ISSUE 20: JANUARY 2025
Learning from the TSMs
Reflecting on the first year of results
Talking Heads
Sector predictions for 2025
Fraud busters
How our FoI request shows councils are leading the fight back against tenancy fraud
ALONG CAME POLLY
The Shelter CEO reflects on seven years on the housing frontline
from the TSMs Reflecting on the first year of
Fraud busters
How our FoI request shows councils are leading the fight back against tenancy fraud 18 Polly Neate interview
The Shelter CEO reflects on seven years on the housing frontline
22 The future of social housing rents
The sector makes its case as the government weighs up options
26 Talking heads
Housing predictions for 2025
The latest research and analysis – in plain English
Bringing you the latest housing research from leading academics, this edition of Evidence features Clarion Housing Group’s latest research, mapping the linked challenges faced by housing associations and resident democracy in Nordic social housing.
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• Access to our bespoke WhatsApp group. Find out more at hqnetwork.co.uk/networks/hqn-connect
Editor’s welcome
When housing associations are making their case to government about future rent policy and the need for above inflation increases to be locked in for ten plus years, they should think about their own offer in return.
As Polly Neate points out in this month’s cover feature, social housing is finally back on the agenda after years in the wilderness and the government needs all the help it can get from social housing providers if it’s to get anywhere near its 1.5 million homes target. Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably due to a lack of clarity around funding and their spending commitments on repairs, the sector is playing a waiting game on the housebuilding front, resulting in a slowdown in the number of affordable being built. However, surely it would be better for housing providers to take a more proactive approach in the current climate.
From development and regulation to professional standards and decent homes, everything is always so reactive – we’re constantly playing catch up rather than getting ahead of the game. We continue to sit on our hands and wait to be told what to do with policies like Awaab’s Law when, as the Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway points out in this edition, we know what’s going to happen, so get on with it – check your homes for potential hazards, think about how your going to resource the work and don’t wait for the complaints to come in (as they inevitably will).
The same can be said about housing associations’ approach to tenancy fraud. As Keith Cooper reports this month, there’s a considerable disparity in the number of homes being recovered by local authorities compared to housing associations, with the sector accused of “dropping the ball”. And yet the benefits to all are clear – more social homes brought back into use, more rent for the landlord and ultimately a reduction in temporary accommodation costs, which are currently at record levels.
Without wanting to be overly critical, it’s time for housing associations to stop feeling sorry for themselves and start playing a more proactive role in addressing the huge housing issues this country faces. That would be one guaranteed way of improving their public reputation.
As always, we hope you enjoy the edition. We’d love to hear your comments!
Jon Land Editor, HQM
From the Chief Executive...
A picture can speak a thousand words –especially to disbelieving boards
They say a picture paints a thousand words. So, why are there no photos in RSH inspection reports? Back in the day the Audit Commission shamed poor landlords with images of disgusting voids. Kwajo exposed damp and mould in his videos. It’s the best way to get the message across.
When HQN was starting to help our members with consumer regulation, I pedalled relentlessly around estates taking snapshots. And it was well worth it.
We were highly critical of one landlord. You could see the leaders getting ready to make many sharp points to water down our findings. Then they saw the pictures and just gave up. Case closed.
In his book The Intelligence Trap, David Robson points to the scientific evidence showing how the sorts of clever people we put on boards are “…less likely to learn from their mistakes…and… are better able to build elaborate arguments to justify their reasoning…”. That strikes a chord, doesn’t it?
When this landlord saw our photos, their magic marker line-by-line commentary on the prose went by the wayside. Our findings were, as they put it, “unarguable”. That saved a lot of time.
Kwajo was astonished that the old-style regulator never visited his estate. It just didn’t occur to me that the new regime would carry on in the same vein. But that’s indeed the case. Already Kwajo is broadcasting images of poor standards at a home of a landlord that the RSH rates as C2. This will carry on.
It’s true that the RSH does ask leaders good questions and does indeed meet some
residents. For me, it’s odd that they don’t visit estates, as that’s the end product after all. This is very risky. The boardroom isn’t always much of a guide to what’s happening on the ground. By way of example, the Fair Game Index covering governance and finance finds that Spurs are the best-run club in the Premier League. Try telling that to the long-suffering fans who actually watch the games.
I live next door to a hostel owned by one of our largest associations. The CQC knocks on the door and takes a good look about before giving a rating to that one hostel. Yet at the same time the RSH will give a single score for the rest of the 70,000 homes across 170 councils managed by this landlord. How can the inspectors be certain that their assessment is correct? Will tenants think that the national report rings true for them? I appreciate the logistical problems for the RSH. Personally, I never want to get on an Avanti train again as long as I live. But it’s high risk for a regulator to tell the public that a service meets the consumer standards off a tiny sample base. I fear that this is an accident waiting to happen.
On top of which it crushes the staff that are doing a good job on their patches. I can show you pictures of brilliant work at landlords that have been slated by the RSH. Overall, I do tend to agree with the RSH judgments. But this is a classic case of one size not fitting all.
Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
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LEARNING FROM THE TSMS –REFLECTING ON THE FIRST YEAR OF RESULTS
The scores are in and they are…okay. The Regulator of Social Housing expects the first year of tenant satisfaction measures to provide a ‘line in the sand’ for landlords to improve their performance, so what lessons have been learned ahead of the 2025 surveys? Neil Merrick investigates.
For the past year or so, thousands of tenants have been revealing how much satisfaction they get from the homes and services provided by their landlord.
The first official results from the tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs) showed about 70% of tenants feel generally positive about living in social housing. Shared owners are less content (with many believing their opinions are ignored), while the way landlords handle complaints was criticised across the board.
But what did the sector as a whole learn from the results for 2023/24, unveiled by the Register of Social Housing (RSH) in late November?
For Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement at the RSH, the first scores represent a significant milestone that should give landlords and tenants a clearer picture of what’s going well, and where things could be better.
More than half a million tenants were consulted by housing associations and local authorities, while a separate national tenants survey by the RSH gathered opinions from more than 3,000 tenants and nearly 400 shared owners.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a consistent set of performance indicators that allows comparison between social landlords across England,” she says. “It’s a really useful tool for tenants to scrutinise their landlord’s performance, while landlords will want to look under the bonnet and see where they can improve.”
In simple terms, 71% of tenants and 49.5% of
“It’s the first time we’ve had a consistent set of performance indicators that allows comparison between social landlords across England. It’s a really useful tool for tenants to scrutinise their landlord’s performance, while landlords will want to look under the bonnet and see where they can improve”
Kate Dodsworth, chief of regulatory engagement, Regulator of Social Housing
shared owners are satisfied with their landlord. However, just 34.5% of tenants and 19% of shared owners who made a complaint during the previous 12 months were happy with how it was handled.
Complaint handling dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction with complaint handling won’t come as much of a shock, given the attention it receives from the Housing Ombudsman. But do the findings necessarily reflect the true picture?
According to the TSMs, just 28% of residents at Stonewater Homes were satisfied with the way their complaints were handled in 2023/24. The association owns nearly 35,000 homes across England and interviewed about 10% of tenants and shared owners using a market research company.
Dave Lockerman, director of housing operations, says Stonewater’s internal data reveals a discrepancy between the number of tenants who told the market research company they had made a complaint, and the far lower
Look into my eyes – why face-to-face interviews work best
One of the best ways to gain higher tenant satisfaction scores is to look into people’s eyes when asking their opinions.
Across England, the first year’s TSM scores show face-to-face interviews gave an average satisfaction rate of 75%, compared with 70% for telephone surveys and 58% for surveys via the internet.
Stockport Homes continued to interview tenants face-to-face in the same way as it did for internal customer surveys prior to TSMs. This led to the arm’s length management organisation achieving the second best results of any social landlord, with 91% overall satisfaction and 61% satisfaction for complaint handling.
Chief executive Helen McHale believes the way the data was collected, with staff visiting residents at home, may have inflated its scores by up to 20%. “Tenants like the fact we go to visit them,” she adds. “We’re trying to build a relationship with the customer in a way that a market research company isn’t.”
Higher scores stemming from face-to-face interviews (or even a telephone survey) are in line with findings from opinion pollsters such as Gallup. These suggest people tend to give more positive responses when questions are read to them by a person than when the same questions are self-administered (such as online).
About two thirds of social landlords used telephone surveys as their main way of collecting TSM scores, but it wasn’t uncommon for landlords to use more than one method. According to Kate Dodsworth, the most important thing is that landlords are transparent about the method used.
Landlords continue to have discretion over which method they use in 2024/25, with the regulator not planning changes on this or other aspects of TSMs. “The important thing is that we look at results after a few years and resist any temptation to step in and change things at this stage,” Dodsworth adds.
number of formal complaints received by the association.
The high number of complaints shown up in the TSMs suggests tenants might be confusing complaints with service requests. “It’s still important, as it’s about how we handle customer contact more widely, but it’s also important that customers are clear about the distinction, and about what is a service request,” says Lockerman.
Soha Housing noticed a similar discrepancy. The association interviewed 1,200 of its 8,000 tenants, with 42% stating they were satisfied with complaint handling – well above the national average.
Where the TSM survey showed a tenant was unhappy over complaints, Soha staff followed it up by contacting the tenant directly. Chief executive Kate Wareing also believes tenants were sometimes referring to a service request, not a complaint.
“Most people who said they were unhappy with complaint handling hadn’t registered a complaint,” says Wareing. “The complaints metric isn’t measuring what you think it is. It’s a bit of a blunt tool.”
According to the RSH’s national tenants survey, which accompanied the first year’s TSMs, approximately one fifth of complaints referred to by tenants can be classed as complaints under the ombudsman’s complaint handling code, while the remainder are either ambiguous or most likely service requests.
A line in the sand
Kate Dodsworth accepts TSM scores don’t reveal granular detail and recommends social landlords triangulate their scores against other information. Overall results have, however, drawn a line in the sand, allowing landlords to find ways of moving their scores upwards from this year onwards.
TSMs – the key takeaways
Here are our key takeaways from the first year of tenant satisfaction measures and national tenant survey:
• Repairs are the main concern of most tenants
• Complaint handling is seen as poor across the sector
• Housing association tenants are marginally more satisfied (73%) with their home and landlord services than council tenants (68%)
• Face-to-face interviews lead to the highest satisfaction scores though most landlords (65%) used a telephone survey
• Older tenants are happier than younger ones
• Levels of satisfaction are lower in London than the rest of England.
Soha did this by adding its own questions to those required by the regulator. One of these asked people about their financial circumstances and revealed how tenants with financial concerns were more likely to mark the association down when they responded to TSM questions.
Just 29% of tenants who were very concerned about the cost of living said they were satisfied with the quality of communal areas, compared with 73% of tenants who were slightly concerned about the cost of living. Tenants with greater financial concerns were also less likely to be satisfied with Soha’s approach to antisocial behaviour.
This year, Soha cut the number of supplementary questions, mainly to reduce what Kate Wareing describes as “survey fatigue”. However, the association regards follow-ups as crucial to deriving greater insight from TSM results.
After the TSM survey found female tenants were more likely to be dissatisfied with repairs, Soha arranged follow-up calls. This showed that women’s dissatisfaction wasn’t due to faulty workmanship or even punctuality, but because they found the contractors patronising.
Back at Stonewater, Dave Lockerman admits levels of satisfaction aren’t as high as the association would like. Its 2024/25 scores show signs of improvement, not least in Somerset, where Stonewater introduced a new housing management model with antisocial behaviour, neighbourhood and tenancy specialists working as a single county team.
The advantage, says Lockerman, is that team members work collectively to resolve issues, keeping tenants updated over what’s happening. “TSMs were one of the triggers alongside other feedback and insight, such as customer complaints and transactional surveys,” he adds.
Stonewater is also talking to other associations about their experience of TSMs and ways to
“Most people who said they were unhappy with complaint handling hadn’t registered a complaint. The complaints metric isn’t measuring what you think it is. It’s a bit of a blunt tool”
Kate Wareing, chief executive, Soha Housing
“Tenants like the fact we go to visit them. We’re trying to build a relationship with the customer in a way that a market research company isn’t”
Helen McHale, chief executive, Stockport Homes
improve services. “We’re reaching out to those that are performing better,” he adds.
Helen McHale, chief executive of Stockport Homes, has spoken to landlords across Greater Manchester about the arm’s length management organisation’s results [see box on page 9], and issues arising from the scores, such as dealing with antisocial behaviour.
On complaints, McHale points out that tenants are being actively encouraged by the ombudsman to complain to their landlord when they are unhappy. “There’s a way to go before we and the sector get on top of this,” she adds.
Early government plans for TSM league tables were quickly dropped but, according to the RSH, it’s reasonable to compare landlords’ results if they collect data using the same method.
Social landlords have always been keen to benchmark performance data, says Kate Dodsworth, mainly to raise standards. She also expects tenants to closely scrutinise their landlord’s scores. “There will be some interesting conversations going on about how they can make improvements.”
What happens next?
Landlords have known their 2023/24 scores for more than six months, though they couldn’t compare them with other landlords’ until two months ago.
When it comes to consumer inspections, which got underway last April, TSMs are just one source of information for regulators, says Dodsworth. If TSM scores flag up immediate concerns, such as health and safety, the RSH won’t hesitate to get in touch with a landlord.
Alistair Smyth, director of policy and research at the National Housing Federation, acknowledges there’s room for improvement where tenant satisfaction is low, such as complaint handling. “TSMs are a useful tool to help landlords better understand how their residents experience the services they provide,” he says.
For Caritas Charles, senior policy, insight and innovation manager at TPAS, the next stage is for landlords to use their results to bring about cultural change, possibly in the relationship between managers and tenants.
“It will be interesting to dive in deeper and see what people’s perception of good is,” says Charles. “A high level of complaints doesn’t necessarily mean a bad complaints culture. We would encourage the sector to make the data as widely available as possible and look behind the headline figures.”
All of which means the informal conversations taking place among landlords, and the follow-up questions posed by associations such as Soha are, at this stage, probably the most valuable thing to come out of the first year’s results. “The TSMs are a flag,” says Kate Wareing. “It’s a missed opportunity if you don’t take it.”
TSMs and the relevance of age, disability, gender and ethnicity
Age appears to be a determining factor when it comes to tenant satisfaction. The first year’s TSMs show over 65s with a much higher average overall rate of satisfaction (82%) compared to other age groups.
Tenants under 65 recorded average overall satisfaction rates of below 70%, with just 63% of those aged 35 to 64 satisfied with their home and landlord.
The RSH’s national tenant survey also found that people with disabilities were less likely to give a landlord their seal of approval, with average overall satisfaction at 68%, compared with 71% among tenants without a disability.
When it came to gender, average overall satisfaction was higher among men (75%) than women (67%). White tenants, meanwhile, were more likely to be satisfied with their landlord (71%) than those from minority ethnic groups (66%).
But according to the regulator, the latter difference may be down to age rather than ethnicity. 32% of tenants who described their ethnicity as white were aged 65 or over, compared to just 6% of minority ethnic tenants.
Mushtaq Khan, chief executive of the Housing Diversity Network, says he expected satisfaction rates for tenants from ethnic minority backgrounds to be more out of kilter with the population as a whole, given this was a finding of the Better Social Housing Review, published two years ago.
A more sophisticated analysis would allow social landlords to see how demographic factors overlap. “As always, this type of data raises more questions,” says Khan. “Let’s see what follows on from this and how landlords use the findings to inform strategies for improving satisfaction.”
FRAUD BUSTERS: HOW COUNCILS ARE LEADING THE FIGHT BACK AGAINST TENANCY FRAUD
Local authorities often get a bad press for the standard of their housing services compared to better resourced housing associations. But tenancy fraud is one area where they are streets ahead, according to our exclusive research, helping to free up thousands of social homes and generate significant savings. Keith Cooper’s investigation throws some much-needed light on an under reported area of housing and reveals some significant disparities.
How should social landlords treat tenancy fraud?
As a ‘niche’ part of housing management, just another job for the housing officer but one with little reward? Or is it something in need of more serious attention, requiring dedicated fulltime fraud-busting staff, an endeavour with the potential to save millions of pounds and free thousands of homes?
To find out, Housing Quality Magazine has analysed data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 114 local authorities in England.
This analysis reveals a chasm-like divide in the way councils treat tenancy fraud. While 90 of the councils in the analysis recovered more than 4,000 social homes in the three years from 2021/22 to 2023/24, the other 24 authorities freed up none.
Three London boroughs with dedicated fraud teams recovered the most. Lewisham, Hillingdon, and Lambeth each freed up more than 200 homes over the three-year period. The most homes recovered by a council without dedicated fraud busters was 24 over three years by Great Yarmouth.
While the lion’s share of the 4,002 recoveries were in London, hundreds of social homes were also freed up in the south east, the east of England, the West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humber (see box). Only 50 social homes were recovered from fraudsters in the ten local authorities in the north east and north west which responded to the FoI request.
Big financial impact
The analysis also shows that the number of homes recovered alongside the savings made by council fraud-busting teams has risen yearon-year. In 2021/22, councils freed up 1,151 homes, saving an estimated £44.0m. By 2023/24, the number of recoveries had risen 27% to 1,458 homes, as savings jumped 62% to £71.3m (see boxes).
Lewisham Council’s cabinet member for better homes, neighbourhoods and homelessness, Will Cooper, said tenancy fraud blocked people in need from accessing secure housing and had a “big financial impact” by increasing its reliance on expensive temporary accommodation.
“It’s therefore doubly important that we tackle it as rigorously as we can, and we have a dedicated team to do so. This means we make around 100 additional homes per year available
to families on our housing register,” he said.
Cllr Cooper explained that not all of the frauds the authority uncovered were “deliberate” but that the impact was the same. “The majority of our cases are abandoned tenancies, where the tenant is no longer occupying the property, but hasn’t returned it to us under the terms of the tenancy agreement,” he added.
Lewisham’s FoI response shows it spent £995,000 on counter fraud measures, saved £2.7m, and recovered 290 homes over the three years covered by the analysis.
Lambeth Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for housing, Danny Adilypour, said the council’s counter fraud efforts were driven by the thousands of households on its waiting lists and the 4,700 homeless families in “expensive and often poor quality” temporary accommodation.
“The costs associated with the [tenancy fraud] team are low in comparison with the money saved by removing families from temporary accommodation and placing them in permanent council accommodation”
Danny Adilypour, Lambeth Council deputy leader and cabinet member for housing
“For these reasons the council funds a tenancy fraud team to tackle all types of tenancy fraud and recover properties to help reduce the waiting list and to help cut the costs of temporary accommodation,” Cllr Adilypour added. “The costs associated with the team are low in comparison with the money saved by removing families from temporary accommodation and placing them in permanent council accommodation.”
Lambeth’s FoI response shows that over the three years it spent £1.6m on counter tenancy fraud, made £9m in savings, and recovered 246 homes.
Hillingdon Council said it had built its counterfraud services to “robustly detect and prevent fraud against the public purse. The team’s outstanding achievements in tenancy fraud can be attributed to its effective detection and
recovery processes through the shrewd use of intelligence and data, along with the creation of an effective counter fraud culture internally and strong stakeholder relationships,” a spokesperson said.
Hillingdon Council recovered 229 social homes over the three years. It was unable to provide figures on how much it spent but had saved £12.8m, its FoI responses shows.
‘Bouncing back’
Alan Bryce, a non-executive director at the Tenancy Fraud Forum, said the figures showed council fraud-busting work was “bouncing back” but was still “significantly below” the levels he saw as head of counter fraud at the Audit Commission before it closed in 2015.
According to one of the commission’s last reports
Source: Freedom of Information requests
“These figures suggest a stark difference between what local authorities and housing associations are doing. It raises questions as to why so many housing associations report nil returns to the regulator for tenancy frauds”
Paul Roberts, board member, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing
on tenancy fraud, Protecting the Public Purse, published in 2014, councils recovered 3,030 social homes in that single year. This is more than double the number recovered by councils in 2023/24, according to our analysis.
Following that peak year for recoveries, councils lost much of their fraud-busting staff to the Single Fraud Investigations Service, which was set up by the then government in 2014, according to Mr Bryce. “As a result, councils’ capability and capacity to tackle tenancy fraud fell away and they have had less funding and less focus on it,” he said. “This bouncing back is encouraging but we’re still significantly below what we saw ten years ago.”
Mr Bryce said the housing crisis is now prompting some councils to reinvest in counter fraud measures as a far cheaper means of increasing access to social rental homes than new development. “This data shows what’s achievable if you invest in counter-tenancy fraud in a professional fashion,” he added. “Some councils in London use £500,000 per unit to build new housing. For that amount of money, you could probably recover 40 or 50 properties. From their perspective of getting families out of bed and breakfasts and into social housing, it’s a no-brainer.”
Our analysis shows that councils spent £14.3m on counter fraud work in the three years between 2021/22 and 2023/24, while saving £179.1m over the same period. The figure for savings and expenditure are likely to be an underestimation as some councils didn’t provide them. Savings
figures may also not include cash clawed back from fraudsters using unlawful profit orders. Camden Council told HQM it had recovered £15.1m with this legal measure in 2022-23 alone.
‘Dropped the ball’
Arun Chauhan, fraud specialist at Tenet Law, said the HQM analysis showed that while councils were “going in the right direction” it also highlighted how housing associations had “dropped the ball” on tenancy fraud.
“Fraud is a massive compliance issue in the banking sector but it isn’t in the housing association sector, which is focused on damp, mould and repairs,” he added. “But as in any business it’s important not to drop the ball in areas on which you’re not regulated.”
As our previous investigation revealed, most housing associations reported zero tenancy frauds to the Regulator of Social Housing in 2022/23. According to figures obtained under a previous freedom of information request, only 204 tenancy frauds were officially logged by associations that year, resulting in a financial loss of £127,433. In contrast, councils’ fraud busting teams that year recovered 1,393 social homes, saving their authorities £64m, according to this latest analysis.
Paul Roberts, a former finance director at The Guinness Partnership, said: “These figures suggest a stark difference between what local authorities and housing associations are doing. It raises questions as to why so many housing associations report nil returns to the regulator for tenancy frauds.”
Mr Roberts says fraud busting had been
“Some councils in London use £500,000 per unit to build new housing. For that amount of money, you could probably recover 40 or 50 properties. From their perspective of getting families out of bed and breakfasts and into social housing, it’s a no-brainer”
Alan Bryce, non-executive director, Tenancy Fraud Forum
rendered the “poor relation” of housing management in associations by governmentimposed rent cuts stretching back to 2016. “This forced housing associations to reassess counter tenancy fraud activity and to reorganise their housing management departments which inevitably had an adverse impact on tenancy fraud detection,” he added. “But tenancy fraud hasn’t gone away and these figures show that there are recoveries and financial returns to be made.”
Mr Chauhan pointed to the figures for London which showed hundreds of homes recovered each year. “The chances are that, in cities like London, tenancy fraud is as prevalent in housing association homes as it is for local authorities’ housing stock. Why is it assumed that fraudsters aren’t also targeting housing association stock? They just have to invest in detection,” he added. “When they go looking for it, they will find it, get results, make savings and free up affordable homes.”
As HQM has previously reported, some housing associations have recently increased their focus on tenancy fraud. L&Q created a new fraudbusting team in 2022 after its previous one was closed down. In 2024/24, this team recovered 67 homes, saving £2.8m for the taxpayer, it
announced in November. West Midlands-based Bromford, Peabody and Riverside have also created dedicated counter fraud posts.
The role of regulation
Mr Roberts, who’s also a board member of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, said the Regulator of Social Housing’s new set of consumer standards should also increase associations’ focus on tenancy fraud. “Associations should know who’s living in their homes and respond to customers’ concerns,” he says. “A lot of our customers get the message about the housing crisis. People feel that tenancy fraud is wrong and want something done about it. If we’re trying to build trust with customers but are then not listening to them, make it difficult to report tenancy fraud, and then fail to tackle it when they tell us about it, then that’s not good for trust.”
The Regulator of Social Housing told HQM that tenancy fraud was an “important issue”. “We’re clear that social landlords must take action to detect and address it, in line with the requirements in our standards,” a spokeswoman added. “Tackling cases of tenancy fraud remains a landlord responsibility. They must understand who’s living in the homes they provide and use
“Fraud is a massive compliance issue in the banking sector but it isn’t in the housing association sector, which is focused on damp, mould and repairs. But as in any business it’s important not to drop the ball in areas on which you’re not regulated”
Arun Chauhan, fraud specialist, Tenet Law
this information to identify tenancy fraud and prevent it from happening in the first place.”
Social landlords with 1,000 homes or more are expected to report any losses from frauds to their regulator. But tenancy fraud doesn’t always lead to a loss for associations, as the rent on properties is often still paid by the fraudster. The financial cost is instead most likely to fall on local authorities, which have seen bills for costly temporary accommodation hit £2.3bn in 2023/24 as they struggle to find free social housing for homeless households.
With associations facing huge bills to fix dangerous cladding and rid their homes of damp and mould, many will claim they lack the financial capacity to tackle tenancy fraud, according to Mr Roberts. “But we’ve got to stop people thinking that people can get away with tenancy fraud
because we haven’t got the resources to detect it. Some of this is just about joining the dots,” he added. “We’ve already got eyes and ears on the ground with customer-facing colleagues who go into people’s homes to do repairs and safety checks. Let’s make sure they have clear routes to provide valuable intelligence, data is used effectively and action taken.”
From the chief executive and chair at the top, to the housing officer on the estate, people in housing are there to help with the housing crisis, Mr Roberts explained. “A lot of people in housing management do see their role as more than just a day-to-day job,” he added. “They really want to improve people’s lives, are concerned about the housing crisis, and want to contribute directly towards solving it. Tackling tenancy fraud can be part of that.”
POLLY NEATE INTERVIEW:
“SOCIAL TENANTS MUST BE GIVEN A NATIONAL VOICE TO INFLUENCE GOVERNMENT POLICY”
As Shelter chief executive for the last seven years, Polly Neate has seen firsthand the impact the housing crisis has had on the lives of millions of people.
Under her leadership, the charity has successfully campaigned for new laws to improve conditions in social housing, the strengthening of renters’ rights and the prioritisation of building new social homes. On a daily basis, the charity has also helped people facing homelessness and poor housing through its face-toface advocacy, telephone and online advice services, and legal support.
As she prepares to step down from the role in March, HQM editor Jon Land caught up with Polly to discuss the highs and lows of the last seven years, the scale of the challenge facing the Labour government and possible solutions to a situation that she says is now “out of control”.
Jon Land: What are your thoughts on the current state of housing in this country?
Polly Neate: The housing emergency is out of control, and this is the product of a severe drought of social housing. It’s unacceptable that there are 354,000 people homeless in England and over 1.3 million households are stuck on the social housing waiting list, for years on end. Without genuinely secure and affordable social homes more people are having to rely on grossly expensive private rentals and record numbers have been tipped into homelessness as a result.
The government has set ambitious housing targets, but if they are to hit the target of 1.5 million homes by 2029, the only way to do this is to put social housing at the heart of their plans and get councils building again. Building 90,000 social homes a year would not only end homelessness and relieve pressure on private renting, it will pay for itself in just three years and return an impressive £37.8bn to the economy, including through jobs and savings to the NHS and benefits bill.
homes and support councils so they can start building them.
JL: There’s a focus on housebuilding and reforming the planning system (again). Do you consider these to be the top housing priorities?
“There has to be an attitudinal shift in the [social housing] sector. While many social landlords have reflected on their practice and processes, it’s concerning that others deny there’s any problem with staff culture or training”
PN: The most important goal is to invest in and build social housing. The government has set out a target for overall housebuilding but hasn’t set a social housing target. The only way to get to 300,000 homes a year is for the government to invest in social housing supply. The last time we built those numbers was in the late 1960s when half of the homes were councilbuilt social homes. Speculative private builders cannot and will not build enough homes to drive down the cost of housing, as that would threaten their business model. This means that a social housing target is essential to ensure everyone has the chance of a decent, affordable place to call home.
JL: There’s been a worrying rise in homelessness and temporary accommodation costs are though the roof. What can be done to rectify the situation?
PN: There are 354,000 people homeless in England, and this is the result of a dire shortage of affordable social homes, rising evictions, record high private rents and frozen housing benefit. Thousands of people are struggling to keep hold of their homes or to find somewhere new to live after an eviction.
More and more people are being forced to go to their council for homelessness assistance, but councils are struggling to keep up with the demand. Rather than sinking billions into temporary accommodation every year, the government must use the upcoming spending review to invest in genuinely affordable social
JL: How do we ensure both private and social renters live in safe and decent homes? What are your thoughts on Awaab’s Law?
PN: No one’s home should ever put their health or safety at risk. But too often tenants are forced to endure dangerous conditions in homes riddled with damp and mould. We fully agree that every landlord, both private and social, should have clear timelines for dealing with disrepair and tough action should be taken where they fall short. But before Awaab’s Law can be successfully applied to private renting, no-fault evictions must be scrapped so tenants can complain without fear of a retaliatory eviction. The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill, currently making its way through parliament will ban Section-21 no-fault evictions, which is a hugely welcome step. However, the bill must go further and limit in-tenancy rent increases so they are in line with wage growth, to ensure
“Building 90,000 social homes a year would not only end homelessness and relieve pressure on private renting, it will pay for itself in just three years and return an impressive £37.8bn to the economy, including through jobs and savings to the NHS and benefits bill”
landlords can’t use huge rent hikes as defacto revenge evictions when tenants complain about poor conditions.
JL: Shelter had a key role to play in shaping the new regulatory regime for social housing. Are you happy with how things are progressing? Are you noticing any significant improvements?
PN: It’s vital that social tenants have the foundation of a decent home. It’s unacceptable that providers of social housing have time and time again failed the people that they are there to serve, with the Grenfell Tower fire and the death of Awaab Ishak demonstrating the lethal consequences of ignoring tenants. This cannot be allowed to happen again. The last government made important steps: after several long years of campaigning from Grenfell United, alongside Shelter, to finally pass the Social Housing Regulation Act; and to pass Awaab’s Law requiring landlords to fix reported health hazards within reasonable timeframes.
However, there’s still progress to be made. Firstly, we have to boost funding for social housebuilding, so that providers can focus rental income on existing stock. With these passed regulations it’s important to make sure they are implemented properly so that when a tenant has an issue, they know it will be sorted quickly. Most importantly there has to be an attitudinal shift in the sector. While many social landlords have reflected on their practice and processes, it’s concerning that others deny there’s any problem with staff culture or training. To make progress on this, social tenants must be given a national voice to influence government policy at all levels. It’s not uncommon to hear some social landlords claim these rules – which are really about the enforcement of basic safety standards – are ‘new burdens’. The provision of a safe and decent home is a fundamental part of being a landlord and should never have been ignored.
JL: Do you welcome the new general approval approach to landlord licensing in the PRS?
What sort of an impact do you think it will have?
PN: Selective licensing has proven very effective in many areas in improving housing quality and ensuring repairs are made. Selective licencing schemes are important tools at the local authorities’ disposal to ensure certain standards are met and to ensure laws are being followed. The real prize will lie with a full national landlord register that contains details about the properties they let out and the state of repair, as well as details of rent levels. Councils must be able to access the register and also have the funding to proactively enforce standards – for example, by carrying out regular inspections. This will enhance the effectiveness of selective licensing, as these schemes can be hamstrung by a lack of information about the health of the local private renting stock. Selective licensing working in tandem with a detailed landlord register would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these schemes.
JL: As you step away from Shelter, what achievements are you most proud of?
PN: I’m most proud of the fact that Shelter is now an organisation that is all about change. We’re not just here to pick up the pieces of the catastrophic damage the housing emergency causes in people’s lives, we’re here to work with them to survive, thrive and challenge the system failures that deny their right to a safe
“It’s unacceptable that providers of social housing have time and time again failed the people that they are there to serve, with the Grenfell Tower fire and the death of Awaab Ishak demonstrating the lethal consequences of ignoring tenants. This cannot be allowed to happen again”
home. We do that with individuals and families, in communities, and nationally by campaigning for major shifts in government policy and public opinion. We’ve put social housing on the political and public agenda in a way that’s unrecognisable compared with seven years ago. After six years of campaigning alongside Grenfell United we saw the Social Housing (Regulation) Act become law. And we’re about to see a once in a generation reform of private renting as the Renters’ Rights Bill completes its journey through parliament. These aren’t my achievements – I’m beyond proud of the colleagues who have made all this happen.
JL: What’s next for Polly Neate?
PN: I want to help leaders to identify and make the change they want to see, whether in their organisations or in the world around them, and support them to see that change through with coaching, mentoring and strategic support. I hope this will be my core business. I also have some specific projects in the planning stages.
“We fully agree that every landlord, both private and social, should have clear timelines for dealing with disrepair and tough action should be taken where they fall short. But before Awaab’s Law can be successfully applied to private renting, no-fault evictions must be scrapped so tenants can complain without fear of a retaliatory eviction”
Below: A Shelter helpline advisor takes a call – one of hundreds the charity receives every day. Copyright: Kate Stanworth
THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL HOUSING RENTS
As the government weighs up the options on its future social housing rents policy, Neil Merrick talks to senior figures in the sector about the ideal scenario, potential threats and the need for long-term certainty. Meanwhile, in Scotland…
Towards the end of last year, council tenants in Aberdeen were asked how they felt about their rents going up by 10%.
Unsurprisingly, more than three quarters of the city’s tenants were opposed, though more than half backed a separate proposal to raise rents for new homes by 15%.
Like many local authorities, Aberdeen City Council is struggling to make ends meet. Last September, with its housing revenue account (HRA) in deficit by £3.1m, it joined the growing list of Scottish councils to declare a housing emergency.
Subsequently, at a meeting in December, council officers recommended that rents should increase this April by 12% – more than originally proposed. But councillors decided that a 7.5% rise was fairer to tenants, and instead voted to dip further into the council’s reserves.
Thirteen councils in Scotland that are struggling to support homeless families have declared housing emergencies. Aberdeen also needs to spend £70m to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and is proposing £55m for new homes.
A £1m fund will help tenants struggling to pay rent during the coming year. Miranda Radley, convener of the council’s housing committee, said: “We’re aware of the difficulties faced by our tenants and understand the impacts that any increase in rent may have.”
Lifeblood
Rent is the lifeblood of social housing, helping landlords not just pay for maintenance and retrofitting, but finance loans for new housing. Many Scottish councils are raising rents by more than inflation, with council rents in Edinburgh rising by 7% each year until at least 2028/29.
“We’ve always been in favour of [rent] convergence. We’re revisiting the argument to give Angela Rayner as much ammunition as we can so that she can argue the case [in government]”
Matthew Warburton, policy adviser, Association of Retained Council Housing (Arch)
Figures collected by the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers show most Scottish councils proposing rises of between 5% and 8% this April. As a result, the average council rent in Scotland is likely to exceed £100 by 2026/27, up from £82.32 in 2023/24.
Social landlords in England may be surprised (and perhaps a little jealous) to know that councils and housing associations north of the border can increase rents without reference to any government edict or formula. The only proviso in Scotland is that tenants are consulted first.
In England, social landlords have navigated a topsy turvy decade where they were required to cut rents by 1% per annum for four years until 2019/20. With inflation in double figures in 2023/24, rent rises were then capped at 7%.
The squeeze on rental income particularly affects local authorities, which generally have fewer finance options. “Rental income is crucial to councils meeting the cost of maintaining homes,” says Matthew Warburton, policy adviser at the Association of Retained Council Housing (Arch). “They need to raise money for decent homes work and to pay off debts during the next 30 years.”
Among councils worst affected is Southwark, which estimates that changes in rent policy since 2012 will cost the London borough £1bn over the next 30 years. But housing associations are also heavily dependent on rents.
Crunching the numbers
According to the National Housing Federation, associations generated £15.2bn from rents in 2022/23 – about two thirds of total turnover. Between 2016 and 2024, it calculates, associations received nearly £3bn less in rent income than if rents had remained at their 2015 level in real terms.
A consultation on future rent policy by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government closed two days before Christmas. A formula of consumer prices index (CPI) plus 1% is likely to be used to determine rises for at least five years from 2026/27 (as well as in 2025/26) and may be extended to ten years.
But is it enough? A study last year for the Local Government Association by estate agents Savills concluded that using this formula for the next decade will mean that councils’ housing income and expenditure will balance after 30 years but result in shortfalls of between £6bn and £7bn in the meantime.
For local authorities, says one housing director, a consistent rent policy is just as important as the formula itself. Even a policy that ties rent increases to inflation is better than constant
changes, as seen during the past decade, he adds.
Rent convergence
But social landlords in England want the government to go further and reintroduce rent convergence, meaning rents are adjusted so tenants in the same local authority area pay similar rents to others with similar-sized properties.
Convergence was introduced by the Labour government in 2002 but then scrapped by the Conservatives in 2015. Councils and housing associations had, prior to 2015, been permitted to raise rents by an additional £2 per week, on top of the inflation-linked formula, so allowing them to move towards so-called ‘target rents’.
Over the past decade, convergence has been restricted to homes that are vacant, prior to them being relet. This means new tenants frequently pay higher rent than previous occupants of the same property.
General needs properties owned by local authorities were at least 4.1% short of target rents in 2023/24, says Steve Partridge, head of affordable housing at Savills, meaning councils are missing out on millions of pounds of rental income.
In the case of housing associations, it’s likely to create much-needed extra money for new homes. “Convergence delivers a significant amount of extra resources,” says Partridge. “For associations, it would be more about money for new build rather than survival.”
The NHF agrees. In its submission to the rent
“We have a number of social rented properties that are significantly below formula or target rent. Convergence would allow us to charge the same level of rents over time as if they all became void at the same time”
Chris Lakin, assistant director of business planning and development finance, Metropolitan Thames Valley
policy consultation, it calls for CPI plus 1% over ten years, plus a return to convergence, with landlords permitted to raise rents by a further £3 per week where they’re below target rents.
According to the federation, this would raise an additional £3.5bn over ten years and potentially fund £18bn of extra borrowing while adding 0.6% to the welfare bill. It could also fund 90,000 additional homes.
‘Fairness’
Will Jeffwitz, the NHF’s head of policy, says such increases would create fairness among tenants living in similar properties. But changes would need to be explained effectively, so that tenants were aware why their rents are going up.
“There’s a strong case for convergence, given how committed the government is to building 1.5 million homes,” says Jeffwitz. “Convergence has a strong part to play in achieving that.”
So, is a return to rent convergence likely? Deputy prime minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner is reported to be keen, telling a housing conference in November that she was arguing for it within cabinet. But the rent policy consultation appeared to rule it out, saying it would raise costs for tenants, as well as increasing the welfare bill.
About 70% of tenants in social housing have their rent paid for them through housing benefit or universal credit, meaning the Treasury has a strong interest in limiting rent increases. The cost to individual households must also be borne in mind.
But Ian McDermott, chief executive of Peabody,
Homes in Aberdeen city centre where council officers recommended that rents should increase this April by 12%
says convergence might even mean lower rent rises for some tenants, as housing associations would be less likely to apply across-the-board increases linked to inflation.
“It could create the flexibility and scope for providers to limit increases on higher rents while bringing the lowest up by a few pounds a week, particularly in periods of high inflation,” he adds.
Convergence also has the support of local authorities, with Arch and other bodies arguing for the flexibility to raise rents by an extra £2 or £3 per week. “We’ve always been in favour of convergence,” says Matthew Warburton. “We are revisiting the argument to give Angela Rayner as much ammunition as we can so that she can argue the case [in government].”
Back in Scotland
Aberdeen City Council is introducing a premium of 15% for tenants who move into new homes from this April (in line with the wishes of tenants in older properties). Such a move wouldn’t be permitted in England, though social landlords in England have the option of letting homes at affordable or intermediate rent.
Housing association rents rose by an average of 6% in Scotland in 2024/25, up from 5.3% the previous year. Jen Gracie, public affairs manager at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, says associations are aware of the hardship facing many households and are trying to strike a balance between affordability and their ability to continue absorbing costs.
The problem is that private landlords are in a broadly similar position, having seen rents capped for two years until March 2024. But ministers are proposing long-term rent caps in the private rented sector via a housing bill making its way through the Scottish Parliament.
With the UK and Welsh governments having ruled out rent caps for private landlords, the divide between the different nations couldn’t be starker. But will social landlords in Scotland continue to enjoy the freedom they do now if private rents are capped?
Any rent formula for social landlords is likely to be fiercely resisted. According to Tony Cain, policy manager at the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers, consultation between landlords and tenants would be meaningless if the Scottish government intervened and effectively set rents. “There’s no place for a third party in the relationship between landlords and tenants,” he says.
Metropolitan Thames Valley – ‘Rent income is the bedrock of everything’
Changes in rent policy during the past decade have cost housing associations such as Metropolitan Thames Valley (MVTH) millions of pounds in lost income.
MVTH estimates that, without the requirement to cut rents by 1% per year for four years after 2016/17, or the 7% rent cap imposed in 2023/24, its rental income today would be about 10%, or £40m, higher.
“Rent income is the bedrock of everything,” says Chris Lakin, MTVH’s assistant director of business planning and development finance. “It gives you the ability to deliver your operations, create a surplus and invest in new stock.”
The problem for MVTH and other landlords is that, when rents are reduced or any cap imposed, the amount of money coming in doesn’t only fall that year, but in subsequent years as well. “There’s a compound effect,” adds Lakin.
While some costs have risen in line with inflation, others associated with property, such as energy, insurance and building costs, have risen by more than the CPI, he adds.
Along with other housing associations, MVTH sees rent convergence as a way of helping to catch up following income losses during the past few years. At present, it only increases rent to a target rent that reflects local property prices and incomes [see main article] when they’re empty – prior to new tenants moving in.
If MVTH could increase rents for some homes by up to £3 per week (on top of CPI plus 1% for all social housing) it would raise an additional £3m per year, rising to £12m after ten years.
“We have a number of social rented properties that are significantly below formula or target rent,” he says. “Convergence would allow us to charge the same level of rents over time as if they all became void at the same time.”
Housing secretary Angela Rayner is said to be making the case for rent convergence in cabinet
TALKING HEADS HOUSING PREDICTIONS FOR 2025
Ahead of what is likely to be another significant year for housing in terms of development, decent homes, regulation, planning and renters’ rights, we asked some of the sector’s leading lights to gaze into their crystal balls and predict what’s in store for 2025.
Helen Barnard, Director of Policy, Research and Impact, Trussell Trust
One of the biggest moments in 2025 will be when the Renters’ Rights Bill becomes law. This will give renters vital new protections from nofault evictions and from being trapped in an unhealthy home, with the bill requiring private landlords to address mould and damp within 14 days. These new rights should start to address the links between hunger, hardship and homelessness we see every week at food banks in the Trussell community.
New planning reforms and increased funding for affordable homes may also start to tackle the chronic lack of housing supply which has fuelled this spiral. But more action is needed if the UK government is to make a significant difference to this in the coming years.
However, 2025 is also set to bring the unwelcome return of a freeze to Local Housing Allowance. We’ve seen in previous years the appalling consequences of government policies which increased the gap between rents and housing benefit, soaring homelessness, as well as increased hunger and hardship. We hope that the government will rethink this decision next year and instead maintain the link between the cheapest rents and level of housing benefit, to ensure fewer people are at risk.
Anne Bentley, Neighbourhood Manager, Worthing Homes and winner of the 2024 Housing’s Next Generation competition
Better use of technology: I think providers will further explore digital tools and AI. We’re already seeing an increase in the use of AIs, like Copilot and Facilitator, to aid with manual processes. I think we’ll also see more organisations looking to use virtual inspection tools, enabling residents to show their repairs via video call rather than waiting for a physical inspection.
Development challenges: with operating and construction costs rising and ageing stock needing work to maintain, the push to build more homes will be harder to prioritise. I think that the sector’s development rates may continue to struggle which will be of concern to a government that has pledged 1.5 million new homes.
Focus on sustainability works: with the target of all social housing achieving an EPC rating C by 2030, I anticipate further focus on retrofit works. I think that this is another costly focus that will make prioritising development difficult, and it’ll be interesting to see how organisations manage the balancing act of these priorities.
Financial constraints: interest cover across the sector remains low and the rise in repairs doesn’t seem to be steadying. I think 2025 will be a challenging year financially for the sector and may result in organisations seeking creative solutions to cost-save or generate new lines of revenue.
“It all feels a bit doom and gloom, not least with the return of Trump and Musk’s real-time audition as the worst ever Bond villain”
Jo Causon, Chief Executive, The Institute of Customer Service
As we look towards 2025 in the housing sector, we’ll see some familiar and some new trends. While the recently revised NPPF means growth for the housing sector, the overall economic outlook will remain uncertain. Additionally, customer behaviours and profiles will continue to get more complex, deployment of AI in customer service will increase, and we’ll see a growing awareness of, and impact from, climate change.
There will also be increasing scrutiny on regulated sectors and their regulators, and the extent to which standards have been improved for customers – particularly as a new government seeks to make its mark.
With these challenges and opportunities in mind, it’s clear that there are no quick, easy routes to consistent growth. One thing that will remain consistent for the housing sector is that prioritising a strong, long-term focused customer strategy will remain a differentiator and will create strong returns for the sector.
The need for a balanced approach from leadership, continually considering and weighing the needs of customers, employees, investors, suppliers and other stakeholders will be as crucial as ever if not more so if we’re to move towards sustainable growth in 2025.
Sheron Carter, Chief Executive, Hexagon
The government has headlined building new homes as its north star. Turning the right to buy tap off is a good start if we want to achieve net surplus. The government now needs to settle the big question on how we’ll build the 1.5m new homes it has promised. I expect we’ll see more deals with the banks to stimulate affordable borrowing, a slow release of not enough additional grant funding for social housing, some reticence on a longterm rent settlement, and a possible marginal shift on rent convergence.
“I sense the ambition to create massive RPs is waning. The focus on existing customers and their homes will continue as consumer standards bear down on priorities”
New homes will, however, be competing with cladding remediation, energy efficiency and the big-bang approach to Awaab’s Law. The trade-offs will see statutory and regulatory requirements prioritised over desirable targets. Highly urbanised areas will be most adversely affected. I’m not sure how local authorities with much-depleted resources will find their way through this. I think it more likely the government will put money their way than ours.
Resourcing the Building Safety Regulator to speed up their reviews is the other elephant in the room. Unlocking this requires money that the government may not have. If we’re called upon to fund it, guess what – even less money for new homes.
All these aspirations are laudable, and few would argue against them. Cutting our coat according to our cloth is the inconvenient reality. Choices will have to be made. Let’s hope we all make the right ones.
Mushtaq Khan, Chief Executive, Housing Diversity Network
Two predictions for 2025 from me.
I think that housing organisations will face greater scrutiny on equality, diversity and inclusion outcomes. The increased focus on tenant safety and satisfaction and the disparities that are evident will force housing organisations to demonstrate how they are addressing inequalities, particularly in tenant services and staff diversity. I’m really keen on mandatory reporting of tenant demographics, accessibility and inclusion initiatives, although this seems some way away.
The push for diversity at board level, emphasised in much of HDN’s recent work, will continue to grow. Housing associations will also move towards adopting targets for ethnic minority, gender and disability representation in leadership roles, especially as part of succession planning. I always tell organisations, it’s easier to grow your own rather than recruit.
Transparent reporting on progress towards these goals will become a standard practice, driven by pressure from funders, regulators and communities themselves.
Nick Atkin, Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing
2025 is set to be a transformative year for housing. There will be a number of new opportunities from a government that clearly has a strong focus on housing and wants to get things done.
While most announcements have been about building new homes, the government cannot ignore the need to maintain and improve existing ones. Several reforms, including the English Devolution White Paper and Awaab’s Law, will demand a joined-up approach. Only by balancing customer experience, quality and financial pressures can we make any meaningful progress.
The government’s long-awaited housing strategy will emphasise devolved decision-making, placing partnerships between housing associations, local authorities and mayors at the forefront. We must ensure tenant and community voices shape these plans.
Tighter regulations around building safety, tenant satisfaction and environmental standards present challenges, but also opportunities. Compliance must go beyond ticking boxes; it should be integral to a culture focused on delivering the best possible service.
Digital transformation will become an essential enabler to our plans. AI and other technologies can improve efficiency and enhance customer experience, but we must strike the right balance between technology, innovation and human interaction. Housing is, above all, about people.
Sustainability remains a key priority. Retrofitting homes to reduce emissions will require collaboration and investment, but the benefits for the planet and our communities are too important to ignore.
2025 will be a pivotal year. Only by embracing change and acting boldly can we build and improve homes, transform lives and create a lasting impact for future generations.
Kate Roberts, Customer Success Director, switchee
“A court case under Awaab’s Law is likely to happen in 2025, setting a precedent that could result in a greater urgency to focus on data intelligence, communication and resources”
Consumer Standards: last year saw the first consumer gradings issued by the RSH. While some of the early results caused some controversy, the regulator appeared to improve its output over time, in both detail and vigour. Results for many of the larger housing providers are still pending, so it’s still yet to be seen how they will perform. If many of these providers receive lower gradings, this will hopefully encourage landlords to prioritise resident experience, using feedback to drive improvements. However, concerns persist about the regulator’s emphasis on management information over resident input.
Awaab’s Law: with compliance deadlines approaching, housing providers are beginning to shift how they manage damp and mould cases. However, many remain reactive rather than proactive. A court case under Awaab’s Law is likely to happen in 2025, setting a precedent that could result in a greater urgency to focus on data intelligence, communication and resources. Increasingly, providers are adopting IoT solutions, such as sensors and virtual surveyors, to monitor and address damp and mould more effectively. Claims farms continue to challenge landlords, emphasising the need for transparent, accessible complaint processes and publicising outcomes to reassure residents of fair treatment. The cost implications of both resourcing damp and mould issues and compensation for residents could also result in more mergers taking place, or possibly an increase in DLOs.
IoT: beyond damp and mould, IoT is also helping providers develop smarter asset strategies by integrating insights into how homes and residents operate. This could lead to more cost-efficient decision-making for planned works and designing future homes tailored to tenant needs. Together, these advancements aim to create safer, better-maintained housing while optimising resource allocation.
Alison Inman, Chair of Tpas and former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing
I’m not sure I know anyone who started 2025 giddy with anticipation for the sunlit uplands coming into reach. It all feels a bit doom and gloom, not least with the return of Trump and Musk’s real time audition as the worst-ever Bond villain.
The temporary accommodation crisis is going to continue, pushing more and more local authorities toward bankruptcy and it’s hard to see that turning around soon.
Whilst there’s definitely no magic money tree, I’m hopeful that we’ll see a fairer settlement for housing in the spending review and an upturn in the number of social housing starts.
Repairs and maintenance will continue (rightly) to be under the microscope of tenants, the regulator and the ombudsman, and hopefully the penny has finally dropped with senior staff across the sector that this needs to be at the top of their to-do lists.
So, not a rapturous new dawn but hopefully some firm foundations will be a long-term plan for housing and by this time next year I may be a little cheerier. Don’t bet the farm on it though.
Aisha Akhtar, Interim Head of Legal Services and Practice Manager, Sovereign Network Group
2025 will bring significant change to the sector. We can expect more regulation with housing providers facing ongoing scrutiny around governance, safety and tenant satisfaction, which are embedded within the consumer standards and the tenant satisfaction measures (TSMs). Provisions of The Procurement Act 2023 and the Social Housing Regulation Act will also come in to force this year, bringing new considerations for the sector with more focus on transparency and accountability. This includes Awaab’s Law (pending secondary legislation), which will bring strict timescales for social housing landlords to address repair issues such as damp and mould.
“I’m really keen on mandatory reporting of tenant demographics, accessibility and inclusion initiatives, although this seems some way away”
The new law demonstrates the ongoing shift to a more proactive and resident-focused approach by prioritising tenant well-being and satisfaction. With these heightened responsibilities, landlords will look to embrace digitisation to enable more accurate data-driven decisions. Some landlords are already investing in technology such as artificial intelligence to help achieve compliance with energy efficiency and maintenance standards as well as to provide better outcomes for residents.
The year will bring a renewed focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing. The demand continues to outpace supply. More collaboration between housing providers, local authorities and private developers will be key for secure funding.
Louise Wood, Non-Executive Director Public Practice and Chief Planning Officer, Cornwall Council
As the government heads into 2025 with a new National Planning Policy Framework and ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes this parliament, it’s set to be a critical year for the sector.
A major consideration in 2025, across the board, must be ensuring local councils have the skills and capacity to deliver this mission. We’re supportive of the 300 planners that have been committed, but our research at Public Practice concludes that the biggest recruitment challenge is in fact the difficulty in attracting talent.
With regards to skills, we’re seeing a leap in the number of property development and capital delivery roles needed, from 29% in 2023 to 55% in 2024. The ambition to build 1.5 million homes means that the need for more commercial and delivery skills will only increase. However, it’s not just about capital delivery. We believe design, sustainability and community engagement are vital for delivering effective long-term outcomes in housing. Addressing staff shortages in other disciplines, including ecology, infrastructure and utilities, environmental sustainability and master planning, is crucial.
So, the trend we hope to see this year is more talented built environment professionals, from a variety of professional and lived-experience backgrounds, making an impact as change-makers and leaders in local government, and we’ll be doing everything we can to support this drive.
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Welcome
The new year brings prospects for more new homes and a welcome government focus on health and social care. Crucial decisions will be made this spring on the chancellor’s priorities and therefore the prospects for the sector.
We all know the road ahead will be difficult. But are there ways to identify the pinchpoints, remove obstacles to progress and help housing organisations realise their and their tenants’ goals?
Researchers from King’s College London have used a visual mapping technique to plot the critical issues in social housing and identify potential points of leverage where interventions could make a difference.
The technique can be used to explore the complex dynamics in delivery of new housing, the relationships (or breakdown of relationships) between tenants and landlords, resource allocation, and many other key issues. The researchers say their work can help to challenge long-held assumptions about the ‘right’ way to approach
Sobering
difficult problems, such as stigma.
The sector’s future is also firmly in the minds of leaders at Clarion Housing Group. Its report on the future profile of tenants finds that the sector will be housing residents who are increasingly older, living with disabilities and poorer. Action is needed now to meet the challenges when large numbers of tenants are already struggling financially.
And finally to Scandinavia, where the Nordic countries have long enjoyed a reputation for high levels of tenant empowerment in social housing. But researchers from Denmark and Finland warn that economic pressures, policy reform and changing housing markets threaten to erode the precious democratic rights of tenants. They call for policymakers and social housing organisations to address the tensions between participatory ideals and policy reforms.
Janis Bright Editor, Evidence
reading to start the new year
Research by Clarion Housing Group predicts social tenants will be older, poorer and more disabled in the future.
The Resident of the Future report notes that more than two in five Clarion tenants have disabilities, and the figure has strongly increased in recent years. More than half of over-55s report having a disability, most commonly impaired mobility. Mental health problems have also increased significantly.
The report also finds that half of Clarion tenants are struggling financially, and again the trend is upward. One in five had gone without food, and 14% used a foodbank. Two in five had used credit or borrowed for essential items.
The report finds that urgent action is needed to reset the social and economic outlook in the UK. It calls for “help and space for people looking for work to find secure jobs, protect time for caring around work, ensuring social security provides enough income to afford essentials and
expanding access to quality homes”.
Clarion is calling for a new government approach to rebuild wrap-around support for vulnerable residents – but also notes that public finances will continue to be stretched. The association plans to feed its findings into a new customer strategy to meet the immediate challenges in the coming year.
The data builds on a number of other reports on the decline in availability of social and affordable housing to rent. A Commons Library report from March 2024 noted that new lettings have been in decline, and the steepest fall has been in lettings for social rent. Construction of more social housing for rent in recent years has not offset the large decline since the early 1990s. In the last five years losses of social housing stock through sales, demolition and right to buy have averaged 26,700 a year – though this is many fewer than in the 1990s.
The report notes the competing priorities of building
new homes and maintaining or upgrading existing stock. While the new government has set ambitious targets, all eyes will be on the chancellor’s spending review this spring
to find out how the programme is to be delivered. And as Clarion notes, fundamental changes to support and care for residents will also be required.
Delivering social housing in London: Mapping linked challenges faced by housing associations
Anna Pagani
“[…] it’s become social work, it’s become healthcare, it’s become the community involvement […] we are stepping in and taking things that local authorities would have done but are not in the position to do. […] the bit that really worries me [is] that sense of ‘can’t do everything’ […].”
(Housing association participant, May 2023)
Social housing is essential to ensuring affordable access for all and is a cornerstone of housing justice. Yet in England, and particularly in London, the social housing stock has decreased dramatically, from 31% in 1979 to 16% in 2023. Most studies to date have addressed the causes and consequences of this loss in isolation — focusing for instance on changing housing politics, policies and standards, on tenant stigma and discrimination, or on redevelopment and gentrification. Understanding their interactions and the system they shape, however, is critical to guide interventions that maximise co-benefits and minimise unintended consequences.
With this goal, our latest study used systems thinking to visualise the complex system that underpins critical issues in the social housing sector, and to identify possible leverage points within it. We translated the content of the report The Better Social Housing Review and the book chapter The Gentrification of Social Housing by Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia into six systems maps (causal loop diagrams or CLDs), revealing the system structures that govern the dynamics we observe in the social housing sector in England. The diagrams were enriched and validated in participatory activities involving four Londonbased housing associations and the authors of the two studies in activities. Here, I summarise some of the key dynamics emerging from the analysis.
1. Pressures on the delivery of social homes
In England, and London specifically, social housing delivery faces multiple converging pressures – external financial pressure, austerity-driven funding cuts, changing safety and climate policies, and the increasing support needs of tenants. In response, housing associations turn to marketbased solutions to grow and maintain their social housing stock (the cross-subsidy model). According to participants, as the share of market homes increases, social housing is reduced to a “specialist product”, reserved for tenants
with more complex needs. This results in an increase in the demand for support services that housing associations provide to their tenants, and thus more financial pressure – a reinforcing loop. The residualisation of the sector is deepened in parallel by government policies like the right to buy, generating shortages in the most attractive larger, family-sized homes – triggering, again, more construction. The higher costs to replace larger homes and the difficulty for social renting households to afford these properties (due to the cap on their income) leads to a reduction in the size of new homes, limiting tenant mobility and reinforcing overcrowding, health issues and longstanding social inequalities.
2. Disconnection between management and tenants (see figure 1)
Government-driven policies prioritising homeownership, and the associated reduction in the quality of the housing stock and tenant health and wellbeing, altogether intensify stigma and discrimination of social housing tenants. Stereotypes can lead to resident disengagement from decision-making processes, especially among racialised and minoritised communities, whose voices are too often overlooked. These system structures reinforce stigma, worsen the disconnection of staff with local issues and tenants, and undermine housing quality, health and engagement.
The CLD also shows how inefficient, outdated service models further erode trust in the ability of housing associations to address issues, worsening resident exclusion and self-exclusion. Meanwhile, tenant engagement is further undermined by the lack of funding to support social infrastructure, affecting social cohesion, stereotypes and stigma.
3. Management issues
Poor connections between housing associations and tenants not only discourage complaint reporting but also undermine accurate problem identification, resulting in delayed, reactive approaches to repairs. This reactive stance strains staff, who must handle heavy workloads amid frequent turnover, larger patch sizes and inadequate training, all of which compound their stress and reduce their capacity for proactive maintenance. In turn, underreporting and misreporting of issues persist, eroding staff’s understanding of housing conditions and fuelling a cycle
of inefficiency and frustration. Participants stressed that providing accessible, user-friendly technologies – and avoiding a ‘digital by default’ approach – could improve communication, streamline reporting, and ultimately foster more responsive and effective housing services.
4. Resource allocation (see figure 2)
The fourth CLD highlights the tension between addressing the social housing shortage through new construction or through maintenance, repair and retrofit. Incentives such as zero VAT on construction (compared to 20% for maintenance and repair) and government funding dedicated to new build encourage housing providers to prioritise construction over proactive maintenance. Although new build is perceived as more convenient –lowering maintenance costs and meeting government-set targets, while supporting the upkeep of the existing stock –the emphasis on construction can actually draw resources away from improving existing housing stock. That results in more frequent and costly reactive repairs, staff fatigue, an erosion of trust in and reputation of the housing association, increasing empty properties and an even greater housing shortage.
5. Competing interests
Austerity-driven sell-offs, dwindling maintenance and demolition have contributed to the deterioration of social housing quality, fuelling stigma and discrimination that, in turn, justify further demolition and privatisation. While alternative models such as shared ownership are touted
as solutions to create ‘mixed communities’ and meet residents’ aspirations, such approaches contribute to existing communities’ displacement, reinforcing the stigma mobilised to justify and advance privatisation policies. Redevelopment of centrally-located social housing estates is also part of a speculative mechanism encouraging the liberation of land for the construction of market homes. In contrast, social homes in cheaper, peripheral areas are dependent on the quality of the infrastructure provided. Negotiations with developers frequently focus on shortterm viability and profit, undermining the long-term success of the estates. However, according to participants, when housing associations own the land and prioritise “placeenhancing” developments, they can help address local housing shortages and counteract the marginalising effects of privatisation-led regeneration.
6. Engineering communities
The concept of social mixing – often invoked to justify estate regeneration through demolition and new construction – remains deeply contested. In practice, attempts to artificially create ‘mixed communities’ can produce displacement, escalating property prices and cultural domination by wealthier incomers, ultimately reinforcing segregation, stigma and social tension. Although social mixing is perceived and presented as a path to reducing poverty concentration and encouraging aspirational attitudes, the system structures displayed by our CLD show how this approach can paradoxically exacerbate the very issues it aims to solve. Participants noted that current regeneration projects increasingly involve community-
Figure 1. Disconnection between tenants and management. R = reinforcing loops, B = balancing loops. A positive/negative (±) polarity indicates a change of the variables in the same/opposite direction. Thick line = stronger relationship.
financial pressure on HAs (internal, external)
social housing target (quality, number)
VAT on retrofit, maintenance and repair
government funding for construction vs regeneration and retrofit
need for maintenance and repair
social housing shortage (quality, quantity, adequacy)
maintenance and repair
need for efficiency
HAs' responsibility to
surplus to reinvest
cuts to core and non-core services
available funding for maintenance and repair
staff fatigue and distress interventions (regulator, lawyers) reputation of HAs
tenants' complaints for disrepair
proactive vs reactive approach
cut to consumer regulation
led planning and an emphasis on long-term adaptability, through masterplans designed to meet evolving resident needs. Yet, the mechanisms and lasting impacts of these strategies are still uncertain.
Places to intervene in the system
The six diagrams highlight how political and policy shifts, as well as the strategies designed to respond to them, emerge from partial understandings and competing priorities – such as financial viability, meeting housing targets or speculative interests. In this landscape, corrective policies risk being insufficient to tackle structural issues and may continue to trigger unintended consequences. Our visual representations were used to reflect on possible places to intervene in the system – ie, ‘leverage points’.
Stocks and flows: increasing the share of social homes and their affordability would require decreasing outflow (sales, demolition), while revising social tenant income caps. These strategies could help address tenant stigma and discrimination, the narrative underpinning social mixing and speculation, by aligning new construction with actual needs and minimising unnecessary redevelopment.
Ability of the system to self-organise: decentralising management and strengthening local governance and social infrastructure could build trust, empower tenants, improve reporting and enhance the resilience of housing associations.
The goal(s) of the system: reorienting the purpose of
regeneration projects – from simply meeting numerical targets to protecting and sustaining existing communities – could guide systemic design interventions, establishing a backstop from gentrification. Engaging residents in defining these goals in a participatory way could foster equitable, adaptable masterplans that support healthy, liveable social housing estates.
Overall, our CLDs and the proposed interventions can help challenge long-standing assumptions about how to address critical issues in the social housing sector – such as stigma and discrimination, residualisation and financial pressure – and offer alternative, systemic approaches.
This article is a summary of the journal paper Systemic Issues of Social Housing in London: mapping interrelated challenges faced by Housing Associations (reference below), which is currently in review.
References
Baker, H., Brathwaite, J., Singha, S., Wylde, N., & Markham, T. (2022) The Better Social Housing Review. Retrieved from https://www.bettersocialhousingreview.org.uk/
Fernández Arrigoitia, M. (2018) The gentrification of social housing, in: Handbook of Gentrification Studies, pp. 262–280.
Pagani, A., Zimmermann, N., Macmillan, A., Ke, Z., Davies, M. (In review). Systemic Issues of Social Housing in London:
Figure 2. Resources allocation. Hash marks = delay. Dotted lines = uncertain links (hypotheses, participant suggestions).
mapping interrelated challenges faced by Housing Associations. Housing Studies. Preprint available at: https:// doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/hbfwu
Anna Pagani is Senior Lecturer in Engineering at King’s College London and Honorary Research Fellow at UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering.
This article is based on a study conducted with Nici Zimmermann (UCL, IEDE), Alex Macmillan (University of Otago, NZ), Ke Zhou (UCL, IEDE), and Michael Davies (UCL IEDE). The study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoc. Mobility Fellowship (grant number P500PS_210875).
Resident democracy in Nordic social housing: Evolving challenges in Denmark and Finland
Rikke Skovgaard Nielsen and Johanna Lilius
Resident democracy has long been central to Danish and Finnish social housing systems, serving as a beacon of participatory governance and social equity. This democratic model can empower tenants by giving them a significant voice in the decision-making processes that shape their homes and neighbourhoods. Rooted in the ideals of collective responsibility and local control, resident democracy has been celebrated for its ability to foster inclusive, stable and socially cohesive communities.
However, recent developments in Denmark and Finland reveal mounting challenges to the model. Economic pressures, policy reforms and changing housing markets are reshaping the governance of social housing in ways that risk undermining tenant influence. These trends reflect a growing tension between participatory ideals and the realities of managing modern housing systems. This article critically examines the evolving landscape of resident democracy in social housing in Denmark and Finland, offering insights into the challenges and contradictions inherent in their approaches.
Resident democracy: A defining feature of Nordic social housing
The concept of resident democracy has a long history in the Nordic context. It involves mechanisms that allow tenants to directly participate in the governance of social housing associations. This includes voting on maintenance budgets, deciding on house rules and influencing strategic decisions about housing developments.
Resident democracy is more than an administrative tool – it embodies the belief that social housing should not only be affordable and accessible but also governed democratically by those who live in it. By giving tenants real power, resident democracy can foster trust between residents and housing organisations while promoting accountability and transparency.
Yet, the ideal of resident democracy is under pressure. In both Denmark and Finland, shifts in governance and policy
have introduced new challenges to resident involvement in social housing – despite societal trends towards increased use of participatory and deliberative governance models.
Denmark:
A democratic legacy under strain
Denmark has traditionally been at the forefront of resident democracy in social housing. Its housing model is underpinned by cooperative principles, with tenant boards playing a central role in managing the housing associations. Residents not only participate in decision-making but also have formal representation within housing organisations, ensuring their voices are heard.
Policy changes have created significant challenges, however. In 2014, a new board of directors was introduced for the social masterplans – ie, the social regeneration initiatives in selected social housing areas. This strengthened the commitment of the municipality and the social housing organisations and improved the managerial attention to the plans with positive effects on the implementation of the masterplans. At the same time, however, it moved residents further away from influence. Previously, residents had in most cases been part of the steering committee for the social masterplans but were now excluded from the new boards that took over the overall responsibility. Consequently, the elected tenant representatives feel that they have lost influence.
Furthermore, the Danish government’s controversial ‘ghetto package’ passed in 2018 has imposed strict measures on social housing areas classified as vulnerable. These measures, which include demolition, sale to private developers, redevelopment and changes to resident quotas, often bypass tenant input. Tenants are asked to pass the plans but fear the consequences of saying no. While policymakers argue that these interventions are necessary to combat segregation and promote integration, critics highlight the democratic deficit they create. Residents of affected neighbourhoods feel excluded from decisions that drastically reshape their communities, undermining the very principles of resident democracy.
The Danish experience highlights a critical tension: while resident democracy is celebrated as a cornerstone of social housing, policy interventions often prioritise efficiency and broader societal goals over tenant participation. This raises difficult questions about how to balance collective
governance with the need to address systemic social challenges.
Finland: The complexity of pragmatism
Finland’s approach to resident democracy has traditionally been less formalised than Denmark’s but remains an important feature of its social housing system. Tenant representation is integrated into many housing companies, where residents can influence decisions about maintenance, budgets and local policies. This participatory framework has fostered a sense of accountability and mutual respect between tenants and housing providers.
However, Finland faces its own set of challenges in maintaining resident democracy. The strength of tenant participation varies significantly between housing companies. In some cases, active efforts are made to include tenants in governance, while in others, decisionmaking is dominated by professional managers or boards with little input from residents.
The increasing emphasis on cost-efficiency has further complicated matters. Housing providers, seeking to optimise operations and reduce costs, often adopt centralised governance models that limit opportunities for tenant involvement. Residents report feeling sidelined in decisions that affect their housing environments, such as rent adjustments or long-term redevelopment plans. While resident democracy remains an ideal, its practical implementation often falls short in the face of these competing demands.
Structural and systemic challenges
The cases of Denmark and Finland reveal broader structural challenges to resident democracy. While the concept remains central to the ethos of these systems, its practical application is increasingly constrained by external pressures. Paradoxically, urban governance in general is simultaneously increasing the attention on securing resident involvement in city and neighbourhood development through participatory and deliberative models of governance, such as co-creation.
Policy reforms significantly affect resident democracy in social housing. In Denmark, the ‘ghetto package’ reflects a trend toward centralised, top-down interventions aimed at addressing broader social issues. Whether aiming to do so or not, such reforms often bypass tenant input, creating a democratic deficit in housing governance. Similarly, in Finland, housing policies that prioritise operational efficiency can inadvertently marginalise tenants, limiting their influence over decisions that directly affect their lives.
Conclusion: Preserving the democratic ethos
The cases of Denmark and Finland illustrate the challenges and contradictions facing resident democracy in Nordic social housing. While both countries have made significant strides in fostering tenant participation, they now face pressures that threaten to undermine this democratic model.
The tension between resident democracy and the pressure of modern governance creates a paradox. On one hand, tenant participation is celebrated as a hallmark of Nordic social housing, embodying values of empowerment, inclusivity and social cohesion. On the other hand, the realities of effective governance, policy reform and changing housing markets increasingly limit the scope for democratic governance within social housing.
To preserve resident democracy, policymakers and social housing organisations must actively address the tensions between participatory ideals and policy reforms of modern governance. This will require rethinking governance structures, prioritising tenant voices and reaffirming the commitment to democratic principles.
The stakes are high. As the foundation of social cohesion and community empowerment, resident democracy is not just a feature of Nordic social housing – it’s a defining strength.
Rikke Skovgaard Nielsen is a Senior Researcher at Aalborg University, Denmark, and Johanna Lilius is Head of Research in the Department of Architecture, Aalto University, Finland.
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Housing in Practice
Reaping the rewards of climate action
Neil Merrick reports on how a housing association’s tenants are helping to spread the word about energy efficiency, while enjoying lower bills.
The tenant’s story
For the past year, Alan Wright and his family have been enjoying the benefits of solar power. Since April, his monthly direct debit for electricity and gas has fallen from £200 to £150.
Along with other tenants of Raven Housing Trust, he can see how much electricity is stored in his battery via a smart meter or app, and then decide the cheapest time to use appliances, such as a washing machine.
“We get most power on the sunny days. On a wet day you have to wait for the sun to come out and then it boosts the battery in the loft”, he says. “I’m a stickler for looking at my smart meter.”
Wright has lived in the semi-detached house in Tadworth, near Epsom, since 1987 with different family members. The house was retrofitted in 2024 as part of Raven’s programme of bringing all properties up to energy performance certificate (EPC) level C. Double-glazed windows and cavity wall insulation were also fitted.
Raven’s records show the house now emits 1.7 tonnes of carbon per year compared with 3.8 before. But it’s the numbers on Wright’s bank statement that impress him the most. “By saving more than £300 per year, I could afford to put Christmas on the table,” he says.
Why is Raven improving energy efficiency in its homes?
Raven Housing Trust was created in 2002 following a stock transfer from Reigate and Banstead Council.
At present, more than 5,000 of its 7,000 homes in Surrey and Sussex meet at least EPC C – equivalent to 89% of all stock and up from 79% in 2021. By 2030, all social housing in England is meant to meet EPC C.
Are tenants totally behind the changes?
When it embarked on the first wave of improvements in 2022, Raven tended to tell tenants why the changes were needed rather than sell the idea to them.
Though the trust stressed how solar heating helps to tackle climate change, this wasn’t generally seen as critical to households grappling with rising energy bills and other financial pressures.
For wave 2 of the programme, which began in 2023, Raven went for more positive messaging, stressing that it wished to make homes “warmer, quieter and cheaper”, while equipping them for the future.
As a social landlord, Raven has no legal right to enter people’s homes. Since 2022, an average of 14% of tenants have declined to have work carried out. However, the rate of refusal fell from 23% in wave 1, which finished in 2023, to 10% in wave 2, which is ongoing.
Anthony Day, Raven’s sustainability manager, points out that, by setting a target of all social housing meeting EPC C by 2030, the government has, in effect, introduced a statutory target without any statutory back-up.
But winning over tenants is about more than simply hitting targets. By stressing how solar power can reduce electricity costs, and thermal comfort helps to reduce damp and mould, the trust is converting residents to the idea of saving energy and making a contribution to national sustainability targets.
“Day recalls how a tenant told him how she had rung her daughter after checking the amount of energy stored in her battery, telling her daughter to come around and use her washing machine as the electricity was free of charge”
But targets linked to achieving net zero (by 2050) were already built into the trust’s business plan. “A huge amount of carbon is emitted from housing,” says Ali Bennett, Raven’s director of homes. “We recognise that we have a role to play.”
Since 2022, the trust has upgraded more than 500 homes. Most are fitted with solar panels and battery storage systems, meaning that residents are more likely to use electricity than gas, and save money in the process. Some properties undergo more extensive retrofitting, including modern ventilation, double-glazed windows, plus loft and wall insulation. Some homes in Epsom were fitted with ground source heat pumps, while a communal solar system was installed in nearby Ewell.
Raven says it takes a holistic approach to repairs, voids and capital works to ensure that sustainability programmes aren’t carried out in isolation, reducing disruption to tenants.
“While people have an understanding of climate issues and what’s happening in the world, they’re more interested in the impact these things have on their day-to-day lives,” adds Ali Bennett.
Tenants with solar panels generally check how much power is stored in their battery via an app. This also tells them the best time to draw on the electricity generated, helping them to save money.
Day recalls how a tenant told him how she had rung her daughter after checking the amount of energy stored in her battery, telling her daughter to come around and use her washing machine as the electricity was free of charge.
“We have to explain how, for three or four weeks’ disruption [for a full retrofit], they will gain 20 to 25 years of economic benefits,” he says. “The app shows how much energy they’re generating and gives them more control over a significant cost in their lives.”
How do residents find out about the programme?
Energy efficiency and wider improvements are explained by Raven’s tenant liaison officers and contractors when they visit people’s homes.
In addition, last April, Raven turned a recently vacated
home in Redhill into a sustainability hub, where the technology is explained in more detail. Some tenants may be unfamiliar with solar panels and battery storage, says Anthony Day, and require reassurance as well as practical demonstrations.
“We want to get away from the idea that we’re filling people’s homes with strange tech,” he says. “It’s important to explain what impact these measures can have on them and their homes.”
As more tenants are won over, they may tell their neighbours and assist staff in explaining the value of energy efficiency. “By our tenants becoming advocates, we get a much better response from other tenants,” says Day.
Are gas boilers being phased out?
Not for the time being. Raven says it’s keen to explore alternative technology, but doesn’t want to put all its eggs in one basket as technology evolves. Where gas boilers are installed, they’re dual fuel ‘ready’ and can be switched to other energy sources, such as hydrogen, at a later date.
How much is this costing?
To date, Raven has paid about £1.5m towards retrofitting, while receiving about £900,000 from the government’s social housing decarbonisation fund (SHDF). For wave 3 of the programme, involving 300 homes, the trust hopes to receive funding from the warm homes social housing fund, which has replaced the SHDF.
However, this may mean Raven and other social landlords receive less government money. While the SHDF
contributed up to 25% of the cost of upgrading each home, the new fund will pay a maximum of £7,500 per home, well short of the £50,000 sometimes spent on a full retrofit.
How else are tenants reducing their carbon footprints?
At the same time as retrofitting homes and cutting energy bills, Raven promotes the value of a greener lifestyle. Measures include cycle paths on estates to reduce car use, along with biodiversity schemes, such as the re-wilding of green space.
“We offer guidance on reducing damp and mould and keeping homes warm, but this is not judgemental. It’s purely educational,” stresses Anthony Day.
What can other social landlords learn from Raven’s approach?
Raven’s policy on upgrading homes to EPC C is based around persuasion not preaching. To some extent, it’s in tenants’ hands whether housing is upgraded and made more energy efficient.
But thanks to the appeal of an app that shouts pounds and pence, most residents are embracing tech that goes some way towards tackling a global issue, while also helping the UK meet its net zero goals over the next 25 years.
It’s not that tenants are disinterested in climate issues, they just have other things on their plate, explains Ali Bennett. “Many of our residents don’t have the luxury of choosing an electric vehicle but still want to do something that makes a difference. As landlords, we can help them do that and put them in a stronger position to pay their rent.”
C1, C2, C3, C4, GO!
Cassette tapes are back and so are inspections. But what C rating will you get from the RSH?
We all know what the inspectors are looking for. They want to see hard evidence of:
• An up-to-date stock condition survey
• A business plan that shows when the works from the survey will be done
• Accurate data on Decent Homes and safety compliance, and
• Listening to and acting on the views of tenants.
Leading councillors, or the board, must prove that they have put in place a regime for meeting the Consumer Standards. How robust is your governance? That’s what RSH wants to know.
The Consumer Standards cover all your dealings with tenants across all of your homes. It is a broad agenda to say the least. Often you don’t have enough cash to do all that you need to do. So, it is far from easy to pass this test. But your leaders will want to get the best rating that they can.
HQN is working with 40+ landlords on consumer regulation. We can help you to:
• Pin down exactly where you sit versus the Standards today, and
• Put together a Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time Bound (SMART) improvement plan.
HQN can provide tailored support including:
• Briefings for leading councillors, board members and officers
• Authoritative reviews of all services with indicative C ratings
• Assessing the documents and presentations you give to the RSH
• Qualified experts on housing management and maintenance
• Reviews of complaints handling
• Reviews of compliance with the Rent Standard
• Preparing for re-inspections.
When you get that RSH call – call us. Or better still – call us before!
Ombudsman Corner
By Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman
2025 will be a year of change for the social housing sector. From its response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to the Decent Homes Standard, there are several government announcements that we’ll have to wait and see what the impact will be.
But one law we know is coming and in what form is Awaab’s Law. Whilst regulations are yet to be laid, landlords know they’re going to have to improve when it comes to dealing with hazards.
Just last month we published a report containing cases that once again should shock landlords into ensuring it’s not them named next time. We covered cases of children at risk from exposed electrical wires or falling through holes in floors large enough for them to fit. Older people experiencing temperatures of 35°C because of faulty boilers. Dead rats making someone’s home uninhabitable or reports of skin conditions because of contaminated water.
action on hazards, and doing so will make them better prepared for Awaab’s Law.
One fundamental flaw in the sector’s current approach is a failure to risk assess and triage cases effectively – something many landlords in our report said they were fixing following our determinations.
Hazards are assessed based on the circumstances of the household – age, health, vulnerabilities – and omitting triaging could result in hazards being missed. Landlords should consider this point as they develop plans for Awaab’s Law.
“It shouldn’t be for the resident to phone up to report a hazard so that the landlord can identify it”
Secondly, are we confident as a sector that all landlords are being sufficiently proactive in identifying hazards? It shouldn’t be for the resident to phone up to report a hazard so that the landlord can identify it – it’s for the resident to report a problem such as pests, electrics or asbestos and for the landlord to think whether it’s a statutory hazard or not. And to do so without waiting for action from Environmental Health.
Despite the seriousness of the failings in this report, these hazards can go unresolved for months and years. In several cases, repairs were unresolved at the point of the ombudsman’s decision and in one case the landlord mishandled the local authority’s improvement notice.
When publishing this report I said it showed a degree of complacency when responding to hazards. When the statutory framework has been around for 20 years, why is this the case? Why does the sector need another piece of legislation to tell it how to respond effectively to what can be serious situations? In waiting for new measures, landlords shouldn’t lose sight of the fact there’s already sufficient statute in place to handle these issues with more urgency.
Therefore, right now landlords should be assuring themselves they can deliver robust
Following on from this, I’ve seen a pattern in the last few months of improvement notices for the most serious hazards being mishandled by landlords. This mustn’t be allowed to become a theme we see in our casework.
To end, here are some practical lessons and challenges for landlords. What does your oversight, monitoring, records and communication look like when you’re tackling hazards? Have you connected the dots between a hazard in one property and others in a block? Do you have the right and proportionate approach to temporary moves? And how can you deal with a complex hazardous situation when there’s a breakdown in trust?
Taking action on these lessons will help landlords deliver that basic human right of a warm, safe and decent home.
Supported living in crisis: The human and financial cost of a lack of investment
Graeme Jackson, Head of Investment and Development
Advance Housing and Support
Despite analysis by the Local Government Association showing that investing £1.6 billion in supported housing would reap savings of over £3.4 billion to the public purse, not to mention the human and social benefits of a successfully funded care sector, no additional support or investment in supported living provision has so far been outlined by the new government.
Advance supports more than 3,500 individuals with disabilities and mental health conditions through a range of services. We’re one of the most robust support providers in the sector, with over 50 years of experience. But just last year, one in three providers of supported housing were forced to close schemes, and even established providers aren’t immune to the effects of an increasingly difficult financial landscape.
Potential care providers who could help plug gaps in the demand for housing and support are being deterred from pushing forward with new schemes and services due to the lack of a long-term plan for supporting this vital sector.
Unsuitable settings
If individuals needing support can’t access quality services, they’re more likely to end up in hospital settings. This results in people with mental health issues being left in units that worsen their condition, those with learning disabilities who find living with others difficult being stuck in shared accommodation, and autistic individuals finding themselves unable to cope in unsuitable surroundings.
We need to do more to get people back into their communities. But we also need to ensure that when people are moved out of those hospital settings, the holistic support they need is there. Currently, due to lack of investment and reluctance by providers to enter into new supported living projects, the chance of readmittance to hospitals is much higher – and the cycle begins again.
Independence is key
We know that supported housing can reduce the likelihood that residents will go to hospital or residential care, as well as reduce re-admissions. What we also know is that, to the people we support, independence is key. Coming from
family homes or shared accommodation, customers want their own front door, but with support.
Our HOLD (Home Ownership for people with Longterm Disabilities) shared ownership scheme, which allows people to choose a home on the open market with Advance supporting with the process, has an increasingly large waiting list. The demand and desire for this type of supported living is clearly there. More funding for projects like this would not only provide more permanent, aspirational housing solutions, but protect the public purse by keeping people in their own homes and communities.
A long-sighted plan for supported living is needed. While costs to support our sector are substantial, we need the government to understand that the savings reaped by funding and investment in care services make it a sector that must be prioritised – in terms of both human and financial costs to the country. Preventing hospitalisation, emergency care, homelessness and strain on mental health services –supported living is critical to it all and will become more so as demand increases.
Looking ahead
Research from The Learning Disability and Autism Housing Network shows that without additional funding, England faces a shortfall of up to 17,000 homes for people with a learning disability and that investment of £3.9 billion is needed over the next 15 years. Increased funding is needed to tackle the shortfall in supply versus increasing demand, much of which will come from the high number of individuals currently living with family and friends – which is unsustainable as those carers age and are no longer able to provide that support.
There’s no denying huge investment is needed, but our hope is that the government will see past the initial figures and recognise the societal, human and financial benefits that we as a sector provide, not least saving the public purse £12,000 to £15,000 per person, per year.
Collaboration is also key. We need the government to work with housing and support agencies to identify opportunities for land suitable for new schemes, near to local amenities and embedded in communities. More support for homeownership and attracting registered providers to that market would also be hugely welcome – providing more choice and opportunity for people with learning disabilities to own their own home.
Social care needs to be funded in a way that is affordable and consistent. We need long-term funding and understanding of our contributions. Our hope for customers and society is that the government will have a well-funded outline for the next housing programme as part of the spring spending review, if not before.
Elevating community engagement: How a new code of practice can support social housing providers
By Melissa Lacide, Senior Engagement Officer
The Quality of Life Foundation
In today’s rapidly evolving housing landscape, effective community consultation and engagement aren’t just desirable – they’re essential.
For social housing providers, meeting regulatory expectations while fostering trust with residents can be a complex balancing act. This is where the Quality of Life Foundation’s Code of Practice for Effective Community Consultation and Engagement steps in as a potential gamechanging tool.
Designed to enhance consultation and engagement practices, our code helps housing providers build meaningful connections with residents, ensuring their voices are heard and valued.
What’s the code of practice?
The code of practice is an innovative guide rooted in extensive research and insights from the built environment and housing sectors. Though initially developed for planning and design, its relevance spans all aspects of community consultation and engagement. It’s an essential tool for social housing providers aiming to elevate their
“For
social housing providers, effective consultation isn’t just a regulatory requirement but an ethical imperative. Residents involved in decisions about their homes enjoy better wellbeing, a stronger sense of control and improved quality of life, aligning directly with social housing’s purpose”
practices, build collaborative relationships and deliver outcomes that reflect community needs.
Built on eight core principles, the code provides a flexible framework to assess and improve engagement practices, ensuring inclusivity, transparency and effectiveness.
The evidence behind the code
We developed the code of practice as a response to the largest-ever UK study on community engagement and consultation practices, which we worked on with leading universities – Reading, Cardiff, Ulster and Edinburgh. The research revealed troubling inconsistencies, with many practices found to be inadequate or non-existent, leaving people excluded from decisions affecting their lives.
The study’s findings highlighted the need for a robust guide to support consultation and engagement professionals. By drawing on these insights, the code was collaboratively designed to address these gaps, empower practitioners, and elevate good and excellent standards. We put it through rigorous testing with community engagement practitioners to ensure it’s both practical and impactful.
How social housing providers can benefit from the code
For social housing providers, effective consultation isn’t just a regulatory requirement but an ethical imperative. Residents involved in decisions about their homes enjoy better wellbeing, a stronger sense of control and improved quality of life, aligning directly with social housing’s purpose.
The code of practice’s eight principles (below) emphasise collaboration with residents and local stakeholders, ensuring that consultation and engagement efforts genuinely reflect community needs. By adopting the code, social housing providers can enhance their existing strategies for resident involvement, community investment and neighbourhood engagement.
1. Be accountable.
2. Be effective.
3. Be transparent.
4. Be inclusive.
5. Be timely.
6. Support mutual learning.
7. Demonstrate impact.
8. Publish feedback.
The code also complements recent regulatory changes, including the tenant satisfaction measures and revised consumer standards, which aim to empower residents and hold landlords accountable. By embedding the code’s principles and standards for good and excellent practice into their operations, social housing providers can strengthen these efforts and demonstrate their commitment to transparency, inclusivity and excellence.
The impact of effective consultation and engagement
Good practices benefit everyone. For residents, they build trust and provide a sense of control. For providers, they deliver insights, guiding decisions on issues like new developments, estate regeneration and asset management. Effective engagement also fosters partnerships and ensures investments align with community priorities.
Practical steps to get started
Adopting the code of practice is straightforward. Here are some practical steps you can take to enhance your consultation and engagement practices today:
1. Commit to the code: sign up to the code of practice to signal your organisation’s dedication to improving consultation and engagement practices.
2. Complete a self-assessment: use our free online selfassessment tool to evaluate your current practices and
processes. This provides valuable insights into areas of strength and opportunities for growth.
3. Learn from best practices: explore case studies showcasing successful consultation and engagement approaches. These examples offer inspiration and guidance for enhancing your own approach.
4. Foster collaboration: involve residents, staff and local stakeholders in shaping consultation and engagement strategies, ensuring that diverse perspectives are represented.
5. Invest in training and support: equip your teams with the knowledge and tools needed to implement the code’s principles effectively.
By embedding these steps into your practices and processes, you can ensure that residents feel empowered, valued and genuinely heard.
Discover more
The code of practice is more than a set of guidelines – it’s a pathway to creating thriving, collaborative communities. At www.qolf.org/code-of-practice, you’ll find resources, tools and case studies to help you get started. Or you can email us at mail@qolf.org to learn more about how the code can support your work.
Quality of life study themes (illustrator: Lizzie Lomax)
A life in 15 questions
Hayley Selway
Chief Executive, Two Rivers Housing
1. What do you do for fun?
I have two dogs: a bouncy German short-haired pointer and a yappy little miniature dachshund. I love spending time with them.
2. You have the power to change one thing about the social housing sector: what would it be?
It’d be great to have more capacity in the sector to deliver the types of homes that people need – homes that are warm, safe and affordable, that have the right space and storage and the right modifications for the families living there, that are located in the areas they want to live with the schools, shops, bus links, doctors surgeries, libraries, sports fields and everything else all on their doorstep. Big ask eh!
3. What advice would you give to someone starting out in housing? Make sure you come in everyday with the right attitude. Ask ‘What can I do today to make someone’s live easier or better?’. Also, don’t chase money. Chase doing the right thing… the money will come. And, you’re the main actor in your own story – make it a good one!
4. Who’s your favourite author, and why?
I’m a lazy reader and prefer books with short chapters. So, Stephen King, James Patterson and latterly Richard Osman.
5. Strangest thing you’ve ever experienced?
My cat Chloe, now sadly passed away, always used the toilet. You read that correctly.
6. What are your three favourite albums?
Led Zeppelin’s IV U2’s The Joshua Tree Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
7. Sat snugly at home or travelling around the world? Travelling around the world.
8. A world without music or a world without literature?
A world without literature – it’s music every time for me!
9. If you had to work in housing in another country, which would it be, and why?
Greece – for the climate, the people and the food.
10. Favourite food? Pasta or tapas.
11. Pessimistic, optimistic or unsure about the future?
Incredibly optimistic.
12. You can resurrect anyone from history and talk to them for an hour: who, and why?
Freddie Mercury – a musical genius and a lovely, complicated guy.
13. Favourite film? Goodfellas.
14. If you didn’t work in housing, what would you do?
I have a real interest in science –particularly life sciences – so maybe something in that field.
15. What makes for a good life? Laughing until you cry with old friends and seeing my daughter happy.
Rental income service health check
HQN provides an independent health check with full written report highlighting the current strengths of the service, areas requiring further development, along with recommendations in the form of an action plan.
What could a service review deliver?
• Initial meeting to understand your specific organisational requirements
• Work on site with staff in the Rental Income Team, other key internal teams, external stakeholders such as advice agencies, and home visits to residents
• Review of past and current performance including former tenant arrears debt
• Review and advise whether the current staff structure and budget (such as budget for external advice and any Homelessness Prevention Fund) is fit for purpose
• Reviews of individual rent accounts to ensure there are prompt and correct actions being taken
• Review of policies and procedures
• Review of how Universal Credit is managed including the relationship with the DWP Relationship Manager and Universal Credit Service Centre
• Review of the processes around people starting a new tenancy
• Plus much more.
For more information, please contact Anna Pattison at anna.pattison@hqnetwork.co.uk, call 01904 557197 or visit www.hqnetwork.co.uk
A week in the life of...
Ceri Theobald
Job title: Chief Executive Officer
Company: Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP)
Employee since: September 2024
Monday
Location, location, location: Norwich, but working throughout Lincolnshire, with a focus on Boston and Grimsby, where the majority of our customers live and our two principal offices are based.
Previous employment: Over ten years of experience in the housing sector. I joined LHP in September 2024, having previously spent four years as an Executive Director at Futures Housing Group.
We kicked off with our weekly executive leadership team catch-up. These sessions are invaluable for ensuring alignment across the team, addressing challenges and planning for the days ahead.
Next was an energising meeting with North East Lincolnshire Council to discuss a project involving people in prison building modular homes in the Grimsby area. The initiative aims to address the urgent need for social housing and supported housing for vulnerable groups while supporting, empowering and upskilling individuals who are currently in prison and post-release.
The day ended with a complex customer complaint discussion, involving several teams including repairs, antisocial behaviour, safeguarding and neighbourhoods. It was a challenging case, requiring input from across the organisation, but we managed to develop a resolution that I hope will make a meaningful difference for the customer.
Tuesday
I joined our Estates team in Grimsby to see their work firsthand. This team is essential in maintaining clean, safe and welcoming neighbourhoods. From clearing fly-tipping to maintaining bin stores and void properties, their efforts ensure our estates remain places that residents are proud to call home. Spending time with Darren, David, James and Ray gave me valuable insights into the operational challenges they face and the dedication they bring to their work.
Wednesday
Wednesday was all about strategic planning. I spent the day with the executive leadership team preparing for an upcoming board strategy day. It’s crucial to ensure our plans are robust and aligned with our goals for the organisation. Strategy days like this set the tone for how we approach the future and deliver on our commitments to customers.
Thursday
I spent Thursday with our Neighbourhoods team, focusing on the rollout of our new place-based strategy. Danielle Toyne, who leads our Neighbourhoods teams, shared updates on the Neighbourhood Action Plans and how they’ll enable us to better engage with the communities we serve. We discussed ways the wider business can get involved to create stronger connections with our customers and make a real impact where it matters most, as part of our emerging place-based strategy.
Friday
The week ended on a high note with a packed schedule. I began the day filming Ceri & Co, our fortnightly vlog that keeps colleagues informed about organisational updates and progress. Following that, I had a valuable coaching session, providing me with space to reflect on my leadership approaches and ensure I’m giving my best to the organisation.
In the afternoon, I received an update on a major project aimed at understanding and improving our organisational culture. The work involves honest input from colleagues to identify both strengths and areas for growth. It’s inspiring to see their commitment to shaping a culture that truly reflects our values and aspirations.
It’s been a dynamic and rewarding week, showcasing the diverse challenges and opportunities that come with leading Lincolnshire Housing Partnership. From strategic planning to hands-on engagement with teams and communities, no two days are ever the same – and that’s what makes this role so fulfilling.
In the frame
Night on the tiles Housing 21
Residents came together at Housing 21’s extra care scheme at Elm Tree Court in Bradford for an opportunity to see modular kitchen and bathroom designs that support accessibility.
Success story Stonewater
Stonewater has launched its People Like Me Campaign, a multi-media initiative recognising the diverse employees who contribute to its success and reflect the communities they serve.
What’s cooking? Trent & Dove
Trent & Dove has teamed up with Central Co-op and Staffordshire County Council to launch a partnership that promotes healthy eating through free masterclasses that teach people how to prepare affordable, nutritious meals at home.
Aiming high Thirteen Group
Thirteen has started a £6.6 million refurbishment project of its Glastonbury House block in the Priestfields area of Middlesbrough, which will include mechanical and electrical upgrades, security and CCTV, ventilation, a sprinkler system, new bathrooms, doors, full decoration and much more.
Happy birthday Wheatley Group
The Home Comforts programme, run by the Wheatley Foundation, part of Wheatley Group, and which provides free furniture and white goods to social housing tenants, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
Data drive Clarion Housing Group
Clarion has published its first Resident of the Future report which offers predictions based upon over ten years of trend data collected from thousands of residents through its annual customer insight survey.
If you’d like to be featured In the Frame, please email your pictures to max.salsbury@hqnetwork.co.uk
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The last word
Why it’s time to talk about taxing rising
land
wealth
By Hannah Fearn, freelance journalist specialising in social affairs
“The primary issue isn’t really about inheritance rights at all, but the sky high and constantly rising price of land”
The political crisis over inheritance tax for farmers passing on land to their descendants is a great example of how to be an effective lobbyist.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) did a brilliant job of rallying its members to lobby and march against the policy, leaving the government under huge pressure to make amendments to its tax plans to accommodate them. Remarkably, the NFU managed that even though the policy in question actually works in favour of most of its members’ interests. They just don’t realise it yet.
The primary issue isn’t really about inheritance rights at all, but the sky high and constantly rising price of land.
Some important context: the overwhelming majority of British farm owners won’t be hit by the new inheritance tax rules, and 40% are tenant farmers who are negatively affected by rents on rising land values. High land costs make it harder and less cost effective to farm and to grow a business. It’s ridiculous that land now retains more value in itself than using it for food production.
This situation has been caused in part by asset speculation by high net worth individuals – of whom Jeremy Clarkson is just one highly visible example – and are bad for everyone. High land prices are a major driver of rising property prices. Much of the value of a home is held in the land it sits on, so the price of farmland is also directly linked to the price of a three-bed terrace in the suburbs.
Expensive land makes it harder for developers, including housing associations, to build affordable housing. With land costs so high, private developers tend to prioritise building luxury homes to serve the top end of the market to yield higher returns. For social housing numbers, this means the mixed development model often results in less social housing on site to make a viable scheme. There’s a sort of scarcity feedback loop here, in which higher land costs drive up development costs, which drive up house prices and make developers more likely to focus on delivering high-spec, small numbers projects – which in turn pushes up house prices again due to low development rates.
Rapidly rising land costs also encourage the practice of landbanking. Developers like to say landbanking doesn’t exist, that their sites only sit waiting for the moment of viability, not just to boost their asset base. That seems unlikely. Land values across England increased by an average of 36% between 2011 and 2021, according to Strutt & Parker. Under these, viability improves over time – but so does the health of the developers’ books. Landbanking slows down new housing rates which in turn pushes up the price of existing homes on the open market.
Government policy also affects the value of land. The introduction of a ‘grey belt’ in green belt areas, which can be prioritised for development, will paradoxically push up land values in those areas but nonetheless help to boost new development – which should play a role in slowing down house price rises as supply edges closer to demand. The farming land inheritance tax policy isn’t just about boosting Treasury coffers – it’ll have a trickle down impact on house prices too by making land a less desirable financial asset.
We talk a lot about all the surface causes of the housing crisis but less about the underpinning problem of spiralling land prices. So, what’s missing here? An earlier incarnation of the Labour Party suggested a 3% land value tax to stall rapid rises and redistribute land wealth. That flat rate is too unpalatable to ordinary homeowners to function effectively, but some measure of taxation based on rising land wealth shouldn’t be off the menu for Rachel Reeves. Something to keep up the sleeve for a second term, perhaps?
Consumer regulation –how to get top marks
Refreshed and updated for 2025, HQN’s team of experts will share their knowledge and expertise – taking you through the deal breakers, the must haves and the pitfalls to avoid.
The Safety and Quality Standard
Part one: 25 February 2025
Part two: 26 February 2025
The Neighbourhood and Community Standard 3 April 2025
The Tenancy Standard 15 April 2025
The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
Part one: 17 June 2025
Part two: 18 June 2025
To find out more and book your place, please visit hqnetwork.co.uk/hqnevents