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News Editor Patrick Mooney patrick@netmagmedia.eu


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Editor’s comment


A busy agenda, but will this deliver positive outcomes?


Patrick Mooney, News Editor


2022 has started with something of a bang for the housing world, with a lot more due to happen in the coming weeks and months. Government spokesmen have been very busy making housing-related announcements, particularly on policy development and future legislation. Belatedly we are hearing that regulation is to be beefed up and we are fi nally seeing the prospect of some meaningful action being taken in England to improve services to tenants and their safety, albeit this is happening more than four and half years aſt er the Grenfell Tower fi re. No one can accuse the Government of jumping the gun or making a knee jerk reaction aſt er the fi re in August 2017. T e


relatives and friends of the 72 people who died as a result of the Grenfell fi re have patiently waited while the public inquiry has been running, with no prospect yet for any criminal prosecutions until 2023 or even 2024. Michael Gove’s announcement that he will make developers pay the estimated £4 billion cost for cladding removal from


medium rise fl atted blocks is welcome BUT only in as far as it goes. First of all he has to get the money out of the developers, or failing that he needs to get any balancing or residual sum out of the Treasury, who up until now have proven reluctant to stump up. What Mr Gove needs to avoid at all costs is that his budget for building new social housing is raided to make up any shortfall. T e other obvious question is ‘What about all of the other safety work required to put right sub standard workmanship


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on fl atted blocks?’ T e cost of replacing dodgy insulation and fi re doors, or installing new fi re alarms and water sprinkler systems in hundreds or possibly thousands of residential blocks could easily match or exceed the cost of cladding removal and replacement. We need to know how this is to be paid for. Saving leaseholders and shared owners the cost of cladding removal is only a fi rst step Mr Gove! And then there are the proposals for correcting the operating culture within social housing landlord teams, which is


currently leaving many tenants feeling stigmatised, marginalised and ignored. Imagine being made to feel like a 2nd class citizen in your own home. Property ownership should not really be a factor in whether you are able to feel ‘at home’ or not, nor should whether you rely on benefi ts for some or all of your income aff ect how others treat you. I know there are many, many good (even excellent) people working very hard to deliver truly great services in housing


associations and local councils, but their eff orts are being undermined by others (colleagues, contractors, managers, decision makers) who do not operate to the same high principles. When visiting social landlords throughout the year, I have been privileged to meet some great and inspirational individuals. But nearly all of them speak about encountering obstacles or blockages somewhere in their organisation. Reviewing the quality and content of training courses for housing staff is probably a necessary thing to do, but it cannot


achieve much on its own. T ere clearly needs to be a sea change in the culture operating in many landlord organisations. Similarly sorting out the nuts and bolts of how the sector is regulated will not provide the answer. For meaningful change the power in the relationship between landlord and tenant will have to change, with tenants given a much greater say on what is acceptable, how resources should be spent and what are the best ways of measuring quality. T ere is a crying need for more resources to pay for works to upgrade properties to a modern, decent standard and for decarbonisation works to proceed. Sadly we are seeing the Housing Ombudsman is having to take action against more social landlords – in this issue there


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are reports of long running leaks which have not been fi xed in a reasonable timescale. Instead the councils have got bogged down in bureaucratic arguments and inertia, while their tenants have been leſt living in wholly unsuitable and unhygenic conditions. In one case a leaking roof was leſt unrepaired for six years – a wholly unacceptable situation, which defi es all logic. Surely if any of the decision-makers involved at these councils had put themselves in the shoes of their unfortunate customers, they would have got things sorted sooner. At least I would like to think so. Against this backdrop it is particularly interesting to see the housing law changes being made in Wales which are designed


to improve conditions for tenants – providing them with greater security and greater safety. Perhaps the biggest and most signifi cant change will be the actions taken to ensure rental properties need to be fi t for human habitation in order to be let. To do otherwise will be illegal and heavily punished. We do not know how landlords will react, but it is interesting to see that social and private landlords are to be held to account by the same set of standards. T is could well be something for Mr Gove to consider implementing in England.


HOUSING MANAGEMENT


& MAINTENANCE FEB/MAR 2022


Patrick Mooney


Homes worth £Billions standing empty


Developers to pay for cladding removal


Millions face big rent hike in April


Welsh tenancy laws to change


Ombudsman orders compensation over leaks


On the cover...


With the Grenfell Tower Inquiry resuming, Paul Richards of Aquarian Cladding Systems discusses the continuing impact of the disaster, and how the cladding industry must adapt.


See page 41 HMM0203_2022 Covers.indd 1 15/02/2022 10:04 4 | HMM February/March 2022 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


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