conference report
Terrie Alafat challenges sector to use its expertise to tackle housing crisis
where she stressed the crucial importance of housing professionals in tackling a growing range of problems in the sector. She told conference delegates in Manchester:
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“There is still much that is wrong about the way in which housing works in our country, and the persistence of many of these problems shows that what we do is more important than ever.” Alafat added: “There is as great a need today for a talented, committed housing profession now as there was 100 years ago. She said that current Government policy
approach is “too narrowly defined and risks failing to enable proper housing solutions for too many people.” Alafat asserted that the expertise of housing
professionals needed to be brought to the table “to help improve policy and produce better outcomes.” She told delegates, “it is not just about Government – Leadership needs to come from us. If we look to others to solve our housing problems we are both dodging our responsibility as a profession and downgrading the role that we can and must play.” Alafat drew attention to the financial struggles
being faced by many tenants in meeting their housing costs. She said that private rented sector tenants “are now spending on average 47% of their net income on rent according to the English Housing Survey.” She drew attention to key challenges for the
future, including the housebuilding sector’s “failure to build sufficient numbers of new homes,” which she asserted was “at the heart of our housing crisis.” In addition, Brexit would cause “a period of immediate financial uncertainty which could have an effect on housing markets and housebuilding,” said Alafat. She warned the audience: “The future will not be easy, far from it.” In terms of recent Government policy, she acknowledged that thanks to last summer’s
hair of the Chartered Institute of Housing Terrie Alafat marked the institute’s centenary with a speech at Housing 2016
Terrie Alafat
people whose homes are unsatisfactory, unaffordable or insecure: “We need a better answer for the third of households who are not homeowners and for lower income households more generally. “This means paying more attention to policy for, and investment in, rented housing, including providing new homes at sub market rents.” Alluding to problems inherent in expanding
Budget and the Autumn Statement, “lack of money is no longer necessarily the prime issue,” with nearly £45bn planned for investment over the next five years. Alafat also applauded the “scale of ambition” of the Government’s goal to build a million new homes by 2020. Delegates heard the CIH had “concluded that
current investment plans may not create a housing system that works for everyone.” Alafat explained: “Many of the thousands who will be helped will be people who are already in a better position in the housing market.” The Government’s ambition of a “major
expansion in home ownership” meant that it “appears to have set its goal of promoting homeownership above all else,” and this was a “cause of concern.” She said that the goal of increasing first time
buyer numbers by a million over the life of this Parliament “presumes that the range of policies being deployed can actually bring ownership within range of a million households.” Alafat identified two “unknowns” namely the
actual take up of starter homes, shared-owner homes, and associated ISA products, equity loans and guarantees, and whether the products are affordable as well as whether sufficient mortgage finance will be available. A growing number of people, especially young
people, may not become homeowners at all, she told delegates, meaning the rented sector was “a vital part of our housing system.” She said the the eight million renters includes
Right to Buy to housing associations, Alafat commented: “In the last 70 years or more, we have only ever built large numbers of new homes when local authorities have been involved. “We need to ensure that in each of our
different local housing markets we have the right mix of products at the right prices to meet the needs of the people living there,” including the most vulnerable tenants.” She welcomed the Government’s new estates
regeneration advisory panel under Lord Heseltine and said the CIH “will make sure that the voice and experience of housing professionals is heard as the panel take forward their work.” Following the Homes and Communities
Agency having “challenged” HAs with its latest analysis of the cost base, Alafat told Housing 2016, “How we respond to this is an important demonstration of where we are as a profession.” She said the CHI was “here to encourage and to
challenge you, but also to support,” and has introduced routes to chartered membership “so that there is an option for everyone,” as well as new apprenticeships. Alafat concluded: “We are determined not to
shy away from difficult conversations where they need to be had, including addressing “tension between Local Authorities and Housing Associations following “changes in the Housing and Planning Act. She said CHI will host regional round table discussions bringing LAs, HAs and and other stakeholders together to “develop new ways to work together to deal with the problems in our housing market,” because the sector, like the UK, were in “uncharted territory.”
Innovative approaches to driving value in repair services revealed by leaders at Housing 2016
innovative approaches to the management of repairs and maintenance services which worked for end users as well as helping the bottom line. In the face of a 1% reduction in rents,
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combined with the need to build homes and ever increasing maintenance problems, session chair Lucas Critchley, managing director of the Mears Group, admitted that “the challenge doesn’t really fit together.” However he added that many housing associations and local authorities were “rethinking services” to address the problems, and “clients have become a lot braver.”
ousing 2016, held by the Chartered Institute of Housing in Manchester, included a workshop looking at
Richard Medley, director of assests and
neighborhoods at CIH, told the audience: “The industry has been developing gold plated services that don’t reflect the cost base that people aren working in.” He added that it was possible to achieve better value through better integration of repair, maintenance and renewal activities, and “move from it being seen as a service to tenants to being about asset investment first and foremost.” However he concluded that this does not mean there couldn’t be a “focus on the customer while driving asset value,” and highlighted a ‘learning report’ which can be found at
cih.org Ian Gregg, executive director of assest services at Riverside housing association gave a revealing
6 | HMM July 2016 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
talk on the fundamental shift the group had made in its repairs services, to “bring all asset management together” and maximise value. The group has achieved nearly £7.5m in
savings but at the same time a 6 per cent increase in customer satisfaction and a 10 per cent performance uplift in its building stock. It instigated a “red ribbon approach” with tenants including doing the same amount of repairs over a three year period but making fewer visits. He told delegates: “The biggest thing we have
done is with voids, we decided we would not have a void standard.” In addition, he said the group had make quick decisions on asset disposal if not worth investing in.
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