The Governor – Spring 2019

HQN’S MAGAZINE FOR BOARDS, EXECUTIVES AND LEADERS SPRING 2019

Can Halloween Brexit delay avert housing horrors?

Jules Birch searches for reasons to be cheerful

Alistair’s top IDA tips A life in 15 questions 10 years of HQN accreditation The last word

Colin Wiles on social housing stigma

Your people are your most important asset – make sure you’re investing in them

HQN has an outstanding track record of helping organisations achieve real and lasting performance improvements. Ensuring your staff have access to relevant, timely training is vital in the ever changing landscape of the sector.

With over 200 different topics covered we have you and your organisation’s interests at heart.

Our outstanding team of training professionals deliver the highest quality training sessions: • Sign up to our public training covering a range of key issues from technical ones to soft skills • Looking for a more tailored approach for a number of your staff – book an in-house session and get real value for money • Want something longer term? We’ve a range of qualified coaches and mentors.

For more information please contact hqn@hqnetwork.co.uk, call 01904 557150 or visit www.hqnetwork.co.uk

Contents Spring 2019

Special pullout: Evidence

Published by:

The latest edition of Evidence magazine incorporating topical housing research and analysis from leading academics.

HQN Rockingham House St Maurice’s Road York YO31 7JA

Editorial:

EVIDENCE update

Alistair McIntosh Jon Land Jules Birch Janis Bright Gill Stead Colin Wiles Email: jon.land@hqnetwork.co.uk Tel: 07740 740417 Advertising: All enquiries to: hqn@hqnetwork.co.uk Tel: 01904 557150 Design: Sam Wiggle

Printed by the Reliable Print Company, York

Published four times a year. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Issue 22 | April 2019

THE LATEST RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS – IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Welcome!

Welcome to the first edition of Evidence as a joint partnership between the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), the Housing Studies Association and the Housing Quality Network.

We are delighted to be able to announce this new partnership, which we see as another step connecting academia, policy and practice, and as a great way to continue sharing the latest evidence and data to the sector.

At CaCHE we have worked hard over the last 18 months to build strong, meaningful relationships across the sector. There is no shying away from the enormity of this task. Given the diversity and complexity of housing policy; which spans economic, social, political, cultural and health disciplines, as well as specific geographies, there are a lot of different audiences to engage with.

HQN has supported CaCHE from the outset, for

which we are incredibly grateful. CaCHE sponsoring the Evidence supplement in The Governor magazine is just a great way to formalise this relationship further, but also an example of how academia, policy and practice are finding new ways to connect. This is an opportunity for us to open up some of our latest research and evidence – not only from CacHE co-investigators, but from academics across housing studies – to new audiences. We are focused on ensuring housing policy and practice is driven by reliable evidence and data, and having channels like this to talk about our work is so valuable.

We hope that you enjoy this first co-developed edition, which we trust will be the first of many. And for anyone who has not had chance to see what we are doing, or to speak to someone from your local regional hub, do take a look at www.housingevidence.ac.uk and feel free to get in touch.

Ken Gibb Director, CaCHE

In this issue: 1 Welcome / Housing insecurity and mental health 3 The role of housing associations in resident welfare and training for work 4 Low income private renters: tenancy rights and emotional wellbeing 5 Private renting reform – evidence from Scotland 6 Living in Transit: van dwellers in Bristol / Austerity in English local government: Was collaboration the answer?

8 Exploring shared ownership markets outside London and the South East / In brief

Housing insecurity and mental health

Cover features

There is a large body of research exploring the relationships between mental health and housing, and although the associations are complex, how people feel about their housing impacts on mental health. There is also evidence that contemporary housing systems are characterised by decreasing affordability, a growing private rented sector, and worsening housing outcomes compared to previous generations (Preece et al, 2019).

Working in partnership with Mind Cymru, the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)

carried out an evidence review focusing on the relationship between housing insecurity and mental health. This article discusses the key issues in the research literature.

Financial insecurity and mental health Housing affordability and insecurity is frequently cited as an issue by people experiencing mental ill health (Shelter, 2017). However, the relationship runs both APRIL 2019 |

6 What a delayed Brexit means for housing In our cover feature, an exasperated Jules Birch tries his best to make sense of the seemingly never-ending Brexit saga and work out what it all means for the social housing sector.

EVIDENCE - 1

9 Are you on standby for the next IDA? Alistair McIntosh offers some top tips on how to prepare for your next InDepth Assessment.

11 A life in 15 questions

10 Getting on top of governance

Former National Housing Federation Young Leader of the Year Molly Bishop provides a window into her world.

Janis Bright looks at how boards are performing in the housing sector and offers some timely advice.

12 HQN Accreditation Gill Stead looks back at ten years of HQN Accreditation and celebrates the class of 2019.

15 The last word Colins Wiles on why we need to plan, design and build better social housing to help tackle stigma.

SPRING 2019 |

3

“In some ways success breeds failure.

If you are used to doing well you might be tempted to think if you keep on keeping on it will be OK. But what if things change?”

Don’t become a problem case – look at decisions from all angles not just your own Chances are that anyone reading this is a hard-working, well-qualified person who gives a damn. That’s what the leaders in housing are.

On the face of it we’ve got the right players. So why do so many boards with folk like us on them screw up?

When you hear about problem cases it sounds like a tale of daft people making silly mistakes. In many ways it’s just like the script for a slapstick comedy with Mrs Brown as the chair and her boys as the board. But we know that most of the time our top teams are bright with certificates to prove it. Can we shed any light on what is going wrong? If we don’t, we will keep on making the same mistakes.

I chaired a fascinating session

by Professor David Snowden at the CIH’s South East conference in Brighton. Here’s a quote from one of his articles. He writes of “retrospective coherence in which the current state of affairs always makes logical sense, but only when we look backwards. The current pattern is logical, but is only one of many patterns that could have

4

| SPRING 2019

formed, any one of which would be equally logical.”

Maybe that’s why the regulator and boards don’t always see eye to eye. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. The logic of the board is sadly not the same as that of the judges. And at the end of the day the RSH puts the scores on the doors. Pay close attention to what they say.

One of Prof. Snowden’s points did strike a nerve with me. In some ways success breeds failure. If you are used to doing well you might be tempted to think if you keep on keeping on it will be OK. But what if things change? The professor tells us that some successful people scan as little as 5% of the data they should be looking at. That’s when they get caught in the switches.

How does this play out for us? Well, I more or less gave up stress testing in London. Why? Because every board thought they were going to print money with house sales. So there was no real stress and nothing to do. Last time I looked they’d gone back to filling in grant applications.

And of course they all think this is entirely sensible or logical. Yep, just stick to the story and we will be fine.

I’m no genius but I’d been left high and dry by the market before so I saw it coming. On the whole, thank God, the boards hadn’t been in that pickle. I can tell you it’s a sore one which is why I leave any spare cash I have in my Post Office account.

So I’m no better off really. It’s just a different sin.

Housing is stuck in a bit of a rut as our government implodes.

Everyone is trying to work out how we ended up in such a mess over Brexit. You see a lot of articles that try to explain it using a new book called ‘The Intelligence Trap’ by David Robson. He has a go at working out why clever people make lousy decisions. On any given day the cabinet, like our boards, is stuffed with brain boxes. So why do things keep going wrong?

This is a nugget from The Times.

“I spoke to Robson about the ways intelligent people end up acting dumb. The most basic problem, he says, is laziness. He coined the term

‘cognitive misers’ to describe those who are miserly with their brain power. They are the sorts of people who walk into an exam hall and think: ‘OK, I have to use my brain here.’ But in everyday situations they make no effort to apply that intelligence.”

Sadly, we see too much of this in board rooms too. But it’s not that hard a problem to solve. You just need to try harder. When Andy Murray couldn’t win a trophy for toffee he asked Fergie for advice.

“Concentrate” he growled. That’s all you need to do. Or is it? Maybe there is a deeper flaw.

It could be that the brain power is being used as a weapon of war. Robson explains: “Intelligent, educated people are less likely to question their assumptions, to learn from their mistakes, to take advice or reverse their decisions when they discover new facts. Instead they use their brainpower to ingeniously defend their original positions.”

Now, I do see a lot of these sort of cocksure antics. If you know someone who’s got all the answers ditch them now. It’ll be better in the long run. These sorts win the battles but lose the wars.

So does Robson have any answers to the problems he sets?

Yes, he does. “One surprisingly effective trick,” he says, “is to pause before you make a decision and write down your immediate hunch, your intuitive feeling and to then argue against that with yourself and look at all the alternative possibilities, gather as much evidence as you can to disagree with your initial reaction.” It sounds obvious, but it has been shown to be quite powerful. In one study, doctors using the technique reduced diagnostic mistakes by 40%.

Now, that’s worth a go, isn’t it? You don’t want to be the next problem for the RSH, do you? So the big lessons are to concentrate and look at decisions from all angles, not just your own. Mind you, I wish they just tossed a coin on Brexit! I don’t want clever, I just want it to be over.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, Housing Quality Network

We offer practical help and expert guidance to 1,200 network members.

Why not join us?

Call us today on 01904 557150 or email networks@hqnetwork.co.uk to find out more or visit hqnetwork.co.uk

SPRING 2019 |

5

Can Halloween Brexit delay avert housing horrors?

With the UK in Brexit purgatory and the torture set to continue until at least 31 October, Jules Birch struggles to find reasons to be cheerful for the social housing sector.

Image by John Lubbock

You have to wonder what Donald Rumsfeld makes of Brexit. During the Iraq War, the US defence secretary found out what happens when you take dramatic decisions without having a plan for what happens afterwards – and he had a philosophy in keeping with uncertain times.

Asked by journalists about a lack of evidence that the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld famously replied: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”

Though he faced ridicule at the time, he was actually expressing concepts familiar in risk analysis and project management, and they are ones that could also apply in Brexit Britain 2019.

We know all about something that hasn’t happened and at the time of writing (two weeks after the first time we were meant to leave (29 March) the EU and on the

6

| SPRING 2019

day of the second time (12 April)) all outcomes are still possible. To the open frustration of everyone from fat blokes in yellow vests to chief executives of multinational companies, we could still leave with a deal some time in the next six months, without a deal in October or with a different deal or have a new government, prime minister, election or referendum. Or we could just be stuck in Brexit purgatory for eternity. It’s apt, then, that the latest extension to Article 50 granted by the EU ends on Halloween (31 October).

Housing may not be as exposed to the uncertainty as British and EU nationals living and working in another country or companies that rely on the easy import and export of products and materials but, whatever the outcome, the effects of Brexit will still be felt for years to come.

Six key concerns So taking a cue from Rumsfeld, what are the known knowns? Most pertinently perhaps, the Regulator of Social Housing has reminded all housing associations that under the governance and financial viability standard they are expected to have “an appropriate,

robust and prudent business planning, risk and control framework” and to “carry out detailed and robust stress testing against identified risks and combinations of risks across a range of scenarios and put appropriate mitigation strategies in place as a whole”.

The letter identified six key concerns: • Deteriorating market conditions – with the Bank of England at one stage warning that house prices could fall by up to 33 per cent under a worst-case scenario no deal • Interest, inflation and currency risks – the Bank said no deal could mean higher inflation and interest rates • Access to finance – reduced credit availability could have severe effects on associations looking for new facilities and restrict development • Availability of labour – with over ten per cent of the construction and care workforces being European Economic Area nationals, labour shortages and wage inflation are obvious risks • Access to materials and components – the UK is a net importer of building materials from the EU and there are risks of shortages and price inflation, especially for things like boilers and lift components that cannot easily be stockpiled • Access to data – providers using cloud-based systems located outside the UK could find themselves unable to access their data.

associations are more exposed to market risks now than they were in 2008, as years of austerity and falling grant have encouraged them to increase market sales and cross-subsidy. There are already signs of a downturn.

Associations have rising numbers of unsold homes and the risks they would face in a crash are much more severe this time around.

The big associations could be the most exposed because they are the ones that have really moved forward with cross-subsidy. Moves are afoot to convert some unsold shared ownership homes into affordable rent or even London Living Rent.

Lurking in the background there is also a concern that a post-Brexit government facing pressure over rising inflation could renege on the promise to restore inflationplus rent increases from 2020.

Executives and boards are well aware of the risks and will be actively considering measures to mitigate against them. “The big housing associations that have a level of exposure to the market are clearly thinking about their planning for the next couple of years,” says Simon Rubinsohn. “There is evidence of housing associations looking to diversify geographically so that they are less exposed and getting creative.”

But this is where the known knowns quickly become known unknowns. House prices nationally are falling for the first time in seven years, and warning signs are flashing at the top end of the London market, but there are plausible scenarios that run from recovery to stability to crash depending on what happens with Brexit.

That is certainly what is dominating thinking about the housing market in general. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors recently surveyed its members about the factors they thought were holding the market back. “I thought Brexit would feature,” says RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn, “but 80% thought Brexit uncertainty was the principal factor. Nothing else came close.”

But downturns can also bring opportunities. Some associations are already benefitting from bulk sales by developers looking to mitigate against their own risks.

Well-run businesses with stable incomes could be even better placed to benefit from fire sales in a crash.

We don’t know what the political response to a prolonged downturn would be either. It seems probable that the government would react to a downturn with an economic stimulus package and plausible that housing would feature prominently, just as it did in the housing market crashes of 1992 and 2008.

But even mitigation has its limits: what we don’t know, were the worst to happen, is how well equipped the sector is to rescue a major player who runs into trouble. What would the regulator’s attitude be towards landlords that saw asset sales as a way out? And what if a future government saw privatisation as a way out for the sector (as happened in the wake of the Dutch housing association crisis)?

Unsold homes For affordable housing in particular, we know that

Donald Rumsfeld

Theresa May

Opportunities

Dominic Raab

SPRING 2019 |

7

‘Catastrophic consequences’

borrowing cap for council housing. The extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants, Cameron’s London mayor Sadiq Khan wrote a joint letter with flagship manifesto promise in 2015, is in limbo because London Councils and the G15 group of housing there is no money to fund it. associations to housing secretary James Brokenshire But when May goes who will replace her? The favourite in February warning of “particularly catastrophic” in the betting is Boris Johnson. In a speech to a fringe consequences of a no deal Brexit. They said emergency meeting at the 2018 Tory conference, he described grant investment of £5.2 billion would be needed “to council tenants stuck in damp housing as “total prisoners compensate for lost cross-subsidy from market sales and of the system”. His solution? “I thought what a difference to adequately de-risk housing association and council it would make to that family if they had been able to take programmes”. That would entail support for 30,000 back control – to coin a phrase. To buy that flat.” affordable homes currently due to start over the next Michael Gove is a former shadow housing minister 18 months and enable who spoke in 2016 of “a conversion of market sale national ambition to build and shared ownership “The ramifications of [a new Tory leader] hundreds of thousands homes to social rent, but could be huge. Though May’s term in office of new homes a year, the response from central both private and socially government has been at has been dominated by Brexit, the long rented”. But he is also the best non-committal. shadow of the Grenfell Tower fire has fallen architect of free schools Looking beyond the over domestic policy. That has brought with and the man who stabbed prospects for the market, Johnson in the back last the other housing impacts it a big change of tone on housing” time. of Brexit are equally known Another Brexiteer and unknown. If we start to see shortages of labour and frontrunner is Dominic Raab. As the last housing minister materials, and rising prices as a result, then the logical but one, his first contribution was to demand evidence response would be a much greater move towards from his officials about the impact of immigration on modern methods of construction (MMC). However, as house prices and trumpet it to the Sunday Times. Back in we know from the Farmer report, that will mean a shift in 2012 he was one of the authors of ‘Britannia Unchained’, our development model, with less reliance on the sales a book advocating radical free market reforms including market and more on rentals that will require upfront changes to employment rights that will only be possible financing by the private or public sectors. after the EU. One of his co-authors, Liz Truss, has been And what about sources of funding? There is already going out of her way recently to make the free market evidence of a swing away from traditional lenders and a case against planning and the green belt. greater role for big US investors and hedge funds. Is any Among the former Remainer contenders is Sajid Javid. source of investment welcome – or should we be wary As May’s communities secretary, he was part of that of companies that tend to specialise in finding hidden change of tone on housing and he oversaw the symbolic asset value and ways to unlock it? Equally, lenders could return of ‘housing’ to the name of the ministry responsible perceive social rent as a more attractive proposition in a for it, and signalled his support for a radical £100 billion downturn because it is underpinned by housing benefit. plan to invest in 500,000 rent to buy homes. But he is also a fan of right-wing libertarian writer Ayn Rand.

That brief survey of the runners and riders to be Tory New leader leader suggests that anything is possible in the postBrexit politics of housing – and that is before you consider But it’s the political impact of Brexit where the knowns that they could just be sitting across the despatch box and unknowns start to become unknown unknowns. It’s from Labour prime minister Jeremy Corbyn. A Labour just possible that Theresa May will still be saying “nothing government, with John Healey in the cabinet, would be has changed” by the time of the party conferences in much more of a known known for housing, but it would the Autumn but much more likely that we will have a be operating in unknown circumstances. new Conservative leader by then.

“In the short-term, problems with the economy after The ramifications of that could be huge. Though Brexit could trigger a political response favourable May’s term in office has been dominated by Brexit, the to housing as affordable homes are seen as a good long shadow of the Grenfell Tower fire has fallen over counter-cyclical investment,” says Alistair Mcintosh, domestic policy. That has brought with it a big change Chief Executive of HQN. But what about the longer of tone on housing. Support for social housing and term? The known unknown is a change of government promises of future investment have appeared in prime from Conservative to Labour, something that again ministerial speeches. Behind the scenes, the influence of could be favourable to housing. But what kind of chief of staff and former housing minister Gavin Barwell Labour government – Corbynite or more centrist? And and No 10 policy adviser and former Shelter staffer Toby if the current polls are correct and the Conservatives Lloyd seems clear. win again what kind of Tory government will it be?

There have been u-turns on key government policies Libertarian global Britain or insular?” announced by David Cameron, including mandatory Put all of that together and the only certainties for fixed-term tenancies for council tenants and forced housing in post-Brexit Britain seem to be uncertainty – sales of vacant council houses, and the end of the and yet more waiting.

8

| SPRING 2019

EVIDENCE update Issue 22 | Spring 2019

THE LATEST RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS – IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Welcome!

Welcome to the first edition of Evidence as a joint partnership between the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), the Housing Studies Association and the Housing Quality Network.

We are delighted to be able to announce this new partnership, which we see as another step connecting academia, policy and practice, and as a great way to continue sharing the latest evidence and data to the sector.

At CaCHE we have worked hard over the last 18 months to build strong, meaningful relationships across the sector. There is no shying away from the enormity of this task. Given the diversity and complexity of housing policy; which spans economic, social, political, cultural and health disciplines, as well as specific geographies, there are a lot of different audiences to engage with.

HQN has supported CaCHE from the outset, for

which we are incredibly grateful. CaCHE sponsoring the Evidence supplement in The Governor magazine is just a great way to formalise this relationship further, but also an example of how academia, policy and practice are finding new ways to connect. This is an opportunity for us to open up some of our latest research and evidence – not only from CacHE co-investigators, but from academics across housing studies – to new audiences. We are focused on ensuring housing policy and practice is driven by reliable evidence and data, and having channels like this to talk about our work is so valuable.

We hope that you enjoy this first co-developed edition, which we trust will be the first of many. And for anyone who has not had chance to see what we are doing, or to speak to someone from your local regional hub, do take a look at www.housingevidence.ac.uk and feel free to get in touch.

Ken Gibb Director, CaCHE

In this issue: 1 Welcome / Housing insecurity and mental health 3 The role of housing associations in resident welfare and training for work 4 Low income private renters: tenancy rights and emotional wellbeing 5 Private renting reform – evidence from Scotland 6 Living in Transit: van dwellers in Bristol / Austerity in English local government: Was collaboration the answer?

8 Exploring shared ownership markets outside London and the South East / In brief

Housing insecurity and mental health There is a large body of research exploring the relationships between mental health and housing, and although the associations are complex, how people feel about their housing impacts on mental health. There is also evidence that contemporary housing systems are characterised by decreasing affordability, a growing private rented sector, and worsening housing outcomes compared to previous generations (Preece et al, 2019).

Working in partnership with Mind Cymru, the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE)

carried out an evidence review focusing on the relationship between housing insecurity and mental health. This article by Jenny Preece and Emma Bimpson discusses the key issues in the research literature.

Financial insecurity and mental health Housing affordability and insecurity is frequently cited as an issue by people experiencing mental ill health (Shelter, 2017). However, the relationship runs both SPRING 2019 |

EVIDENCE - 1

ways – prior mental health predicts current housing outcomes, and housing affordability is also associated with current health. This suggests that a focus on mental health support may prevent affordability issues for some individuals (Baker et al, 2014). There has been particular interest in drawing out the role of tenure in mental health, but the evidence is mixed and the wider context is important. For example, the UK welfare system offers some protection for private renters experiencing unaffordable housing (Bentley et al, 2016). However, this research was carried out before significant changes welfare support for housing costs in the private rented sector.

Financial stressors such as being behind on mortgage payments, being heavily indebted, and experiencing fuel payment difficulties also increase the risk of experiencing mental ill health. The wider context of welfare reform in the UK has also been found to have mental health impacts (Moffatt et al, 2016). This may be particularly relevant for those geographical areas in which impacts are known to be concentrated, such as older English and Welsh industrial areas and seaside towns (Beatty & Fothergill, 2016).

also a wider sense of insecurity and the potential to be asked to leave one’s home. For those living in the private rented sector, insecurity of tenure and fear of ‘revenge evictions’ has been shown to hinder individuals’ ability to feel settled.

This raises the issue of people’s ability to choose to remain in a home or neighbourhood. Although for some, the ability to stay contributes to feelings of security and positive mental health, for others the inability to move, being trapped in place, with limited housing options is also an important experience. In addition to fear of ‘revenge eviction’, younger people on low-incomes living in the private rented sector are increasingly being channelled to areas of low-rent housing and Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) (Green et al). This raises issues of privacy, control, and choice.

It is also important to note that individuals living in rural areas face particular spatial challenges, in accessing mental health and housing advice services. With the move towards digital service delivery, increased scrutiny of the infrastructure needs of rural areas is needed.

Spatial insecurity and mental health

Poor mental health can be seen as both a driver of relational insecurity, placing stresses on relationships, but also as an outcome of challenging relationships.

Whilst there is limited research, individuals returning to the family home to access support can face complex emotions, including disempowerment and lack of autonomy. Family members and carers also experience conflicting feelings when support at home is no longer seen as possible (Diggle et al, 2017).

It is likely that living in shared housing will become a more common experience for some groups, such as young people on low-incomes, as a result of changes to support for housing costs. Poor quality housing and the behaviour of other tenants have been shown to be associated with stress, anxiety and insecurity (Green & McCarthy, 2015). The impact of stigma, and the internalisation of wider perceptions of individuals with mental health needs (self-stigma), may also be more significant where access to housing is determined by house-sharers (Tuffin & Clarke, 2017). More generally, the personal rejection felt by individuals as they are passed over for house shares in favour of others has been linked to low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence (McKee & Soaita, 2018).

It is perhaps unsurprising that evictions and foreclosures have been shown to have an adverse effect on mental health (Rojas & Stenberg, 2016). However, it is not just loss of housing that is related to mental ill health, but

Relational insecurity and mental health

Conclusion Looking forward, there are a number of gaps in evidence around the changing nature of sharing, access to housing beyond regulated providers, stigma and exclusion. Work to de-stigmatise mental illness, raise awareness of pathways of support, and monitor and prevent discrimination is likely to play an important role in fostering housing security in the future.

For more information about the research and for the full reference list, see the project report: Housing Insecurity and Mental Health in Wales available at https://bit. ly/2UjqZuQ

EVIDENCE - 2

| SPRING 2019

The role of housing associations in resident welfare and training for work In the current political context of austerity, state rollback and welfare reform, housing associations have been increasingly tasked with focusing on the welfare of their residents, writes Emma Wainwright from Brunel University London.

Recent years have seen a trajectory of training for work for those residents who are unemployed. This is a trajectory shaped by the persistent stigmatising of those in social housing and is aimed at producing a certain type of “active” and appropriate citizen-tenant at the local level. Social housing residents having become increasingly viewed as a social problem, marked out and defined by their relationship to national policies, a key example being labour market participation.

Our recent research has focused on how this trainingfor-work trajectory and implemented by housing associations, with an emphasis on the complexities of care and control that are central to this. We worked with three housing associations located in London and the South East: A2Dominion, Catalyst Housing and East Thames (now part of L&Q housing).

Housing associations are important locally-based institutions and, particularly in recent years, have become expected to enact national policy imperatives at the local level. They have been termed ‘community anchors’ as they provide local ‘support’ and ‘stability’ through the depth and weight of their service provision.

Housing associations can also be thought of as institutions that are stretched across space and help to shape it, with a clear territorial basis of housing stock and associated targeted services for residents.

Though social housing providers have always exercised urban governance over those they house, this governance is being extended in new and concerted ways with control and coercion seeping into social housing. Social housing governance has been reconfigured with a range of new technologies aimed at reshaping the conduct of both residents and practitioners, and this has strongly traded on the idea of making tenants ‘more responsible’. What we argue in our research is that a distinction can be drawn between the ‘institutional status’ of housing professionals caught by policy demands and a challenging social housing funding sector, and their ‘local status’ practised through everyday interactions with residents; control and care are carefully played out through the day-to-day work of social housing professionals.

Training programmes offered by housing associations vary widely in content and format, but often include elements of literacy and numeracy, help with CVs and applications forms, interview preparation, work placements, and apprenticeships. Notably, the housing associations in our research drew on their large organisational structures to help and support their residents with different learning and training opportunities to make them ‘work ready’.

Some housing associations operated a triage system,

whereby individuals are classified as green (work-ready), amber (needing support) or red (further removed from the labour market). Others recognised the need to systematically use tenant ‘touch points’. These are where housing professionals come into contact with residents through, for example, neighbourhood managers, customer contact centres, repairs and maintenance operatives – to promote the ‘normalisation’ of training programmes and the role of housing associations in encouraging a move to paid work. Through these different systems, housing professionals work to collapse tenant populations into certain ‘types’ with some considered more in need of ‘care’ and ‘control’ than others linked to perceived welfare dependency. A process of surveying, marking out and then classifying is at play as sharp distinctions are drawn between different types of residents, linked to economic questions of employment and individual responsibility.

Importantly, our research found that this ‘control’ was closely coupled with developing strong personal relations with residents, relations based on care, trust and compassion. A friendly and personal dynamic is crucial for encouraging and supporting people into training provision and then sustaining a relationship with them. This exercise of trust building through interaction and conversation is considered crucial when working with those who might be further away from the job market and not ‘work ready’. We found that housing professionals tried to differentiate themselves from other agencies, by, for example, stressing the voluntary nature of their training programmes.

Residents explained that their experience of these programmes was generally positive with staff who are able to offer friendly, personalised, constructive advice and ‘offer hope’. There is a sense that Jobcentres don’t have the time, interest or understanding of local areas, and are more concerned with processing people and ticking boxes. It is in this current landscape of education, training and employment support that the work of housing associations has become particularly relevant and important.

Focusing on the relationships between residents and housing professionals demonstrates capacity for care and control and the role of both in the day-today work of housing associations in the support and services they offer. Importantly, a focus on both care and control is vital as they only make sense together; they are interdependent within the frame, possible and recognisable in relation to each other, and both are necessary for developing the ‘self-reliant’ social housing resident.

This research was funded by grants from the British Academy and Brunel University London. Full project reports are available from emma.wainwright@brunel. ac.uk Full paper in the journal Area https://bit.ly/2FGD5WG SPRING 2019 |

EVIDENCE - 3

Low income private renters: tenancy rights and emotional wellbeing The private rented sector (PRS) in the UK has undergone a transformation in recent decades. It is now housing more and more people, and for longer periods of their lives. The PRS tenant base is now much more diverse. It is the second largest tenure in England, and is housing increasing numbers of low income and vulnerable households.

Yet there remain significant differences in tenancy rights and regulations across the UK, which in turn, has implications for tenants’ emotional well-being and ability to make a ‘home’, as recent research by Kim McKee and Adriana Soaita for CaCHE illustrates.

Insecure housing and housing stress Insecure housing has significant impacts on people’s wellbeing, writes Kim McKee. It was a real source of stress and anxiety for participants in our research, especially those living in England on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy, who could be evicted by their landlord at a contractual break, without any reason, under section 21. This created a very uncertain situation for tenants. They worried about how they would find new accommodation at short notice, as well as how they would meet the additional costs of doing so (eg, letting agent fees, moving costs, rent up front as a deposit). Beyond these very real impacts on individuals, the constant churning of residents in PRS properties also impacts on community cohesion. Data from the MHCLG (2018) highlights that 80 per cent of PRS tenancies in England are granted for an initial fixed term of only six to 12 months.

Insecure housing also impacts on people’s ability to make a ‘home’. There are often restrictions on decorating and having pets; sometimes the property has had little investment, resulting in a dated living space. Lower income households are also more likely to be in shared accommodation, having to negotiate communal living spaces and complex inter-personal relationships. Whilst sometimes these were arrangements with friends, for some, these were stranger shares with unknown others they met after seeing an advert online. Welfare reform, coupled with constrained access to social housing, means these stranger shares are likely to remain a feature of the PRS. Yet they pose particular challenges for tenant mental health (Barratt and Green 2017).

The affordability of the PRS The cost of private renting was also a real source of frustration. Housing costs consumed significant proportions of people’s income, yet they felt they had nothing to show for it. People commonly talked about how their money ‘was going down the drain’ and that they were effectively ‘paying someone else’s mortgage’.

These sentiments highlight how homeownership has become valorised as a form of investment for the future, which people feel they are missing out on by renting.

EVIDENCE - 4

| SPRING 2019

For lower income households, labour market insecurity and housing insecurity were interwoven. Unpredictable incomes and insecure work made it difficult for people to save enough to change their current situation.

Participants talked frankly about money worries, and how they balanced all the different demands on their incomes. For some, even sharing with others did not make private renting affordable to them. A few told us about their experiences of sofa-surfing and more extreme forms of homelessness. The lack of security of tenancy led to a very precarious living situation. This is something recent legislative reform in Scotland has tried to address. The new Private Residential Tenancy sought to change the tenant-landlord relationship through openended tenancies. It also introduced the possibility of rent regulation through Rent Pressure Zones, and the ability to appeal an excessive rent increase to a Rent Officer.

Lessons from Scotland The Scottish Government’s desire to professionalise the sector, and enable all tenants to make a ‘home’ regardless of their housing tenure, makes Scotland distinctive in its approach to the PRS. Whilst the recent Tenant Fees Act in England indicated some willingness to engage in reform, as yet, there seems no appetite to follow the broader thrust of the Scottish approach. Moreover, there seems to be no questioning by governments anywhere in the UK about whether the PRS can really meet the needs of the lower income households it is increasingly being expected to house.

Social housing would arguably provide a stronger safety net for those households cycling in and out of work. Yet demand for affordable housing continues to outstrip supply, and the Right to Buy (in some parts of the UK) continues to erode the social housing stock.

Kim McKee is a Senior Lecturer, Housing & Social Policy, University of Stirling Links Barratt, C. and Green, G. “Making a House in Multiple Occupation a Home:”, Sociological Research Online 22(1): 9.

McKee, K. and Soaita, A. The Frustrated Housing Aspirations of Generation Rent. https://bit.ly/2U3FjIc McKee, K. England Could Learn from the Scottish Government in Protecting Renters, https://bit.ly/2Uf2XAZ Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Overcoming the Barriers to Longer Tenancies in the Private Rented Sector. https://bit.ly/2KI1ivK Robertson, D. and Young, G. An Evaluation of Rent Regulation Measures within Scotland’s Private Rented Sector. https://bit.ly/2Jdvmh3 Rugg, J. and Rhodes, D. The Evolving Private Rented Sector: its contribution and potential. https://bit.ly/2zvNVLY

Private renting reform – evidence from Scotland A feature of the devolved UK is the increasing divergence of housing policy and practice. It is important to be aware of what is happening elsewhere in the UK and also to carefully assess the transferability of policy change to a different setting, writes Ken Gibb, Director, CaCHE. In recent years, there has been growing interest in reforming the rapidly growing PRS to strengthen tenancy law, improve standards and regulate problematic aspects of the sector. England could look to the experience of Scotland in this regard because of the major and cumulative reforms now in place. However, one needs to have regard to that issue of transferability and also recognise that there are challenges to evaluating the impact of this cluster of reforms.

CaCHE recently co-authored a briefing paper for the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) on how to use existing and additional data on private renting to monitor these Scottish changes [https://bit.ly/2FFzUxg].

The paper also identifies the main primary and secondary legislative changes to the sector that have happened in recent years: • Indefinite length tenancies and prescribed grounds for repossession (2016 legislation) • Tenancy deposit schemes (2006 and 2011 legislation) • Statutory landlord registration (2004 and 2011 legislation) • First tier tribunal dispute resolution of PRS civil cases, deposits and matters arising from 2016 legislation (2014 and 2016 legislation) • Letting agency statutory regulation (2014 legislation) • Annual rent increases and unfair rent increase challenge powers (2016 legislation) • Local rent pressure zones to limit rent increases (2016 legislation).

What this means in total is that Scotland now no longer uses six or 12 month tenancies and that there is a new customised tribunal infrastructure to manage and dispose of disputes, and that, beyond landlord registration and letting agency regulation, there are powers to limit the number of and challenge excessive rent increases and for local authorities to request rent pressure zone ceilings on increases in local areas.

While there is much local and UK-wide interest in the roll out of these reforms, understanding their impacts is not straightforward. First, the new tenancy and 2016 legislation only came into force in December 2017. We have very little data to systematically assess its impacts and how it interacts with other regulatory changes in place.

Second, the data demands on allowing rent pressure zones to be established are considerable and it will be a challenge to actually introduce the limitation on rent increases anywhere, not least because the data must apply to the new tenancies, not the old.

Third, there are considerable data restrictions in terms of accessibility for monitoring purposes – our briefing paper focuses in particular on the inability to access and use the landlord registration data held by local authorities. We also argue that there are non-

trivial analytical problems in sorting out the segmented nature of private renting when we do such analysis. One important ray of light is the Nationwide Foundation’s welcome decision to fund a three-year mixed methods evaluation of the 2016 reforms – this is being tendered as I write but clearly we will need to wait a while for its findings and their implications.

CaCHE continues to be heavily involved in private renting research and evidence-gathering. As things stand, we have a number of projects planned or underway about the PRS. These include: • An assessment of the evidence and academic literature on rent controls, rent regulation and associated debates • Further qualitative research but on the growing number of older households living in the PRS • Work with UBDC on short-term lets in British cities and their interaction with the mainstream PRS • Work with UBDC to conduct a doctoral studentship (starting September 2019) undertaking a quantitative natural experiment contrasting Scotland (postreforms) with England • A three-year programme of work (starting in April) with The Dispute Service and Safe Deposits Scotland examining a wide range of matters to do with the sector, dispute resolutions, deposit schemes, regulation and more). https://bit.ly/2U3FwLu

JOIN NOW! The Housing Studies Association (HSA) is a UK-wide membership organisation which brings together researchers, practitioners and professionals to promote the study of housing. HSA runs a programme of events including our annual conference and our public lecture on housingrelated themes. The Association also offers: • Events grant scheme enabling members to disseminate and discuss their work, • Seminar Series grant competition • Conference bursaries to early career and/or nonwaged housing researchers and practitioners • The prestigious annual Valerie Karn prize for best paper by an early career housing researcher.

Become a member from just £25 a year and access these benefits plus reduced rates to our events.

See www.housing-studies-association.org Follow us on twitter @HSA_UK.

SPRING 2019 |

EVIDENCE - 5

Living in Transit: van dwellers of Bristol The work of a postgraduate student at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) has revealed some of the reasons why people – often willingly – live in vans in Bristol.

Urban vehicle dwelling is growing, particularly in Bristol where a persistent shortage in housing has negatively affected affordability. The number of people living in vehicles on Bristol roads increased 33% between 2017 and 2018.

The research, writes Ruth McAllister, presents graphical representations that illustrate the diversity of participants’ pathways into vehicle dwelling, ranging from relatively simple with few moves in or between normative and non-normative housing, to more complex pathways in and between the two types.

Vehicle dwellers’ housing pathways were found to be influenced by a complex interplay of structural drivers and personal agency such as flexible employment, low or intermittent income, difficulties in accessing homeownership and social housing, insecure private rented sector accommodation and high rents, in addition to self-efficacy leading to the self-provision of housing by living in a vehicle.

The research involved interviewing 13 van dwellers in the city. Simon, 36, who lives in a converted truck with his wife, said: “It was just really uncertain. Are we going to be homeless in a year or two? We needed to do something. Living in a truck is a result of that.”

The postgraduate student found that the low cost of van dwelling cushions an irregular and insecure income, and makes relocation easier. Holly, a 35-year-old freelance interpreter living in a converted transit van, said: “You haven’t got two pennies to rub together some months, but then you’ve got more money, but the rental market isn’t set up for that. So if you have your vehicle, you know at least you’ve got somewhere that’s yours and you don’t have to worry about it.”

Living in a van also led to other benefits, the research showed. Van dwellers enjoyed more leisure time, more time outdoors, increased social contact and environmental awareness, improved mental health and healthier relationships, as described by Simon: “We’re

spending much more time together as a couple and we’ve become stronger and closer.”

A van dweller’s lifestyle includes frequent moves to different ‘park ups’, and they seek out commercial or local authority amenities for waste management and bathing, careful water usage, and vehicle maintenance.

“For me, a part of van life was being really mobile. I’d wake up in the morning and I’d never know where I’d end up in the evening and I really loved that,” said 49-year-old health worker Lisa.

The research also discovered that van dwellers often want to be regarded as responsible and good citizens.

They therefore invariably keep their vehicles legal, are committed to work and do not want to disturb their house-dwelling neighbours. “I don’t want to antagonise the local people,” said Chris, a 47-year-old data analyst living in a converted transit van. “I can see that the locals might get a bit annoyed, so I try not to make too much of an impact on the area.”

It was found that vehicle dwelling is actively pursued to control precarious housing situations, as a goal in itself to engage in the lifestyle it creates, and/or to facilitate transition to a future ideal living situation.

Bristol City Council is one of the first local authorities in the UK to develop a strategy for lived-in vehicles parked on highways. It has proposed that lived-in vehicles will be assessed taking welfare needs into account. This unique research gives a crucial insight that can help shape its approach to those assessments and, as more local authorities seek to unify and formalise their response to vehicle dwelling, could be used to inform van dwelling policies.

Full research: https://bit.ly/2Wwqmv1 Ruth McAllister is a postgraduate Environmental Health student at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). She has a passion for housing and is currently working with https://marksoutoftenancy.com – a review platform where tenants can rate their tenancy experience. She wants to amplify tenants’ voices to give more power and control back to renters.

Austerity in English local government: Was collaboration the answer?

Thomas Elston and Ruth Dixon from the University of Oxford researched the results from shared services Following the tough financial settlement for English local government in 2010, which delivered a realterms budget cut of 40% over four years, the Coalition Government urged local authorities to increase efficiency by working collaboratively to pool resources and overcome diseconomies of scale. By 2016, over 75%

EVIDENCE - 6

| SPRING 2019

of local authorities (including nearly 90% of lower-tier district councils) were party to one or more arrangement for sharing back-office administration – an area of council activity widely regarded as among the easiest and most-obvious of candidates for consolidation.

Did this significant wave of “shared service” reforms become part of the answer to managing local austerity? To investigate, we performed multi-wave change-score regression analysis on organizational and

financial data relating to the 317 (out of 353) English councils for which sufficient financial data was available during the period 2008-16. Our focus was on changes to administrative spending relative to frontline spending – known by theorists as “administrative intensity.” Councils that share back-office services were identified from the Local Government Association’s “Shared Services Map” (https://bit.ly/2WADu2D) dataset, which we coded for the level of participation in such collaborations. To allow for a realistic lag period between the adoption of the reforms and any observable savings, only shared services established before 2015 were included in the analysis.

We found that, on average, councils’ administration costs fell relative to total spending across the period 20082016. The size of this reduction varied by council type, with, in particular, district councils showing a greater relative fall than other types of council (though from a much higher baseline). However, there was no evidence of a relationship between the degree of participation in shared services and the change in relative administration costs, either for all councils taken together or for upper and lower-tier councils separately, as demonstrated by the near-horizontal (rather than downward sloping) best-fit lines in Figure 1. (This finding was robust to the inclusion of demographic control variables, and also to various definitions of the dependent variable based on staff and/or non-staff costs.)

We next tested whether reform outcomes varied by type of administration shared (clerical or professional) and by diversity of frontline activities undertaken by individual councils and across council partnerships (“structural complexity”). Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence that lower structural complexity improved reform performance. And sharing of labourintensive professional (rather than automated clerical) services actually showed a small but significant positive relationship with administrative intensity. This likely reflects the limited potential for scale economies in activities that are not capital-intensive, combined with the costs of coordinating multiple partners.

Figure 1. Increase or decrease in administration/total costs for shire districts (SD) and other council types for different levels of shared back-office service participation. Figure from Dixon and Elston 2019 (https://bit.ly/2V2Yb6D)

In a follow-up study, we re-tested our main hypothesis on an analogous field of activity – council tax collection.

As shire districts are the only type of council that participated in shared tax services to an appreciable extent (44 councils, equating to 22% of shire districts), the analysis only includes that type of council. Again, we found no significant relationship between participation in sharing arrangements and the change in council tax collection costs per dwelling, as demonstrated by the near-horizontal best-fit line in Figure 2 below. Nor did we find that inter-council sharing improved the quality of tax collection services, measured as council tax collected as a percentage of the maximum collectable amount.

Figure 2. Increase or decrease in gross council tax collection costs per dwelling versus participation in shared tax collection services (district councils only). Figure from Dixon and Elston 2019 (https://bit.ly/2V2Yb6D)

Overall, then, our analysis found no evidence that sharing either administration or tax services has helped councils to cope with the budget cuts brought by austerity. Nor does it suggest that imposing strict “scope conditions” on sharing arrangements – limiting participation to organizations with high baseline administrative intensity; only forming partnerships of low structural complexity; and only sharing capital-intensive (technology-based) functions – is a promising way forward.

While we do not exclude the possibility that individual sharing arrangements can and have produced efficiencies for their participant councils, clearly, great caution is needed by those advocating and implementing this type of reform.

This research summary is based on articles published as “The effect of shared service centres on administrative intensity in English local government: A longitudinal evaluation” (https://bit.ly/2U25G1m) in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and “Should councils collaborate? Evaluating shared administration and tax services in English local government” (https:// bit.ly/2V2Yb6D) in Public Money and Management.

The analysis was funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

SPRING 2019 |

EVIDENCE - 7

Exploring shared ownership markets outside London and the South East Shared ownership homes are found in all English regions but are geographically concentrated in London and the South-East.

There are calls to expand and mainstream the provision of this hybrid tenure. In this report Dr Alison Wallace outlines the key findings of research by the Centre for Housing Policy and funded by the Cast Foundation into the trade-offs new home buyers make when finding a home and considering shared ownership, as well as explores the factors that help or hinder housing providers in expanding their offer.

Key points Shared ownership is serving different market segments in different housing markets, with implications for marketing, the potential for staircasing and receipts, long term support and affordability/sustainability. In the case study areas, shared ownership was meeting housing demand for homeownership from households who had no or limited family support, were single, had families or precarious employment, were older following relationship breakdown or had held unsustainable housing debt.

Drivers for the purchase of shared ownership frequently reflected a positive desire for homeownership but also problems within the private rented sector, in terms of limited security of tenure, property conditions, and the value for money when paying high rents. In a

more limited fashion, an inability to access, or the stigma associated with, social housing was also a factor.

While homeownership is associated with a choice of locations and property types, shared owners in all areas – not least in the Bristol region – had limited control over these issues, with implications for the size of the potential market or dissatisfaction further down the line. Buyers varied in their attitudes to risk, prompting a range of approaches – some minimal, others comprehensive – to appraise themselves of market information and forms of support.

Information about home purchase and shared ownership was often viewed as fragmented and incomplete and new buyers would welcome information about the sequencing of the purchase process and earlier details about shared ownership.

The research indicated that differing institutional responses to local markets shaped the volume and nature of any new shared ownership supply, including the equity stakes purchased. Providers reported a number of barriers to the expansion of shared ownership including land, competition between existing and new local authority, housing association and private providers and market awareness.

Full report: CAST shared ownership report Feb 2019 (https://bit.ly/2uxrany) Summary: CAST ownership (https://bit.ly/2FB7gNB)

summary

Feb

2019

In brief Symposium Social Responsibilities of landlords, CaCHE event at the University of Sheffield, 12 June 2019 Full details: https://bit.ly/2Hh04IS PhD Summer School Developments in Housing Research, 18 & 19 June 2019 in Sheffield.

CaCHE, in collaboration with the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership, is pleased to announce the details for the 2019 PhD Summer School. This will be an opportunity to hear about some of the latest housing research and policy developments, spend time talking about your work with peers, help to develop skills to have greater impact through your PhD and to start thinking about careers beyond your PhD. More info: https://bit.ly/2FGnbeG

Evidence newsletter editor: Dr Janis Bright www.hqnetwork.co.uk email: evidence@hqnetwork.co.uk  follow us on twitter @hqn_ltd

EVIDENCE - 8

| SPRING 2019

Housing and health research Housing as a social determinant of health: this research concerns the health and wellbeing impacts of different forms of housing provision, across social housing and the PRS. By Lisa Garnham and Steve Rolfe. https://bit.ly/2UlYoom Homelessness in Europe A new report from Feantsa, the European homelessness agency, asks what is meant by ‘European cohesion’ when another Europe, whose ranks have swelled to an unprecedented degree in recent years, is left on the margins of our societies, ‘deprived of a home, a dwelling, or even a shelter’.

Fourth overview of housing exclusion in Europe 2019 https://bit.ly/2UUFcuZ

Are you on standby for the next IDA? Alistair McIntosh provides his top tips on how to be prepared for your next In-Depth Assessment “When I first became a Member of Parliament, I was astonished and dismayed to find I was effectively the post-box for local housing associations’ complaints service. Were I the chief executive of such an organisation, I would be mortified if local Members of Parliament were receiving the level of correspondence that some of us do, and I would be taking action” Kit Malthouse, Minister of State for Housing (Hansard, 14 March).

That’s the message from the top. What’s next? Well, the RSH says it’s going to check you out more often. How should you prepare for these IDAs? You’ve got to be on standby all the time. So what should you be doing? Here are our top tips: Work out what you need to spend on homes and make sure you have the cash to do it That’s your basic job in a nutshell, isn’t it? So no wonder the RSH is all over this. Obviously you’ll need to convince them your homes are safe. And they are painfully aware of the lamentable standards in a lot of new homes. Do you have this problem? If so, what are you doing about it?

Ensure you have an up-to-date stock condition survey.

This needs to be independently validated too. Then the numbers should be put into your business plan. The RSH will check to see that you have the money to pay for the works. And they know all the tricks in the trade about smoothing the numbers to get you through any tight spots. Don’t forget that Hackitt was scathing about socalled value engineering. And with good reason.

We’ve put this right at number one on our list. If you don’t know what you need to spend here the RSH can pull the rug from under your feet on the business plan. It won’t be on rock-solid ground and this can harm your Governance and Viability ratings.

Prove that your homes are safe Are you sorting out legionella, electrics, gas, asbestos, fire and lifts too? How can you be sure? Are these being checked out by technical experts that know what they are doing? Do you act on their findings quickly? The RSH will also want to see the internal audit reports for these. If they are based on tiny sample sizes or the level of assurance seems too high they will sniff this out and ask questions.

Embrace possimism!

“A way of thinking in which one is basically pessimistic, but manages to use it to his/her advantage.” Yes, you’ve got to sign up to the national obsession with Brexit. You need to stress test your business plans for any fall out here. The usual things we see in stress testing are sales

stalling and repair costs soaring while income tumbles.

You need to come up with the right crises for you. And you need to pile them on top of each other. What does this do to your plans and how do you get back on track?

The RSH has been asking you to run these tests for years now. So they expect it to be done to a high standard.

Really you should be testing and updating your business plan pretty much continuously. Saying that you run an annual stress test is a prime example of an oxymoron.

Sort out value for money – it never goes away for long The honeymoon period for the new VfM metrics is over.

Now you need to calculate each one accurately, know why you differ from peers, act to close any gaps, and collect extra metrics that show you are meeting your strategic objectives.

If your costs look high then get beneath them. Don’t offer up glib one liner justifications. That won’t wash. You need a proper analysis of the knock-on impact on costs of things like running care and investing in new IT. By the same token you can spend too little. The RSH will not be at all happy if they think you are being penny wise and pound foolish on repairs.

Don’t kick the can down the road No one likes to take tough decisions. Many try to put these off for as long as possible. But what will become of you if the RSH pops in at the wrong time? There is no time to lose on sorting out a badly-behaved board member, shabby service, tricky development or some other thorny problem. And you need to think about the future.

When the Green Paper finally grinds out it will raise the bar on service standards. Are you ready for that?

HQN can help – we’ve carried out more than 50 mock IDAs and almost 100 stress tests – contact Anna Pattison for more information: anna.pattison@hqnetwork.co.uk

SPRING 2019 |

9

Getting on top of governance has never been more important

By Janis Bright Is the social housing sector well governed? A glance through the ratings suggests that broadly the Regulator of Social Housing thinks it is: G1 ratings outnumber all other categories by about 4 to 1. That’s as judged very largely on the economic standards, of course.

In contrast, the Financial Regulation Council’s annual review of corporate governance and reporting in UK companies gives a more sobering picture.

Reporting of the significant judgements and estimates boards make is, it says, a major area for improvement.

“We continued to see instances of poor disclosure of the sensitivity of assets and liabilities to the assumptions and estimates on which they were based,” it states.

Not only that, there has been “a rise in basic errors and non-compliance” on accounting including misclassification of cash flows. “A number of these points were readily evident and, in our view, should have been identified by a robust pre-publication review process,” it comments.

So there’s no room for complacency and no comfort zone either for those currently in the top category. The coming year and beyond will be very challenging.

Every board, every board member, will need to be on their mettle to deal with the combination of economic turbulence and rightly high consumer expectations that is coming to the sector.

Boards will need to ensure their data and returns are among those of the best performers, or be able to explain any variations. And importantly – as the FRC highlights – they will need to show how they get assurance that their numbers are right.

Good governance isn’t easy. Board members are often busy people with plenty of other interests outside social housing, and with a typical expectation of around two to three days a month member involvement, it’s challenging to keep up with the critical issues facing their housing organisation. And yet the regulatory expectation, rightly, is that board members can, and should, be on top of their brief.

The panoply of standards, codes, and best practice, and the increased focus on assurance, compliance and risk, require careful management. The Social Housing Green Paper heralds a renewed focus on

residents, their safety and comfort, and their relationship with their landlords. Landlords will face a new level of accountability to residents.

HQN’s Governance Toolkit is designed to guide boards through the maze of obligations and best practice that together will help avoid the pitfalls and reap the benefits of good governance. The toolkit, compiled by experienced HQN Associate, company board member and former HA chief executive Peter Walters, complements and should be used in conjunction with the RSH’s Regulatory Standards. The toolkit also takes account of the NHF Code of Governance 2015 and the newly issued Financial Reporting Council UK Corporate Governance Code.

Here’s our quick rundown of the key points for boards in the coming year: • No to box ticking Does your board give itself top marks in selfassessment? The FRC code requires firms to get away from tick-box compliance. Boards need to get beyond the numbers and the assurances, and get to the facts.

• Yes to listening to stakeholders How does the board ensure that the ‘resident voice’ is heard and customer views and needs are reflected in decision-making? Are staff consulted and involved in decisions? The quality of board interactions with stakeholders can be crucial.

• Accounting and performance mistakes Internal audit should give assurance, but this too needs scrutiny: ask the questions of your data. In the old adage, if performance looks too good to be true, it probably is.

• The importance of managing reputation Stewardship is another key area of governance.

Ensure your board takes on the organisation’s values, communicates with stakeholders and fulfils the ambassadorial role.

• Brexit analysis The regulator requires you to prepare for the various possible outcomes, and good governance demands it. Short term and long term you will need to know that your supply chain, staffing, finance and operational requirements are met and risks mitigated. See HQN’s Brexit checklist for more detail.

HQN members can request copies of the Governance Toolkit and Brexit checklist by emailing us at hqn@hqnetwork.co.uk.

10

| SPRING 2019

A life in 15 questions Molly Bishop

The Stockport Homes housing options development officer and 2017 National Housing Federation/24housing Young Leader of the Year discusses the important things in her life, including her love of bikes and books. But mainly bikes.

Q6 – What makes you angry?

Q11 – Biggest regret?

A lack of kindness from those who have the gift to give it and people/ organisations who choose to not work together, to the disadvantage of those they seek to help.

I don’t have anything big.

Q7 – Most treasured possessions?

Probably my bike; both my primary means of transport and happy place.

Q8 – Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Q1 – Tell us about your career and how you ended up in your current role I started my career working in social enterprise and business development because I have always had a change-mindset and I loved the idea of being able to build something from the ground up. I learnt a lot and turned to social housing because I wanted to apply this thinking cross sector; between housing and health, housing and homelessness, working in a whole systems way. My work now is all about building partnerships between teams, organisations and local authorities, to make a genuine impact and design out homelessness. I try to have a beginner’s mindset every day to see new things and find new ways forward.

Not everyone is going to like you.

Q9 – If you won £1 million on the Lottery what would you spend it on?

Probably buy a little house (it’s something I genuinely don’t expect to be able to do without winning the lottery) and then invest the rest in homelessness and environmental projects. Maybe also buy another bike, you can never have enough bikes.

Q10 – Biggest achievement?

Q12 – Most overused phrase?

Well done. I say it all the time but only noticed recently. My mum is a teacher so I think I have picked it up from her!

Q13 – Recommend a book ‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth (an absolute whopper but it will change your life)

Q14 – The best piece of television in the last 12 months I’m not a TV watcher but I do go to the cinema and BlacKkKlansman was top for me in 2018.

Q15 – Tell us a secret about yourself I live in Manchester now but am still secretly a Fulham fan (COYW!) Molly Bishop will be speaking at HQN’s Leadership in Housing conference in London next month (9 May).

Beating a mental illness and knowing what makes me happy.

Q2 – Describe yourself in three words Rarely sat still.

Q3 – Favourite place on earth?

Up a hill in the Peak District.

Q4 – What would you change about yourself?

I would be braver. Working on it!

Q5 – Describe your house Airy Manchester flat full of plants, bikes and lots of books.

Molly’s flat (with bikes, of course)

SPRING 2019 |

11

HQN Accreditation – recognising achievement and continuous improvement

By Gill Stead, HQN

12

It has been almost ten years since HQN launched its first accreditation scheme – and an awful lot has changed during that time.

At that stage, one of the main triggers was the end of the Audit Commission and the move to a lightertouch regulatory regime. HQN members were really interested in helping to develop a scheme that would continue to acknowledge the sector’s continued focus on improvement – and given the previous regime’s focus on the quality and value for money offered by in-house repairs teams, an accreditation framework for DLOs (direct labour organisations) seemed the obvious place to start.

It wasn’t long before members asked us to expand our schemes to recognise the work of other teams and now we have frameworks which cover nearly all core landlord services.

Since our launch, we’ve issued more than 100 awards, with many landlords coming back for reaccreditation. Not everyone has been successful at first attempt but that’s really what the process is all about.

The organisations that apply have a genuine focus on improvement so if their services are ‘not quite there’ then they’re happy to make changes and put in the work to reach the standard we’re looking for.

Our most recent quality scheme, the Residents’ Challenge, shifts the focus away from an assessment by a professional HQN lead assessor to a much more resident-led approach, with customers making the final decision about whether their landlord is doing enough to build and sustain a strong and open partnership with their residents.

It was critical that we made sure residents were involved from the very start in developing this new approach, and members of the HQN Residents’ Network had a strong influence from inception onwards. We’re now at the very final stage of our pilot, working with

one of the largest associations in the country and their customers.

Congratulations to members CHP who have been accredited for their DLO service for the third time

Sovini Property Services receive their accreditations for gas and contractor services

| SPRING 2019

Why do landlords apply?

Accreditation is a formal, independent verification to demonstrate that a landlord meets established quality standards and is competent to carry out specific activities. These systems are used across multiple disciplines, within the public and private sectors and across the world. Investors in People is probably one of the best known, as it cuts across so many different types of organisation – and it’s genuinely hard to remember working with a landlord who didn’t hold the award. So it’s not a new concept – but there was a big gap around social landlord frontline technical services which our schemes sought to meet.

HQN’s accreditation schemes are very rewarding (so we’re told) – but it’s certainly not just a pat on the back.

It’s a challenging and robust process, and applicants have to be comfortable working with critical friends who will nearly always find areas for improvement. So those who apply for it tend to have a learning culture which welcomes feedback and is focused on learning from others, getting better and innovating.

We’ve worked with all sorts of social housing organisations and there are a range of reasons why they have applied for the schemes. These include: • Providing a level of certainty for boards, scrutiny bodies, and other stakeholders such as lenders and local authority partners, that the accredited organisation provides a high quality service • Ensuring that services continue to reflect best practice and preparedness for current and future challenges • Supporting bids for service/organisational expansion • Motivating staff teams and recognising achievement,

Left: Ipswich Borough Council receive their income management accreditation from HQN’s Deputy Chief Executive Lydia Dlaboha Right: Blackpool Coastal Housing receive their lettings accreditation

• • • •

in a field which is becoming increasingly pressurised and high profile Learning from best practice – and helping others Saving money and testing value for money Benchmarking against peers – and some of the best in sector Preparing for merger by using the process as part of the wider mobilisation programme.

Our most recent applicants (to be heard at the next accreditation panels) couldn’t be more different - one being a large metropolitan authority, and the other a housing association group with a dispersed stock base. But what they have in common is a real focus on improvement, a track record of positive changes/strong performance and an appetite to learn from others.

What have landlords told us about the impact?

“The accreditation award has really helped in highlighting to the senior management team the excellent work that the income team do and the fantastic achievements that the team have accomplished in a very short space of time” It seems like one of the biggest benefits has been the morale boost it gives staff and managers to have the quality of their work recognised (both internally and externally). It is often said that creating an environment where staff feel happy and positive – and where their contribution is properly recognised – is the best route to innovation and staff retention.

As the board’s focus is often more strategic, accreditation is a useful tool to drill down into some of the practical aspects of operational practice to make sure that what is happening on the ground is being delivered in the right way and to the right standard. It’s also a tool to give them confidence and assurance that the Consumer Standards are being met.

Tenants who have been involved in the process have welcomed the opportunity to have their views heard – and to play a part in the assessment. And they’ve been involved in lots of different ways – contributing

their views, carrying out practical activities and, most recently, leading the assessment process.

It has been a really useful tool to benchmark – but also to find out practically – what other landlords are doing. This has particularly been the case in relation to our income management scheme – with accredited landlords meeting regularly and discussing their experiences of welfare reform.

We also know from our visits and meetings that accredited organisations tend to show an improvement in performance (and in the case of in house teams very competitive repair costs). As our accredited organisations are already strong on service delivery, we can’t take all the credit – but we’d like to think that our assessment process has helped to support them to achieve these results.

Where next?

It’s no surprise that the Social Housing Green Paper set out some pointers around the importance of building a positive relationship with customers, valuing their input, dealing properly with their concerns and learning from the process. We’re excited about the Residents’ Challenge – and how this can be used to help strengthen that relationship and shape the future service around their priorities.

The Green Paper also hinted at broader potential changes to regulation, including learning from the Scottish model/annual assurance statements. We’ll need to make sure that all of our schemes can support boards to meet any changes in the regulatory approach and requirements. And if there are any changes, we know that the teams that we work with are prepared for any increase in operational scrutiny, are confident about the things that are working well – but know where the gaps are – and have the skills, knowledge and tools to improve.

As ever we’ll need to make sure that our technical standards reflect best practice – such as in relation to UC roll out, the potential review of the decent homes standard, changes in compliance expectations etc.

We’re constantly looking for new ways to share best practice amongst our accredited organisations and at a wider level too – which means we’ll continue to invite holders to speak at our events and keep sharing their knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm.

SPRING 2019 |

13

2019 recipe for success Congratulations to Bolton at Home and Lancaster City Council who have recently been accredited for their income management services. Although very different organisations, they have lots of things in common including a firm but fair approach, a genuine focus on supporting households suffering financial pressures and really strong partnerships.

Bolton at Home Assessor Tony Newman was really impressed by the focus on supporting residents to sustain their tenancies, with a positive momentum to continue to improve both services and outcomes.

He said: “It was refreshing to find an organisation with such a clear and strong focus on customers, with a sensible approach to sustaining tenancies. Staff are well informed and knowledgeable, and the team actively use customer feedback and intelligence to improve services and support positive longer term The team from Bolton at Home receiving their award outcomes for the organisation and its customers. This is a solid platform for dealing with further welfare reforms, especially UCFS.” Natalie Large said: “At the beginning of the process we were introduced to Tony who was very helpful in explaining the next steps and putting us in touch with other accredited organisations. Tony maintained regular contact and was on hand to help with any queries we had.

“During the validation visit he met with a wide range of people from the organisation and he kept this informal and relaxed. Following confirmation that the accreditation had been awarded, we received the logos and letter from HQN and promptly arranged for the trophy to be presented to our team. This was a great opportunity to celebrate our success. Overall I think it is a very well managed process and is great to have the opportunity to have external validation about the work you do - I would recommend it to others in the future.”

Lancaster City Council

Income Manager Catherine Cunliffe receives her award from Mark Walker

Gill Stead, Chair of the Accreditation Panel said: “Early intervention and prevention are two of the main pillars of the income management approach at LCC. A great deal of hard work goes into identifying vulnerability and affordability issues at the earliest possible stage. There are great links to other teams and agencies, partnerships are strong and this helps support a proactive sustainability approach.”

Income Manager Catherine Cunliffe said: “The accreditation award has really helped in highlighting to the senior management team the excellent work that the Income Team do and the fantastic achievements that the team have accomplished in a very short space of time. I found Tony to be not only a brilliant source of information but he was also a guiding light through the process.

“The accreditation itself has enabled me and my team to crystallise the direction that we wanted to go in and reinforced our belief that the processes we are using are effective and ensure that we are constantly monitoring, reviewing and improving what we do.”

To find out more about our accreditation services please contact Anna Pattison on 01904 557197 or anna.pattison@hqnetwork.co.uk

14

| SPRING 2019

The last word Challenging stigma – building better

Colin Wiles Housing blogger and consultant When we founded the SHOUT campaign in 2014, one of our primary objectives was to challenge the stigma surrounding social housing. The problem persists. I was looking through Facebook the other day and came across several sites that denigrate and stereotype the residents of social housing estates.

One aspect of this stigmatisation is the physical look of social housing.

Our homes often stand out because of their appearance, whether it’s cottage estates built before and after the war or brutalist tower blocks and low-rise estates built in the 1960s and ‘70s. They are immediately identified in the public mind as “council housing” regardless of whether they are owned by a council or a housing association.

The late Bob Crow used to say, “I was born in a council house and I will die in a council house”. (In fact, he was living in a housing association property, but in his mind, as in the minds of many, social housing IS council housing.) This is despite the fact that around one in five homes on a typical estate will have been sold under the Right to Buy. Most estates are mixed communities, but the stereotyping persists.

Yet too often, the residents of social housing are offered little opportunity to shape the way their estates present themselves to the outside world. I recently visited Vauban, an eco-township in Freiburg im Breisgau in south west

Germany. It is built on the site of an ex-French army base (the French occupied the area after WW2 and only left in 1992). Squatters and hippies occupied the site and some of their ethos informed the design of the new development. It’s now home to 6,000 residents. Million-euro owner-occupied homes stand next to social rented homes and it is hard to tell them apart. Trams and cycle lanes run through the township and 70% of residents have no private car. There is a local power station and many of the homes are built to Passivhaus standards. All houses and many of the flats have private gardens or allotments and there are trees and bushes in abundance.

Open spaces have a clear function and there is still a slightly ramshackle feel, with some gardens containing wacky sheds and shepherd’s huts. It is a vibrant eco-friendly community where residents have a big say in governance.

bleak private gardens, or none, unimaginative planting, grass areas with little amenity use other than for dog-messing, the ubiquitous ‘No Ball Games’ signs. Only one thing was missing from these photographs, a big sign with a pointy arrow saying “SOCIAL HOUSING – POOR PEOPLE LIVE HERE”.

We can and must do better.

There is an old adage, ‘buy cheap, buy twice’. And the same could be said of social housing – ‘build cheap, build twice’. I have recently been reading ‘Cook’s Camden’ – a description of the homes built under the leadership of Camden’s Borough architect Sydney Cook in the 1960s and ‘70s. Over this period, Camden was building up to 3,000 homes a year and many of them were high quality, bespoke homes in some of the leafiest parts of the Borough (often in the face of fierce opposition from rich nimby neighbours).

“Inside Housing used to run a feature called ‘Development of the Week’. If this was our best then I would hate to see the worst” Compare and contrast to many English social housing estates with their acres of unused and unusable grass, their ‘No Ball Games’ signs, their lack of private gardens and defensible space, their restrictive management practices.

Inside Housing used to run a feature called ‘Development of the Week’ (perhaps they still do, I never see the magazine). If this was our best then I would hate to see the worst.

Invariably, the photographs showed unimaginative design, brickwork lacking in variety or decoration, shallow roofs without eaves, or high pitched roofs with no useable space in the loft, plastic windows flush with brickwork, stick-on porches, knee rail fences, acres of tarmac and useless grass,

Today, architectural students from around the world make the pilgrimage to view them and no objective person would immediately label them as social housing. They epitomise the vision of Aneurin Bevan of “…the living tapestry of a mixed community… where the doctor, the grocer, the butcher and the farm labourer all lived in the same street”.

Whatever the constraints of grant or funding, if we are to challenge stigmatisation, we absolutely must do better, by building homes that are well-designed and spacious, that blend into their surroundings and will still be popular a hundred years from now. Above all, residents must be better involved in shaping the appearance of their homes and their neighbourhoods.

SPRING 2019 |

15

The leadership in housing conference 2019 In partnership with

Empower your people, help your teams achieve more, shape your culture.

Outstanding leadership has never been more important in the social housing sector.

For this major one-day conference, HQN is teaming up with the Leadership Trust to bring together some of the UK’s most inspirational leaders from inside and outside the housing sector.

9 May 2019 London

Visit hqnetwork.co.uk/events or call 01904 557150 for more information and to book your place.