INTERNATIONAL
Housing provision problems – new build versus old/empty.
single property owners to those with larger portfolios. Then there are the
private sector agencies, such as Fine Fair, based in Ilford, one of the biggest official suppliers of temporary housing to London’s local authorities and housing associations.
Fine Fair also has a portfolio
management team which is dedicated to large block management and portfolio landlords, and it handles private lettings. Private leasing has been a fast growth
area – in Hammersmith & Fulham, the council has taken up as much as 20 per cent of the private rented sector – so it’s hardly surprising to find private firms are now moving in.
PACKAGING THE SOCIAL/PRIVATE PROPOSITION FastTrak is another new breed of housing provider, which has taken a slightly different tack, putting together a package of references, insurance and guarantees which make tenants on housing benefit an
attractive proposition for private sector landlords. In particular, it
prequalifies all applicants’ entitlement to housing
benefit as well as their ability to pay any additional rent over and above the benefit, and
provides a single point of contact for
the landlord. These operators all come from different
backgrounds; some from social housing, some from an agency background – Damon Thomas, the man behind FastTrak, has his own agency in Dartford – while some come from other areas completely. Pinnacle PSG, for instance, has a background providing contracted out blue collar services such as cleaning and grounds management. However, it is also very true that there is
still something of a culture gap between the private and public sectors. The timescale is different; while estate agents work from month to month, social housing partnerships can last as long as 40 years. According to John Taylor, “short term
contracts just don’t work in this area. It’s all about trust, not sales” – establishing good relationships that will work out well in the long term.
He believes that private firms won’t
make the most of their opportunities unless they recognise the distinct ethics and accountability concerns of the public sector. “It’s taxpayers’ money that’s involved, so you have to understand the governance process; transparency is a requirement and your processes must be robust.” Councils, in particular, have different
skill sets from private sector firms. David Ireland says, “Most councils are running empty home schemes, but they don’t market them very well, so they have limited take-up” – marketing skills often have to be brought in from private firms. He notes that the best schemes appear to be those where a number of councils are linked together, such as the Kent scheme which brings 11 borough and district councils together with the county council. “The marketing is often the bit that’s missing. And from a council’s point of view they’re not going to do so well trying to set something up themselves as linking into something that’s already going.” He says communication between private
and public sector can be fraught. “They need each other really, but they do speak different languages. They’ll have to sort that out.”
PROPERTYdrum OCTOBER 2011 13
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