouldn’t be a commodity to be bought and sold that some people have and some people don’t. It’s got to be seen differently from that, especially when you’re talking about the lowest third of the housing market.

When I was in Westminster, I didn’t see it like this, I’ll be honest. But when you come at it with different eyes from the ground up, rather than looking from the top down, you just see the central importance of housing in everything that we’re trying to do as a city region.

“I kind of feel that what happened with the death of Awaab is almost our ‘Cathy Come Home’ moment. I think it’s deeply sad and tragic that it took this to catapult housing standards to the top of the political agenda. But now that it has done that, I think it’s incumbent on everybody to feel the shockwaves and then turn the concern into action”

We saw how the pandemic hit us harder than other parts of the country. And that was linked to people’s employment and people’s housing and the poor nature of both. And if you’re going to do something serious about inequality coming out of that and coming out of the cost-of-living crisis, you have to do something utterly radical about housing if you are to change things. In the queue of prioritisation for public spending, it has to be first alongside health – almost equal priority.

The thing that I would say that I’ve seen in my time in politics, under all governments of all colours, is this kind of mantra around election times that ‘we’ll protect the NHS’ or ‘we’ll prioritise the NHS for investment’. I’m not

going to argue against that. But people should talk about housing in the same breath. If you’re damaging health in people’s homes, which is what’s happening in millions of homes across our country, what hope is there for the health service?

JL: Do you have any ambitions to return to Westminster?

AB: Well, I’m definitely going to stand to be mayor of Greater Manchester for a third time. I’ve got every intention of serving a full term, a third term, because myself and Steve Rotherham, Mayor of Liverpool City region, we left Westminster together to try and build something different for the north of England. The idea of returning to Westminster means going back to the status quo that I believe didn’t work for the north.

With the trailblazer, we’re now entrenching English devolution, which will actually allow us to do more about the issues that we’ve been talking about. It will allow the north of England to get more of a focus on issues that matter to us here that have never really been adequately prioritised by the Westminster system.

Steve is going to do a third term as well. We’re both in the kind of position that we’ve done good work so far, but we’ve not yet fully accomplished what we set out to do when we left Westminster.

To answer your question, would I return? Well, yes, I wouldn’t rule out a return, but it would be in that mindset, if you like, that I wouldn’t go back to a status quo Westminster. It’s got to be one that works to carry on the process of change.

I personally think if you’re going to solve the housing crisis in this country, you’ve got to rewire the country, you’ve got to give more funds and power to local authorities, combined authorities. You have to change the way our money flows around the country, because the way we’re currently set up, it’s given us the housing crisis. The Westminster system created this situation and therefore building up these new structures that Steve and I are leading are the way we solve it, rather than just heading straight back down there to carry on what we used to do years ago.

JL: Andy, final question. Will Everton stay up this season?

AB: Touch and go. If you’d asked me that a month ago, I’d have said no. You asked me that today, I say touch and go. If you look at Sean and his track record, his experience of relegation battles, maybe you think it’s more likely than unlikely, but I think it’s very tight and it’s the lack of forward options that are the worry. So, I don’t know is the honest answer.

TALKING HEADS MANDATORY QUALIFICATIONS FOR SOCIAL HOUSING MANAGERS

In our new regular series, we seek the views of sector experts on a key housing issue. First up, we asked HQN trainers and associates:

What are your thoughts on Michael Gove’s plan to make it compulsory for all housing managers to have a formal housing qualification? Will it ensure that tragic incidents such as the Grenfell fire or the death of Awaab Ishak never happen again?

Ian Parker HQN Housing Finance Network associate

It’s unclear at the moment who the qualifications will apply to. Many colleagues I’ve worked with in DLOs had technical qualifications (eg, electrical, health and safety) but not professional housing qualifications. Will they now have to get one?

Just because you’ve got a qualification doesn’t mean that you’re actually able to do the job – that’s dependent on a combination of attitude, empathy and professionalism.

If you’re qualified and you miss something does that mean you’ll be subject to a claim against your professional indemnity insurance?

All staff working in the sector as part of their job need to ‘keep their eyes open’ and report anything that looks unusual and/or dangerous. Also, someone needs to regularly review all the issues that are reported and identify if there are serious risks occurring that could undermine the business – otherwise known as making sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

It shouldn’t just be the role of those employees that hold a professional qualification – everyone needs to be engaged in ensuring that customers and staff are safe and receiving the best service possible.

Colin Heyman HQN Equality and Diversity Network associate

I don’t think it’s possible to ensure incidents such as Grenfell and Awaab Ishak never happen again – unfortunately and tragically, there will always be human error.

What’s required to maximise the chances of preventing them aren’t academic qualifications but personal awareness and interpersonal skills. For example, a key issue in both these tragedies was that housing people didn’t listen properly or believe the people concerned. I suspect the lack of listening skills was combined with conscious or unconscious bias which resulted in the discounting of what people of colour and people from working class backgrounds were saying, and not thinking their views important.

In my view, formal qualifications exclude certain people – people who aren’t good at formal learning, people who don’t have qualifications from this country that would allow them to sign up, people who are dyslexic or neurodiverse to name but a few. There are many people out there who would make excellent housing managers that would be unable to pursue such a career if a qualification was a prerequisite for doing the job.

Tahira Hussain Specialist equality and diversity trainer

On the qualifications, I’d suggest this should be a pathway for good practice and not necessarily compulsory as it indirectly discriminates against a raft of very experienced housing professionals who have the necessary skills, knowledge and expertise to excel in their role regardless of whether they have a piece of paper.

Gove is disconnected from reality. Fancy words and ticking boxes for brownie points isn’t going to save lives. Transparency and accountability will! Tragic incidents such as Grenfell and the death of Awaab Ishaak were certainly preventable if relevant parties had done their due diligence and adopted an inclusive, risk-averse approach.

A commitment to, and good practice in, safeguarding would’ve prevented these tragedies and an academic qualification really won’t cut the mustard.

Michael Guest Specialist tenant involvement trainer

I welcome the announcement and the plan. I think it’ll go some way towards equipping the sector with the required knowledge and professionalise the sector to better serve people living in social housing. However, it won’t of itself equip the managers with the skills and behaviours that need to go with knowledge – a lot needs to go into the provision of programmes to put this into effect. Many established managers may be resistant to the need for this and it’ll require a period of preparation to get people on board.

social housing sector has been stuck in a closed, inward-looking silo for years. The members of the professionalisation review panel are part of the problem. They may change the language we use but won’t change the culture in social housing. What proportion of the estimated 25,000 senior managers in housing have a relevant qualification already? Yet the mistakes continue”

Richard Paris

Debbie Larner Specialist professionalism and building safety trainer

Interesting! Taken as a measure on its own, it’s hard to see how introducing mandatory qualifications for senior housing managers and executives will address the professionalisation of the housing sector. Qualifications are a valuable and important way to gain context, knowledge and a broad understanding of housing management and the operating environment, but they don’t focus on the skills, attitudes and behaviours needed to demonstrate professionalism in the round.

And what about frontline staff? We know that they interact with tenants on a day-today basis – maybe they should be a key focus when we’re looking to develop our people?

That said, we need to remember that the introduction of mandatory qualifications are only one piece of the jigsaw – they will be introduced alongside new regulatory standards on competence and conduct. As yet, we don’t know the detail on what these will be, how they will be demonstrated or who they will apply to.

The tragedies mentioned can’t simply be put down to a lack of training, qualifications or knowledge – it’s much more complicated than that. Anyone who watched some of the witness statements from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry heard testimony from qualified and trained housing staff. It’s about culture, attitudes and behaviour. We need to stop making assumptions about people who live in social housing and basing our decisions and actions on these stereotypes. We need to listen and take the views of tenants seriously and act on them.

“The

Roger Jarman HQN regulation associate

Michael Gove is right to make it compulsory for managers in social housing to have a minimum set of housing-based qualifications. The CIH professional qualification has always been a ‘desirable’ attribute as far as employers are concerned. Never an absolute requirement.

Housing has never been seen in the same way as teaching, social work, health care or other professions. In those sectors a set of qualifications were needed before a teacher could set foot in a classroom or before a social worker could make an assessment about a child’s care needs. In housing, staff could work in the sector with no qualifications directly related to the service being delivered.

Gove’s initiative has given the profession a significant boost, but CIH and others involved in educating housing managers must not miss the opportunity the government’s new approach offers. The training needs to be geared to the laudable ambitions set out in the 2020 Social Housing White Paper. There needs to be a relentless focus on ensuring the best possible services are delivered to the tenants and residents of social landlords. An understanding of the financial and legal framework of the sector will be needed. Asset management will also be a key element of the revamped training of housing managers.

But more – much more – needs to be focused on the development of customer service skills. That will be the goal that CIH and others must achieve if the government’s objectives are to be met – and tenants and residents get the responsive and respectful service they deserve.

Nancy Witham

I don’t think the sector necessarily needs formal qualifications unless it’s for technical roles like the compliance team, but what I do feel is really important is that housing changes its recruitment process. What I mean by this is that most departments currently recruit on behaviours, and there’s no assessment of housing knowledge required to get the job. However, as soon as they are in post they are expected by the tenants and the business to have this knowledge immediately, which we know is learned over time. This would be my approach:

1. Full induction training relevant to their job role before they officially start in post

2. Any frontline member of staff who has contact with the tenant needs repairs and maintenance training. Regardless of whatever issue they need to discuss with a tenant, a repairs issue is likely to come up

3. All staff need general health and safety training covering the five fundamentals

4. Training on specific housing legislation related to their role –I’m gobsmacked by the amount of staff that don’t know basic legislation such as Section 11 Housing Act 1975, the Decent Homes Standard and the Homes Act 2018.

Richard Paris Specialist housing law trainer

Read any of the legal cases like Lara Tate-v-L&Q (18 November 2020), TRX-vNetwork Homes Ltd (19 May 2022), watch any of Daniel Hewitt’s documentaries in his Surviving Squalor series or look at any of the Housing Ombudsman’s severe maladministration findings to realise that it’ll take more than compulsory training.

The social housing sector has been stuck in a closed inward-looking silo for years. The members of the professionalisation review panel are part of the problem. They may change the language we use but won’t change the culture in social housing. What proportion of the estimated 25,000 senior managers in housing have a relevant qualification already? Yet the mistakes continue.

Horror stories like that of Peabody resident Sheila Seleone or Awaab Ishak in Rochdale suggest multiple system failures, a lack of accountability and transparency, poor governance by boards and councillors, CEOs, directors and senior management teams.

Will CPD point chasing or virtual training courses change the culture?

Specialist housing trainer for customer-facing roles

“Gove is disconnected from reality. Fancy words and ticking boxes for brownie points isn’t going to save lives. Transparency and accountability will!”

Tahira Hussain

way as teaching, social work, health care or other professions. In those sectors a set of qualifications were needed before a teacher could set foot in a classroom or before a social worker could make an assessment about a child’s care needs. In housing, staff could work in the sector with

Laura Bouttell Specialist cross-sector leadership trainer

It depends on what the qualification covers. Michael Gove says that both Grenfell and the death of Awaab Ishak showed the “devastating consequences of residents inexcusably being let down by poor performing landlords who consistently failed to listen to them”.

Unless listening skills are taught as part of the qualification (and how to retain those listening skills when you’re under extreme pressure, bombarded by difficult decisions and huge workloads while balancing the books) then a qualification isn’t necessarily going to help the situation.

A qualification that doesn’t address unconscious and conscious biases, as well as empathy fatigue, is going to be lacking too, because they are real issues that face housing teams every day. It might not sound nice to say it but if we’re going to improve things, we have to be honest.

I don’t think it’s a lack of knowledge that’s a problem here necessarily. It seems to me like it’s more an issue of a lack of resource and a lack of personal skills training. Any qualification must deliver real world, pragmatic benefits for the money and time invested. If it’s going to be a load of theory and models that are difficult to put into practice in the real world, then it might be just another burden on housing professionals.

Insist on training, absolutely, but in my mind the training would be better focused on developing the people to be able to do the right thing in the difficult circumstances in which they invariably find themselves.

From my perspective, the culture of the organisation is often at the centre of tragic events. The organisation must foster a culture of psychological safety so that its employees can speak openly about issues and know that they will be heard and, more importantly, listened to when they speak up.

Creating a culture like this comes from the top – from leaders being open to feedback from their employees and willing to admit that they can do things better. I’d focus training on the personal skills of the leadership team and develop their ability to listen and receive feedback non-defensively and then trickle this down through the workforce.

Helen Muir Specialist leasehold and

I think studying for a formal housing qualification will be useful for managers that are new to the social housing sector or newly promoted into a management role (assuming that they don’t already have a qualification).

For those working in leasehold management, rather than housing management, however, they will need a specialist leasehold qualification (eg, IRPM) rather than a generic housing management qualification.

For existing, experienced housing managers I don’t believe that a formal housing qualification will benefit them or their organisation and is likely to be seen as just gaining a ‘piece of paper’ to tick a box. I can see some experienced managers being resistant to this.

Although technical training will always have a place, I believe that ensuring that organisations manage staff well is more important. Staff members should meet the competencies for their role, have the correct values and attitudes towards their customers and be performance managed to ensure these are attained and maintained.

I think that in many organisations people management skills, coaching skills etc are lacking and performance management policies and processes aren’t always followed by managers.

shared ownership trainer

“Housing has never been seen in the same

no qualifications directly related to the service being delivered”

Roger Jarman

The latest research and analysis – in plain English

A fall in UK house prices might be regarded as good news for those struggling to find a home of their own. Experience shows it doesn’t always work that way though. Affordability and access to housing are complex and rarely, in this country at least, favour those least able to ‘win’ in a competitive marketplace. That’s, of course, why we have social housing, but the crisis of shortage continues.

In this issue we consider the question of space standards and access to housing in the UK, as viewed by members of the public. Researchers from CaCHE asked people to discuss and prioritise government policies, such as the bedroom tax and council tax discount. The aim was to uncover people’s values about housing and space, and to see if consensus could be reached. Interesting concepts such as the right to housing, home and personal dignity emerged.

The right to housing is also an important concept in other parts of the world. Researchers from Ecuador have charted the development of that country’s ‘right to the city’. It was the first country in the world to embed that right in the constitution – but how has the policy been implemented? And how can rights to inhabit the city be aligned with housing policies?

Community action to develop local housing is also the topic of Tom Moore’s research. He looked at how the global exchange of information and ideas can support community land trusts and similar initiatives in many parts of the world. Once again, the projects featured a shared commitment to equality and justice in housing that overcomes speculative practices.

Janis Bright Editor, Evidence

Understanding attitudes to residential space standards in

the UK

Much of public policy aims to diminish or eradicate social evils or harms, but one of the problems with such policy aims is that it’s very difficult to know how to measure and benchmark progress, write Dr Alice Earley, Dr Gareth James, Professor Mark Stephens and Dr Maheshika Sakalasuriya.

In social policy many benchmarks are essentially arbitrary, which has prompted the development of ‘consensual’ approaches to, for example, measuring poverty or establishing a minimum income standard.

Such an approach isn’t possible with housing costs, as costs vary so much between and within different locations.

Of course, housing costs are only meaningful in the context of a minimum standard. But even if it were possible to cost housing, what should a minimum standard look like?

The aim of our research was to seek to advance understanding of attitudes towards residential space standards in the UK – in particular to explore values to help establish a consensual view.

We do so by exploring the values underpinning three contested policies that influence levels of housing consumption in the UK.

Three contested policies

After 2010, Housing Benefit rules were tightened to slow the growing costs of the social security benefit bill.

From 2013, Housing Benefit was cut for social tenants deemed to be under-occupying their accommodation. This ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ became known

popularly as the ‘bedroom tax’.

The previous year, the age at which the eligible rent for Housing Benefit claimed by single private tenants based on self-contained accommodation was raised from 25 to 35. In other words, under this shared accommodation rate (SAR) single private tenants aged under 35 would be expected to share accommodation with people they were not related to.

Meanwhile, the council tax discount (CTD) for households with only a single adult resident, introduced when the Council Tax was introduced in 1993, continued.

These policies send mixed messages. Two are designed to encourage people to limit their consumption of housing, whilst one (CTD) serves to encourage people to consume housing.

It’s not just possible, but likely, that many people are subject simultaneously to a policy designed to limit their housing consumption (eg, the bedroom tax or SAR) whilst benefiting from another that encourages them to consume it.

This maze of conflicting signals presents a challenge for researchers. How do we decide whether these policies are justified? And – since public money is scarce – how should we prioritise between them? Researchers will frequently employ household surveys to establish the impact of policies on different income groups or household types. But who’s to say that the values implicit in these exercises are those held by the public?

Can deliberative methods help?

This contested politics of residential space seemed like an ideal arena to explore whether deliberative methods – a method that aims to establish informed consensus among the public1 – can help to answer some of these questions.

We held two deliberative workshops – one in Glasgow, one in London – which are similar to focus groups but longer in duration and with more focus on deliberation and reaching consensus2

Overall, the workshops were gender-balanced, most age groups were represented, and there was a fairly even spread of participants from across housing tenure types.

For each policy, participants were presented with information and evidence in the form of written and oral briefings, vignettes depicting lived experiences, and hypothetical scenarios designed to encourage them to consider different perspectives.

Participants were encouraged to use this information/evidence to come to a consensus, where possible, on the fairness (or otherwise) of each policy.

Participants were also encouraged

to prioritise in an exercise designed to concentrate minds and address competing priorities. After dealing with each policy separately, they were asked to choose between keeping the CTD for single occupants, abolishing the SAR, or reinstating the spare room subsidy (abolishing the bedroom tax).

What we found

Given the nature of the policies, it’s unsurprising that consensus wasn’t possible. There was no over-riding value that all could agree on, or indeed that any of the participants indicated should prevail.

However, a value that did run through the workshops can be characterised as a right to housing. Thus, in the consideration of the CTD for single occupants, the notion of a house as a home was a powerful influence that could trump countervailing references to (all but extreme) income or wealth, or even need.

Similarly, the SAR was seen to undermine a right to self-contained accommodation (giving an indication of a minimal acceptable level of housing consumption) and the characterisation of sharing as an affront to a person’s dignity

And when it came to the bedroom tax – the policy that most directly pits household against household in a zerosum game – again many participants saw the house as a home, something inherently personal that shouldn’t be subject to external interference.

Not everyone took this view, and competing values were articulated – for example, in relation to the bedroom tax where at least one participant did take the view that the policy was just because it was concerned with the fair allocation of scarce resources. So the context of social housing being scarce could be appealed to in support of the

The right to a home featured strongly in debates on housing priorities

bedroom tax, but was faced with the countervailing context of a lack of smaller properties into which households could downsize.

Other values that were reflected included need and consistency. These appeared most clearly in relation to the SAR, where the needs of a single person aged under 35 were judged to be no different from those of an older person. Similarly, the bedroom tax was seen as being unfair because it was targeted at social housing tenants judged to have spare bedrooms, whilst homeowners with spare rooms came under no such pressure.

The prioritisation exercises were also revealing. The two groups diverged in their selection of the highest priority: for the Glasgow group it was the abolition of the bedroom tax whereas in London it was the abolition of the SAR. But both groups chose not to select the retention of the CTD as a second priority. This was revealing in that arguments that were essentially consequential and utilitarian seem to have been influential – more so than was the case when considering the policies in isolation from one another.

Thus there were references to the impact on people with low incomes or disabilities who had the least scope to absorb or adjust to a policy. The prioritisation discussions may have allowed participants to move from quite personalised discussions based (often) on real people and scenarios to a broader and impersonal canvass.

Bedrock values

This exercise has clear limitations, not least of which was the small number of workshops. Although deliberative methods don’t seek to select fully representative participants, it’s

entirely possible that other groups would have produced a greater diversity of views. The workshops did reflect broadly sympathetic views towards the subjects presented in the scenarios, and there was perhaps surprisingly little use of arguments relating to taxpayers’ money that’s being used or saved in each policy.

However, for applied social scientists the exercise did have a powerful message. Policies are generally assessed within a utilitarian framework, often expressed in monetary terms. It employs economic analysis that’s blind to any qualitative difference between, for example, a tax rebate and social security benefit.

The (limited) evidence presented here suggests that whilst utilitarian arguments have an important place in the public’s mind, especially when prioritising between policies, more qualitative values relating to the value of and the right to a home, reflecting people’s right to dignity, provide what might be called bedrock values. Moreover, when considering individual examples, appeals to competing needs appear less likely to trump the individual’s right to a home, even where that right is dependent on subsidy.

Dr Alice Earley, Dr Gareth James, Professor Mark Stephens and Dr Maheshika Sakalasuriya are part of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)

References

1 Burchardt, Tania. 2014. Deliberative research as a tool to make value judgements, Qualitative Research, 14: 353-70.

2 Scottish Government. 2009. Guide 1: Deliberative Methods. Scottish Government Social Research Group Social Science Methods Series, 1-4. [online]. https://tinyurl.com/4p2yaj2x

The right to the city and housing policies in Ecuador

of forums and charters developed within civil society and is based on the democratic management of the city, the social and environmental function of property, and the full exercise of citizenship.

Ecuador was the first country in the world to recognise the right to housing in its constitution. Researchers

Vanessa Pinto Valencia, Marco Córdova Montúfar and Diana Bell Sancho explore the meaning of this important step forward.

Although several countries have been formulating housing policies in terms of rights, Ecuador was the first to formally recognise and incorporate the concept of the right to the city and the right to housing, in its 2008 Constitution. It was part of a new political project that claimed an alternative development model based on the notion of Buen Vivir (Good Living). The recognition of the right to the city in Ecuador’s Constitution reflects the outcomes

The Ecuadorian experience of the last decade appears, in this sense, as a relevant case study to understand and explain how the concept of the right to the city, understood not only as a discursive framework but also as a binding constitutional principle, has influenced the transformation of housing and habitat policies.

Understanding the concept

First, we need to briefly look at theory and context. In recent decades, the right to the city has become a fundamental concept relating to sustainable urban development and the expansion of human rights. Heir to the Marxist tradition of the social construction of space, the concept claims urban living as a collective project, based on the rights of inhabitants to create and take on the city and its processes.

It’s therefore a political concept of struggle and social mobilisation, but at the same time a transforming force of urban dynamics.

One of the areas that’s driven the political meaning and collective action of the right to the city is the social production of housing and habitat. At an international level, through the principles stipulated in New Urban Agenda (2016), social housing policies have expanded the vision of overcoming shortages based only on helping people access housing, to a comprehensive reading of a sustainable habitat produced in a participatory manner. To analyse how the constitutional recognition of the right to the city impacted housing and habitat policies we examined three moments in time, according to the corresponding periods of government.

• In the first moment, the objectives included in the public policy instruments were closely related to the fundamental principles of the right to the city but lacked mechanisms to operationalise them (2009-2013 period).

• In a second moment, policy instruments began to be developed to embed this right, although they were not fully implemented due to certain institutional and coordination weaknesses (period 2013-2017).

In the two periods, although the principles of the right to the city were present in a range of policy objectives, they weren’t reflected adequately in the policy instruments implemented. Budget allocation in this period concentrated on social housing programs under a demand subsidy scheme model. It wasn’t connected to strategies for the social production of habitat or urban development that promote the guarantee of the right to the city.

• In a third moment, in the context of a change of

government, the right to the city faded away in public policy instruments (2017-2021). Although policy objectives were more aligned with the principles of the right to the city, social housing programs maintained the model of previous periods and even reduced the focus on lowincome families. The lack of budget allocation writ large to habitat and urban development projects and housing programs didn’t allow for the effective implementation of policies or changes to advance the right to the city.

It should be noted that, in all periods, a housing policy focused on the delivery of housing subsidies and disconnected from urban development processes and the social production of habitat prevailed.

How policy developed

In 2009, the National Plan for Good Living/Plan Nacional para el Buen Vivir (PNBV), was created. This included a policy specifically aimed at guaranteeing the right to the city and other related policies. However, it lacked indicators to account for the objectives proposed and policies related to the right to the city didn’t correlate with the housing policy. The latter remained under the logic of a subsidy demand model that had been implemented for the previous 10 years, but with a more robust budget.

According to several studies, investments were made in programs disjointed from sustainable and inclusive processes of urban development and community participation in housing production. Nonetheless, official figures show a reduction in the housing shortage during this period.

Later came some institutional changes in an attempt to transform the logic that prevailed in housing policy. The

Quito in Ecuador, where shaping inhabitants’ right to the city has brought important lessons on implementation

National Policy on Sustainable Habitat, Human Settlements and Adequate Housing was brought forward and the Undersecretariat of Habitat and Human Settlements (SHAH) was created within the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing in 2010. SHAH designed urban development projects and developed interventions in public spaces, among other actions. However, its management was disjointed from housing programmes, which continued to be developed outside urban centres and without considering the population’s active participation.

Another fundamental milestone in the post constitutional process was the enactment of the Organic Law on Land Planning, Land Use and Management (LOOTUGS), in 2016. This includes a set of land planning and management instruments aligned with the principles of the right to the city. However, its implementation depends on local government’s land use and management competencies while housing policy is executed by the central government, generating limitations in the implementation of this instrument to transform housing policy.

In 2017, with the end of Rafael Correa’s government, there was a rupture with the new president, although, in terms of housing policy, the same approach was maintained and efforts were focused on the flagship programme “Casa para Todos” (Housing for All, or CPT). This programme aimed to build 325,000 houses. Achievement toward the goal was very low and the right to the city was made invisible in public policy instruments, although several strategies were related to its principles.

Learning points

The Ecuadorian experience offers important lessons on

how constitutional recognition of the right to the city can influence national housing policy. The process highlights the limitations of constructing a rights-based policy. But it also suggests what steps could be taken to advance new approaches to national housing policy that take into account the critical interrelationship of the right to housing and the right to the city. Our study puts focus on how the coherence (or not) between the intended policy objectives and the policy instruments implemented impacted the advancement of the principles of the right to the city.

The recognition of the right to the city in the public agenda is an opportunity for rethinking housing policies through the social production of habitat, social function of property and broader urban development strategies. As this framework continues to be mobilised in other contexts around the region and globe as one that holds transformative potential, the lessons drawn from the Ecuadorian experience are highly relevant.

In hand with policy objectives that advance the principles of the right to the city, concrete policy instruments (indicators, laws, budget allocations, institutions) are needed that transform traditional approaches to social housing programs. These instruments need to effectively articulate housing policies with habitat and urban development programs as well as with local land use and management competencies.

Vanessa Pinto Valencia and Marco Córdova Montúfar are based at FLASCO Ecuador. Diana Bell Sancho is an independent consultant and research affiliate with the MIT displacement Research and Action network, USA

Full research report https://tinyurl.com/56rut2hs

Global knowledge exchange for local communityled housing

Community-led housing approaches have grown in global importance and prominence, writes Dr Tom Moore. Around the world, citizens are collaborating to tackle problems of housing affordability, inequities in land ownership, and community disempowerment in decisions over land use and development. Examples include the community land trust (CLT) model, the genesis of which lies in the United States Civil Rights movement and has since been adopted in South America, East Africa, and Western Europe, as well as models of cooperative and collaborative housing.

Beginning in 2018, World Habitat’s Global CommunityLed Housing (GCLH) Programme has supported the promotion and development of community-led housing internationally. There’s been a specific emphasis on facilitating the exchange of knowledge and ideas between community-led housing initiatives globally.

Evaluation

In late 2021 and early 2022, qualitative evaluation of the GCLH programme was undertaken to explore the value

Photo by Catalytic Communities

Catalytic Communities supports favela residents to plan improvements for themselves

and impact of the transnational exchanges that it facilitated. This involved 18 interviews with communities and stakeholders representing a mix of new and emerging initiatives and more established groups and advocates.

The evaluation found that transnational exchanges are important to the development of community-led housing. It’s particularly important between groups and organisations in parts of the world where community-led housing is more established, and those in locations where it’s less developed. Peer-to-peer exchanges, facilitated by World Habitat and knowledge exchange networks that it funded (such as the CoHabitat Network), enabled communities to share experiences of policy development and lessons from stakeholder relationships. They aided understanding of how different models can be implemented in different contexts.

One example of this was found in exchanges between the established Caño Martín Peña CLT in Puerto Rico and Catalytic Communities in Brazil, where funding provided by World Habitat helped the Brazilian group to successfully lobby the Rio de Janeiro City Council to develop supportive policies for CLTs. Interviewees felt that peer-to-peer exchanges had been influential in their adoption and pursuit of CLT ideas.

Similarly, the GCLH programme supported and facilitated the development of the MOBA network of community-led housing groups in Central and South Eastern Europe. Here, a coalition of activists and groups from Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia and Slovenia have collaborated to develop new funding mechanisms.

Novel approaches

In addition to tangible impacts on policy, transnational relationships were also important in attaching legitimacy to community-led housing initiatives in areas where the concept is new, unfamiliar, or unsupported by local authorities. Global alliances such as those coordinated by World Habitat were felt to help legitimise the different and novel approaches to housing production and consumption that community-led housing models promote – particularly as they helped to showcase the scale, breadth and potential of such models globally.

While global alliances were highly valued, interviewees also highlighted that differences in social, economic and political context can limit the extent to which these alliances can have a transformative effect on local policy.

The coordination of such alliances and exchanges by organisations such as World Habitat was important. But locally-specific challenges of policy development and implementation, funding for land acquisition and development, and legal frameworks often required specialist knowledge of local contexts.

Shared values

Participants were keen to emphasise that broader diffusion of community-led housing is aided by transnational networking, but that transfer of models or policy was not straightforward or predictable in different contexts. Nevertheless, the community-led projects in this evaluation shared a commitment to housing that is not driven by profit. It centres around the role of citizens and communities in the planning, management and ownership of land and housing. Participants spoke passionately about shared commitments to issues of racial inequity and injustice that are perpetuated through housing and of the need to develop climate-friendly housing solutions, providing inspiration for future global collaboration and networking.

Dr Tom Moore is Senior Lecturer in Housing and Planning at the University of Liverpool

This article was first published in 2022 following qualitative research conducted by Dr Tom Moore with individuals representing collaborators and participants in the World Habitat Community-Led Housing Programme

Evidence newsletter editor:

Dr Janis Bright

www.hqnetwork.co.uk

email: evidence@hqnetwork.co.uk

 follow us on twitter @hqn_news

Photo by Catalytic Communities

An event for pilot community land trusts from Rio de Janeiro last December

Housing in Practice

Blackpool Coastal Housing: Helping care leavers live independently

In the first of our new series highlighting positive practice in the social housing sector, Neil Merrick reports on how an arm’s length management organisation transformed the experiences of young people leaving care in Blackpool.

Chloe’s story

Just over two years ago, as she was on the verge of leaving care, Chloe Kidd was taken shopping by an officer from Blackpool Coastal Housing (BCH).

Among the things she chose while shopping with Jane Tolley from BCH’s Positive Transitions team was beige wallpaper for the council flat she was about to move into. “I love neutral and warm colours,” says Chloe.

Months later, instead of moving into an unfurnished flat with bare walls, she set up home in the way she wished. Around the same time, she started a health and social care degree at Blackpool and The Fylde College.

All care leavers receive a £2,000 grant from their local authority to help them move on. This doesn’t mean they find it easy to live independently, but BCH sees the importance of using some of the money to create a home environment in which they feel comfortable.

Two years on, Chloe is in the second year of her degree course and looking for a part-time job. Tolley remains in regular touch, and ensured Chloe received help from a therapist when she felt depressed. “Life feels very different,” says Chloe. “I’m living somewhere that feels like me.”

Why do care leavers need help?

Every year, thousands of young people leave care in the UK with the aim of living independently. Until five years ago, virtually all care leavers who were allocated a council home in Blackpool struggled to hold down the tenancy.

Within a few months, they were generally evicted or asked to leave, mainly due to anti-social behaviour or a failure to comply with the conditions of the tenancy.

“Young people were put into a property and left to their own devices,” says Maggie Cornall, director of operations at Blackpool Coastal Housing.

What’s being done about it?

In 2018, following a short pilot, the Positive Transitions scheme was launched by BCH. The scheme aims to give people in their late teens the type of support they might expect to receive from their parents, both before they leave care and as they set up home on their own for the first time.

Results have been impressive. During the past five years, more than 100 care leavers have been helped to live independently as council tenants, with just one person evicted.

“A home is a person’s foundation,” says Lynn Conifey, one of BCH’s four Positive Transitions officers. “Once you have that in place, you can support them to be part of the community.”

How does the scheme work?

Prior to leaving care at 18, young people are visited by a Positive Transitions officer, along with their social worker and personal adviser. At this time, they may be living with foster parents, in a care home or another care setting.

The next few weeks are key, as the officer attempts to strike up a relationship with the care leaver. This may mean finding a topic they are interested in or meeting them separately for a walk or a cup of coffee.

Part of the time is spent discussing how the young person might spend some of their leaving care grant on furnishing their future home. “Prior to Positive Transitions, there was no plan in place for young people around making a home,” says Conifey. “They were approaching their 18th birthday and faced falling off a cliff edge.”

With the prospect of moving into a carpeted home with their own choice of furniture, care leavers are more likely to

relish what lies ahead. Once settled, they continue to see their officer on a regular basis, sometimes into their early 20s.

While officers are de-facto parents, they are not there all the time. It’s important to set boundaries, says Cornall, and give young people space to develop their independence.

This may be different to the relationship young people were used to with adults when in care. However, Positive Transitions officers make it clear when young people cross the line. “They need to know that there are consequences stemming from their behaviour for living successfully as an adult,” says Cornall.

Why is the scheme successful?

In effect, BCH is both landlord and support provider, offering a bespoke service to individual care leavers.

“Young people need to be invested in their property,” says Jane Tolley, who joined BCH in 2018 having worked as an education caseworker. “If they don’t like the curtains, they’re less likely to look after it.”

Officers are initially funded by Blackpool’s children’s services department but, once the care leaver reaches 18, BCH uses the intensive housing management element of housing benefit to pay for assistance when required.

Building trust with each young person is vital. Some are suspicious of ‘professionals’ and may initially see housing officers as yet another person interfering in their lives.

Not all care leavers are considered for the scheme. Only those deemed as low to medium risk are offered a council home and, at the same time, are expected to find employment or undertake training.

Each officer is allocated up to 15 young people. Among the support offered is help claiming benefits, as well as money management or debt advice.

‘Charly’ became homeless after leaving care and came to the attention of BCH aged 19, while sofa surfing. She later became pregnant.

By then, Conifey was visiting Charly each week. Though Charly had spent her leaving care grant, Conifey helped her apply to charities for grants totalling £1,600.

Charly now lives in a two-bed terraced house, with twins. “She started to realise that people cared about her,” says Conifey. “She’s a magnificent mother.”

“Prior to Positive Transitions, there was no plan in place for young [care leavers] around making a home. They were approaching their 18th birthday and faced falling off a cliff edge”

Lynn Conifey, Positive Transitions Officer, Blackpool Coastal Housing

What skills do Positive Transitions officers need to carry out their work?

According to Conifey and Tolley, officers need the following skills:

• Adaptability: the scheme involves far more than just housing

• Patience and resilience: things don’t always go smoothly; some young people can be disgruntled and resist help

• Empathy and caring: officers are quasi parents

• Conflict management: care leavers may be verbally aggressive

• Resourcefulness: there is always a problem around the corner or something new to learn

• A sense of humour: obviously!

Successful outcomes

Over the past five years, 130 young people have been

supported by the Positive Transitions team. A few have left council accommodation in a planned way and may even have left Blackpool, but most continue to live successfully in the town as council tenants.

Last year, Blackpool’s children’s services department was praised by Ofsted for the way it had improved support for care leavers since a previous inspection.

Meanwhile, the Department for Education’s new strategy for children’s social care is flagging the importance of helping care leavers and find work, or training, while living independently. Care leaver’s grant is due to be increased this April, to £3,000.

For Cornall, the Positive Transitions scheme shows how housing officers can take on other roles and so reduce the likelihood of young people receiving tenancy warnings, facing evictions or entering the criminal justice system.

It can even reduce long-term mental health difficulties. “We’re setting these young people up and giving them the foundations they need to have successful lives,” she says.

The Blackpool Coastal Housing Positive Transitions team (from left to right): Dionne Nicolson – Resettlement Manager, Jane Tolley – Positive Transitions Officer, Joan Keyes – Positive Transitions Officer, Lynn Conifey – Positive Transitions Officer, Charlotte Bremner – Resettlement Team Leader, Sarah Meadows – Positive Transition Officer.

Our journey to a co-created resident engagement strategy

Sarah Crabb, Assistant Director of Housing Services, Mount Green Housing Association

Also helping to shape the strategy was a survey we ran, which used some of the new Tenant Satisfaction Measures to temperature check resident perceptions. The results allowed us to identify areas of concern and where we needed to focus engagement.

Central to the new resident engagement strategy is our ‘Home to Landlord’ approach, which is one of our corporate objectives. This approach recognises the need for choice and the opportunity for people to get involved, individually or collectively, on different levels.

Resident engagement lies at the heart of recent legislative and regulatory changes affecting our sector. This has, quite rightly, prompted us all to re-evaluate how we listen to the resident voice and ensure it makes a difference.

At Mount Green, we spent the last year reviewing our approach and, as a result, are about to launch our new resident engagement strategy.

From the outset, we were determined to work closely with residents to co-create this crucial strategy. We were also committed to making sure it delivered meaningful, tangible results by ensuring we act on resident feedback.

Another key consideration was capacity. As a small(ish) housing association, we needed to make sure our action plan for engagement activities was achievable and within our resources – as, clearly, raising unrealistic expectations would damage the trust we’re seeking to strengthen with our residents.

We began the process by running a half-day workshop with our resident committee group (RCG) – a scrutiny group we set up to represent residents’ views and report directly to the board.

During this face-to-face focus session, we discussed key themes, what was important to them, and recent legislative and regulatory guidance.

We then involved Mount Green team members for their input, producing various drafts of the document and again consulting with the RCG before a final draft was presented to the board.

Feeding into the strategy was insight from a resident engagement advisory internal audit, which flagged up what we were doing well and where we could improve.

We then took stock of our resident engagement activities’ strengths and weaknesses, tying in our findings with our key corporate objectives, the Tpas Tenant Engagement Standards and the Social Housing White Paper’s recommended actions.

For example, a resident may only be interested in engaging with us on a personal level about their home, while others want to get involved in their neighbourhood through estate representation or community events. Residents can, of course, get progressively more involved, perhaps wanting to input at a more strategic, organisational ‘landlord’ level.

Within these ‘home’, ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘landlord’ levels, engagement takes place at the various different stages of implementing changes – from planning and design, through delivery, evaluation and monitoring, to scrutiny.

The idea behind structuring this multi-faceted approach is to ensure we reach as many residents as possible, so we can achieve diversity of voice.

Our evolving co-creation of the new resident engagement strategy has been a fascinating journey, as we have consulted, discussed and explored the best way forward to deliver our mission to ‘listen and act’ on what our residents tell us.

As a result, we’re introducing various initiatives, including tenancy review visits to see people in their home each year and ‘leaving conversations’ with outgoing residents about their experiences.

A new resident volunteer programme is also in the pipeline, aiming to get our estate representatives more involved and empowered, and we’ll be working with the RCG to cocreate a good neighbourhood management policy over the next year.

At Mount Green, with just 1,600 homes across Surrey and North Sussex, we’re proud of what makes us different: small enough to know and understand our residents – large enough to deliver a positive impact.

But, while our modest size means we get to know many of our residents very well, we know we can always strive to do better. I’m excited that our new resident engagement strategy will help us achieve just that.

“As a small(ish) housing association, we needed to make sure our action plan was achievable and within our resources…raising unrealistic expectations would damage the trust we’re seeking to strengthen with our residents”

Making the moral choice

By Keith Cooper, award-winning housing journalist

The death of Awaab Ishak was a national scandal, raising questions yet again about housing’s relationship with racial inequality.

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing took its time to apologise for linking the mould that killed him to his family’s lifestyle. Its handling of the matter left his dad in “no doubt” that racism was at play. The wider response to this tragedy was decisive and will likely define how landlords deal with damp and mould in their homes for some time.

But there’s another infant death that raises questions about racial inequality in housing that’s attracted less attention and a more mixed response from the sector.

Zakari Bennett-Eko was just 11 months old when he died in 2019 after his dad, a man of Black British Caribbean heritage, threw him into a fast-flowing river. The coroner’s inquest and serious case review into Zakari’s death found failings in multiple agencies.

But the review also points to the “social isolation and vulnerability” the family suffered for being moved into temporary accommodation miles from their Manchester home. Zakari’s dad also suffered racial abuse in the predominantly white area where his family was placed.

It’s well-known that black people are more likely to face homelessness than their white counterparts. My recent investigation for Inside Housing found that black households in particular are rehoused out-of-area to a disproportionate degree and so suffer all the vulnerabilities such displacement entails.

Such findings fall squarely into the “worrying but not surprising” slot. There’s tons of evidence that black people get a worse deal than white ones from publicly funded organisations – the NHS, housing and the police included. It’s what makes “institutional racism” a thing. Part of taking institutional racism seriously involves tracking evidence of discrimination back to its root, admitting there’s a problem, and doing something about it.

So, how did councils respond to this fresh evidence that black households were moved out of areas to a disproportionate degree? Their responses ranged from the decisive to the downright defensive.

Birmingham Council admitted it moved black African and Caribbean households outside the city and it knew

why: their families were often larger. For this reason, it had spent £60m on bigger homes and commissioned a study of ethnicity and housing.

A similarly decisive response came from Havering Council. Despite disputing the evidence, it made a moral choice to review all its placements to “eliminate all forms of discrimination”.

But it was Greenwich Council’s response which really stood out from the others. Its own figures show black households are more likely to be rehoused outside of the area than white ones.

Yet it confidently claimed that it “does not discriminate”. Its justification for this was that its placement policy was “in line with statutory provisions, central government guidelines, and relevant caselaw”.

Now, it might seem unfair to single Greenwich out. A public relations defence for a journalist might not reflect what staff really think. But it speaks volumes about how claims of discrimination are handled.

To say that you “do not discriminate” because you follow laws and guidelines is to miss the point about institutional discrimination completely – for it’s institutional scaffolds, like policies and law, help cause the disparities we see.

This makes ending inequality not just a legal or political endeavour but a moral one too.

Like Birmingham, you might be onto the evidence already, investing in homes to reduce your reliance on outof-area placements. Or, like Havering, you’re willing to make the moral choice: to dig deeper, despite questioning the evidence.

“How did councils respond to this fresh evidence that black households were moved out of areas to a disproportionate degree? Their responses ranged from the decisive to the downright defensive”

Ombudsman Corner

By Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman

When a potential merger is announced between landlords, there’s often intense interest. My tip for anyone involved: watch the complaints. The challenges of mergers are often reflected in complaints. It’s not unusual for performance on handling complaints to decline and the issues driving complaints to come into sharp focus. It’s crucial for landlords to prioritise the insights to make these changes successful.

This month we published a report on a landlord that, at the investigation, was a subsidiary of another prior to full integration. The lessons for that landlord are worth sharing. The report is rich with learning. It’s based on more than 30 findings by the Ombudsman across a six-month period, where nine out of 10 were upheld. In one case, a resident and her premature baby were left in cold living conditions, despite severe health complications with the baby. The landlord passed the case from department to department and did not investigate the issue until four months after it was first reported.

The report identified seven key themes and set out a series of recommendations, in areas such as compensation, aftercare and quality assurance. Let’s focus on three.

The first lesson which I think touches on an area of challenge for several landlords is the boundary between a service response and a formal complaint. This has been addressed in later versions of our Complaint Handling Code, and the consistent message has been to avoid handling complaints informally: the risk of issues falling through the gaps, not being handled consistently, and recordings of what action has been taken (or not) is very present. In this investigation, we found around twice as many complaints were handled informally

as formally. This created issues. By frequently handling complaints in an informal fashion, the landlord created confusion over the status of residents’ complaints and sometimes undermined natural justice. This is something the landlord has addressed through merger. Understanding approach and culture towards complaint handling are key.

Secondly, repair records. Getting the basics right is a challenge for many landlords. The problems with records during a period of significant organisational change and system integration are obvious. In this investigation, the quality of repair logs were often problematic. This resulted in delays to issues being addressed, as well as confusion, uncertainty and frustration for the resident. In response, the landlord developed a centralised CRM database. However, we were concerned there are still issues in this area with consistency, and therefore recommended a review into the merged landlords record keeping process and a training needs analysis to be undertaken for all staff.

Lastly, communication. Again, this is a frequent flyer in lessons from complaints, in itself a cause for concern. Our investigation found that communication underpinned and linked all of the issues we identified, particularly internal. The repairs, complaints and aftercare teams didn’t always share information appropriately or in a timely way. There was also concern around the landlord’s communication tone which didn’t always demonstrate empathy to residents.

A final thought. A successful merger is where shared values and culture come together. Complaints are an indicator of culture and behaviours. If you want to know your staff, as well as your residents, interrogate your complaints.

“In this investigation... around twice as many complaints were handled informally as formally. This created issues”

A life in 15 questions

Kate Dodsworth

Director of Consumer Regulation, Regulator of Social Housing

1. What do you do for fun?

Running, cooking and supporting Wolves FC (two of these aren’t always fun).

2. You have the power to change one thing about the social housing sector: what would it be?

We’ll be consulting on our new consumer standards later in the year but there’s more than one.

3. What advice would you give to someone starting out in housing? Make sure you have an abundance of professional curiosity and a solutionfocussed attitude.

4. Who’s your favourite author, and why?

One day I’ll sit still and read more books…

5. Strangest thing you’ve ever experienced?

I’ve got a reasonably high bar for what other people might call strange. Perhaps tripping on the step of an old-style slam door train, just as it was leaving the station. I landed horizontally with my legs flapping outside the door. I was wearing platform boots and fuchsia pink trousers so I would imagine it was a terrifying sight for the station guard as the train headed off. It took me some considerable time to get up, in and shut the door – we’d travelled quite far by then.

6. What are your three favourite albums?

My favourite album/playlist is usually the last one I listened to so according to Apple Music the last three are: Skunk Anansie – 25 live@25; Purple Disco Machine Essentials playlist and Roisin Murphy – Overpowered

7. Sat snugly at home or travelling around the world?

Not exactly around the world but running for connections on one of our obscure train trips in Europe.

8. A world without music or a world without literature?

I’d hate to be without music.

9. If you had to work in housing in another country, where would it be, and why?

Anywhere that teams housing with safe, well-designed public space. I’ve seen brilliant examples in Germany and the Netherlands. I think we’re also focussing more on liveability now.

10. Favourite food?

I’m known for my immense greed and love of all food. All the time I should be reading books (see above) I’m actually planning the next meal.

11. Pessimistic, optimistic or unsure about the future?

All three within a day but undertones of optimism will usually win through.

12. You can resurrect anyone from history and talk to them for an hour: who, and why?

I never met my grandad who was a farmer from 1915 to 1955 and by all accounts one of the

nicest people. I’d like to talk to him over some of his notoriously rough cider about changes in agriculture over the years.

13. Favourite film?

Summertime, 1955. Katharine Hepburn in a picture-perfect Venice, being more independent than most female characters of the era were allowed to be.

14. If you didn’t work in housing, what would you do?

I had a job over 30 years ago as a tea lady with oil company Burmah Castrol. I was sadly ‘let go’ after an eventful week with my trolley but who knows what might have happened had I been allowed to develop my skills.

15. What makes for a good life?

A weekly meal plan, a European train timetable and plenty of fresh air.

A day in the life of...

Lucy Hooton Neighbourhood Officer ForHousing

A brew to start the day

Employee since: 2008

Location: Salford

Previous employment: Administration Officer at Salford City Council

I’m not a fan of mornings so love being able to start my day at about 8am working from home. I feed my cat and have breakfast and a cup of tea while checking emails and my workload. I make some calls to colleagues and tenants before heading out to appointments and meetings. Every day is different and that’s one of the things I love about my job.

Meeting with care leavers

I don’t have a patch in my role – instead I work with care leavers, veterans and people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. I really enjoy getting out and about and meeting with colleagues and tenants – I’m definitely a people person!

My first meeting of the day is with a care leaver, Jenny*, who I’m supporting. She’s just turned 18 and after viewing a flat last week, today she’s moving in. She’s feeling excited but also nervous and overwhelmed.

I help Jenny get settled into her new home by supporting her to set up utilities, benefits and direct debits for rent and bills. I also help her choose blinds, carpets and white goods for her flat. I chat to Jenny and her support worker about how best I can work with her in future and we put together an individual plan to suit her needs.

Care leavers like Jenny inspire me every day with how much they’re learning and how resilient they are, going out on their own in the world at just 18. I really care about helping to improve people’s lives. That’s what gets me out of bed every day, and seeing all the care leavers coming on and growing in independence is just amazing.

Lunch on the go

I’m out and about today, so for lunch I grab a sandwich while taking a quick break before heading to my next meeting.

Getting together with the team

Today, I’ve my monthly rough sleeper multi-agency team meeting with Salford Council and other agencies where we discuss any challenges, homes we currently have available, and how we can best support people. It’s a really useful session.

Catching up with clients

I go to see Lara* who’s recently moved into her new home thanks to the Housing First project. She previously lived in a flat, but she has complex mental health needs and was in and out of hospital and sometimes an ambulance had to be called. It was making relationships with her neighbours hard, so we helped her move to a bungalow. It suits her much better and it’s really brilliant to see her flourishing there.

My perfect day

16:30

Heading home

I head home to do some admin work. I have a Teams meeting with the other three housing officers who work on the same projects as me and our manager. It’s a really helpful chance to bounce ideas off each other, discuss any issues and just check in on how everyone is doing. It can be a tough job at times so it’s important to support everyone’s wellbeing.

My perfect day would be a warm and sunny Sunday in the summer. My husband, who works in retail and often works on the weekends, would be off for the day. We’d get up late and have a nice breakfast, go for a walk and then in the afternoon potter around the garden and do some planting. Later on, we’d have some family and friends over for a barbeque. I love being outdoors in the summer!

18:00

Family time

I finish up work and go and see my mum and help her out with anything she needs. She’s my best friend and I love spending time with her.

*Names have been changed to protect the tenants’ identities.

In the frame

 Generation Games bpha

Residents at bpha’s Wootton Vale independent living scheme have been getting to know local Year 12 students in a bid to combat social isolation by playing games as well as promoting intergenerational skill sharing.

 Cultural Exchange Elim Housing Staff and the board at Elim Housing spent the day with local gypsy travellers, learning their culture as a way to strengthen ties with the community.

 Going Electric Bournville Village Trust

Over the next five years, Bournville Village Trust is investing £20m in their inhouse maintenance service, including replacing all 61 of their fleet of vans, with many being replaced by electric vehicles.

As part of the social housing provider’s Community Benefits programme, Tai Tarian presented a local school with plants and other horticultural equipment for their biodiversity garden.

Staff at the housing association’s Watcombe Circus site came together to give the garden a spring clean and planted flowers, getting it ready for the warmer weather.

The council celebrated Women’s History Month by unveiling a headstone for former resident, Fanny Eaton – a 19th century supermodel and artistic muse, who was painted more times than the Mona Lisa, at Margravine Cemetery.

If you’d like to be featured In the Frame, please email your pictures to oliver.perkinsgibbons@hqnetwork.co.uk

 Remembering Fanny Hammersmith and Fulham Council

 Community Benefits Tai Tarian

 Spring Clean Nottingham Community Housing Association

Virtual and live conference

The HQN annual conference 2023

11 & 13 July 2023

Save the date for this year’s HQN annual conference!

The conference will be held over two days:

Tuesday 11 July 2023 (virtual)

Thursday 13 July 2023 (in-person) at The View, London

We welcome delegates to join us at our drinks reception following the conference on 13 July.

Bookings will open soon and Housing Quality Network members will receive one free place. Keep an eye on the website for full details being announced soon!

Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Contact Diane at diane.wilkinson@hqnetwork.co.uk for details.

Secret diary of a housing CEO

After apparently falling into the blades of a lawnmower, the scattered pages of an unknown housing association CEO’s personal diary found their way on the breezes to the HQM offices. Now read on…

9 February: A terrific day in a terrific sector! I gathered the senior MGMT team for coffee and one of my legendary rousing talks. “As Alfred Einstein said,” I concluded as I fixed the team in my paternal gaze, “it’s important we do things properly.” I know it had the desired effect because they immediately dispersed, vitalised by my words; some were even moved to tears.

10 February: There’s been a lot of talk about ‘Damp and Mould’. Not sure if it’s a band or a comedy duo but I’m keen to get tickets because there seems to be a lot of excitement surrounding them. Must ask PA Barry to look into it tomorrow.

15 February: Lovely long weekend in the Cotswolds spoiled by a phone call on Monday evening. Apparently ‘damp and mould’ is actually a perilous menace that’s somehow infiltrated a number of our customers’ commodity units. Unless it’s a coincidence and there’s both a performance act and an issue within our domicile division? Must investigate.

16 February: Was advised to speak to “the frontline”. Chastised Barry for his bellicose rhetoric – but turns out he meant the people staffing the telephones. What a good idea, I said, but by then it was lunch time.

17 February: A terrible, terrible day. This damp and mould business will be the death of me. It seems that some 600 of our human-compound receptacles are full of the infuriating stuff. Well, how’s it getting in? I asked the AM team: our abode clients aren’t silly, are they? They brush themselves down when they come in from a hard day’s foraging, don’t they? And all this couldn’t come at a worse time: I’m currently busily working with the board on my future remuneration arrangements, which is very time consuming.

18 February: Met ‘the frontline’ today. A good bunch. They seemed very eager to share their thoughts with me and I’m sure were keen to receive my sapience. Alas, duty calls, and I was required to dash to a meeting with the board concerning the latest developments in my remuneration saga. If only the public truly understood how demanding this job is!

21 February: I feel betrayed. Some of our dwelling-end-product consumers have taken it on themselves to contact and invite into their homes members of the Fourth Estate. My weekend in Cornwall was ruined. The evening news was a foul collage of walls dripping with grotesque fungi. And to think I offered every third premise-inhabitant a free mini Mars Bar four Christmases ago if they immediately addressed their arrears! I’m deeply hurt.

22 February: I am very low … bereft of spirit. For all its plus points, this is a cruel sector. I have been informed by the board that, as at least 40% of our living-person-containment facilities are “toxically dilapidated”, negotiations over my future remuneration package have been deferred indefinitely! As Colin Dickens put it, “Things aren’t great

Monmouthshire Housing Association becomes first in Wales to achieve HQN MIST accreditation

We’re delighted to be able to award accreditation to Monmouthshire Housing Association. Tony Newman, lead MIST assessor, commented that Monmouthshire demonstrated a strong, focussed and effective approach to supporting its customers and ensuring that successful tenancies are established and maintained. There are strong and effective internal and external partnerships in place. In particular, he was impressed by the range of support services for people with mental health issues.

Having considered Tony’s feedback, the accreditation panel highlighted the following strengths:

• Zero evictions, reflecting the ethos of tenancy sustainment

• The income risk map and neighbourhood profiling supporting the development of an intelligence-led approach

• Strong pre-tenancy support, including the introduction of tenancy training for some applicants

• Good use of additional IT through Rentsense and Voicescape to support officers with arrears collection activities

• Strong staff morale and a positive whole team approach.

Sian Nicholas, Head of Neighbourhoods, said:

“We’re delighted to receive this recognition for the work we do across the organisation and with partners to support tenants to sustain their tenancies. With the sharp increase in the cost of living and everyone feeling the impact, it’s even more important than ever that we are working with partners to understand what we can do to inform and help tenants to navigate the range of support that’s available to manage household outgoings.

“We’re proud that this accreditation celebrates our approach to going that extra mile to create and foster sustainable tenancies.”

Monmouthshire’s Income Team celebrating their HQN MIST accreditation success

By Hannah Fearn, freelance journalist specialising in social affairs

The last word

Let’s do tenants a favour and talk straight

The first time I saw it, it confused me, breaking my flow of concentration. I stopped, paused and read the sentence again – but there it still was. A word I couldn’t recognise: ‘unhoused’. What did it mean?

After a moment it dawned on me. This wasn’t a new term, referring to a policy or initiative that I’d overlooked. It was just an unnecessary replacement for another, better understood, plain old English word: ‘homeless’. Since then, it’s cropped up everywhere.

Campaigners justify this shift by arguing that while the word ‘homeless’ suggests a person has some agency, or even shoulders some blame, over their housing situation, ‘unhoused’ reflects the fact that it’s usually the failure of systems, institutions and governments that leaves people without a home.

It’s a compassionate claim, but for me it fails. If we want people to care about the plight of those falling through the cracks in our housing system then we need to connect with their feelings about their experience of life without a fixed address. ‘Unhoused’ is such a technocratic word, meaningless to most people, while ‘homeless’ is the opposite: it has a clear meaning but also generates a profound emotional response.

It might not surprise you to hear that, as a journalist, I have a visceral reaction to jargon and management gobbledegook wherever I find it. I outright refuse to ‘circle back’, find the ‘low hanging fruit’ or ‘take it offline’ (which, paradoxically, often just means to send someone an email). But my disdain also extends to the use of complex language where the straightforward would do much better.

In the two decades I have covered the social housing sector, it’s always been steeped in its own peculiar jargon. Homes are not houses or properties but ‘units’; ‘improvements’ usually refers to works that any homeowner would call a repair; and ‘affordable housing’ is rarely anything of the sort. Nobody outside the industry has any idea what a ‘registered social landlord/provider’ is.

The worst offence is calling the people who live in social housing ‘customers’. That word hands them a sense of control over their home that they simply don’t have – and leaves them feeling impotent when they cannot exercise it.

Why are we afraid to say what these ‘customers’ really are? Have social landlords fully swallowed a political ideology that leaves them believing that the word ‘tenant’ is derogatory? Tenant isn’t an insult, it’s a fact. It’s also a legal term conferring rights as well as responsibilities.

Right now, the housing sector is facing a crisis of reputation. The essential work it does in supporting people and creating communities is being overshadowed by the size of the problem with housing disrepair and the effects of decades of political underinvestment. There’s a desperate need for housing leaders to speak openly about what’s stopping them doing their job well, and to advocate, loudly, for their tenants. The problem is, it’s impossible to convince people that you deserve to be heard when nobody can understand what you’re talking about.

There’s a vast public appetite for a national conversation about housing. Voters are hungry for change in an area of policy that’s been distorting the economy and affecting people’s life chances, yet is still bafflingly overlooked in Westminster. The last thing they need is an advocate that cannot speak about the realities of their lives in a way that they recognise.

So, this is my plea: talk more about what you do, and celebrate when you do it well, but don’t overcomplicate it. Saying that you can provide a stable home for someone who would otherwise be homeless is enough. For them, it’s everything.

“There’s a desperate need for housing leaders to speak openly about what’s stopping them doing their job well, and to advocate, loudly, for their tenants. The problem is, it’s impossible to convince people that you deserve to be heard when nobody can understand what you’re talking about”

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