Penfold Associates

The National Housing Federation (NHF) says that housing associations accept in their entirety the recommendations of the “Better Social Housing Review” commissioned jointly by NHF itself and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). This may contradict public perceptions based on the behaviour of some larger associations as reported in the press. Housing associations should exist to provide safe, good quality homes but recent history suggests that they are not always achieving this basic purpose. However, NHF does recognize that the report is not “an easy read” and that there are very serious issues with the quality of some social homes. 

The report asks associations to make sure they are prioritising the needs of their existing tenants at all times. In response, NHF says they will develop a nationwide action plan setting out how associations will respond systematically to all the recommendations and that the starting point of this should be an assessment of the condition of every home. NHF says housing associations will also work with tenants and partners to set a clear standard for the excellent repairs and maintenance services that every tenant can expect. 

The Review recognises that the failings are not universal and says all its recommendations are based on good practice that already exists in the sector. However, it says, too many people are living in housing which fails to meet acceptable standards. This can affect tenants’ physical and mental health and, as in the case of Grenfell Tower and Awaab Ishak’s death, have catastrophic and tragic outcomes. 

The Review focused on two top priorities for those living in social housing: i) the suitability and quality of housing stock, and ii) the housing association’s culture and responsiveness to tenants’ concerns and complaints. The Review makes seven key recommendations, which in summary are:

1. Every housing association, and the sector as a whole, should refocus on their core purpose and deliver against it.
2. Housing associations should work together to conduct and publish a thorough audit of all social housing in England.
3. Housing associations should partner with tenants, contractors, and frontline staff to develop and apply new standards defining what an excellent maintenance and repairs process looks like.
4. The Chartered Institute of Housing should promote the traditional housing officer role as a supported and valued employment opportunity with a CIH recognised programme of training and continuing development.
5. Housing associations should work with all tenants to ensure that they have a voice and influence at every level of decision making across the organisation, through both voluntary and paid roles.
6. Housing associations should develop a proactive local community presence through community hubs which foster greater multi-agency working.
7. Housing associations should support tenants and frontline staff to undertake an annual review of the progress each organisation is making in implementing this review’s recommendations.

The staggering thing about the Review’s recommendations is that there is nothing new or revolutionary. They basically represent the things that every housing association, and the entire social housing sector, should have been doing all along.

The most disturbing thing (although not unanticipated) is that it is necessary at all to remind housing associations of their core purpose. Some organisations will also need to review how it has come about that they have moved so far away from what they were established to do and have ended up failing on basic service delivery. There should be no doubt that these performance failures are a threat to the reputation of the whole sector and could place limitations on what it can achieve in the future.

The big question coming out of the Review is: “How did we ever get to this situation?” 

Some housing associations have allowed themselves to become distracted from the core activity of providing decent maintenance and management services for their existing tenants. They have chosen to pursue new development opportunities to the detriment of the existing stock and the people living in it. They have also diversified into areas which should not be priorities. Some seem to have confused their role with that of volume house builders. The shift in the balance of new provision to so-called affordable housing, market rent and more low-cost home ownership is largely politically driven. However, housing associations and the NHF make much of their independent status. This independence could have shown itself by a stronger argument for more real social rented housing and an insistence that the first call on associations’ own resources should be investing in the existing housing stock which is occupied by people to whom they owe a moral and a legal obligation.

At the same time, many housing associations seem to have adopted new technology more as a cost-saving measure than as a way to enhance the quality of service provided to their tenants. Face-to-face services and physical presence on estates have been reduced. The “Better Social Housing Review” was right to call for a boost to the traditional housing officer role and Michael Gove deserves credit for the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill being amended to make housing management qualifications mandatory for relevant posts.

These are major issues for Boards, individual Board members, and senior management. There is no room for complacency whether from paid staff, board members or from trade bodies. Everyone in a leadership role in a social housing organisation should be committed to delivering on the core purpose as their first duty. This extends to finance and development directors and managers as well as housing management and maintenance professionals. If they have lost sight of that, then they should ask if they are really the right people in the right jobs. This also applies at the recruitment and selection stage. Human resources advisors and head-hunting consultants need to make this the first hurdle when filling executive and non-executive posts – whether recruiting from inside the sector or from outside.

Kim Penfold

March 2023