One of the most notable things about the housing sector is that right now everything is changing. If history has taught us one thing it's that at a time when everything changes there are people who win and people who lose. My conclusion is that those who are going to win are those who are prepared to be disruptive about the business models, about the technology and about the customer orientation that our sector has had in the past.
Let's take the business model first. Housing associations have traditionally had a "have and hold" business model. We own assets that are built using long-term debt raised from banks and grant gained from government. We then hold those assets for ever more using the rental income generated to repay the debt and cover the costs of management and maintenance.
There are some variants - there is an opportunity to increase profit by building housing for sale or shared-ownership and to subsequently recycle those profits to support less financially-viable housing for affordable rent. But the basic model remains as it is since the late 1980s when private finance was first introduced. With two of the three pillars on which that business model is based now gone - long-term debt from banks and significant levels of grant from government - it has to be questioned whether this business model can survive.
When it comes to technology the basics have remained unaltered for even longer. Most IT systems that are available to support housing associations are far better at recording transactions about an individual customer than recording their individual characteristics, hopes and aspirations. And how do these systems help when it comes to showing the impact of housing associations undoubtedly beneficial work on local communities - the whole social value agenda? The answer is that they are entirely inadequate. The technological changes required extend beyond the IT systems in our offices into the technology we use to communicate with our customers in our communities.
My top ten of technological innovations I'd like to see caused a few comments and I've been keeping a close watch on the emerging technologies to see what there is that might be relevant to our sector in the future. I'm not saying it is directly relevant but did you know that there is a project in America which is trying to use a 3D printer to create a gun? Clearly, it is a horrific prospect and it puts an onus on us all to find a more socially-useful application of this fantastic technology. If we want to disrupt, instead of being disrupted then we must look to the new technology and how it can help us achieve our aims, but do so in a relevant, ethical way.
And as for our customers, the disruption here will be obvious, as most of them are about to get the biggest wake-up call for a generation. We are about to witness welfare benefit reform sweep through a customer-base not used to having to think about the value-for-money of the home that they are renting. At the same time the "one best way" regime of the centralist Audit Commission, no longer exists. Finally, housing associations have freedom to respond to their customers in a way that they see best, rather than the way that Whitehall sees best. What they do with that freedom remains to be seen.
My take on all this - and it's one I hope to share with colleagues in the National Housing Federation soon - is that as a sector we are ripe for transformational disruption, it lingers over the sector as both a potent opportunity and a potential threat. What makes this all the more pressing is that if we don't do it ourselves, then there are lots of others waiting in the wings who would be more than happy to bring the disruption to us.
Let's take the business model first. Housing associations have traditionally had a "have and hold" business model. We own assets that are built using long-term debt raised from banks and grant gained from government. We then hold those assets for ever more using the rental income generated to repay the debt and cover the costs of management and maintenance.
There are some variants - there is an opportunity to increase profit by building housing for sale or shared-ownership and to subsequently recycle those profits to support less financially-viable housing for affordable rent. But the basic model remains as it is since the late 1980s when private finance was first introduced. With two of the three pillars on which that business model is based now gone - long-term debt from banks and significant levels of grant from government - it has to be questioned whether this business model can survive.
When it comes to technology the basics have remained unaltered for even longer. Most IT systems that are available to support housing associations are far better at recording transactions about an individual customer than recording their individual characteristics, hopes and aspirations. And how do these systems help when it comes to showing the impact of housing associations undoubtedly beneficial work on local communities - the whole social value agenda? The answer is that they are entirely inadequate. The technological changes required extend beyond the IT systems in our offices into the technology we use to communicate with our customers in our communities.
My top ten of technological innovations I'd like to see caused a few comments and I've been keeping a close watch on the emerging technologies to see what there is that might be relevant to our sector in the future. I'm not saying it is directly relevant but did you know that there is a project in America which is trying to use a 3D printer to create a gun? Clearly, it is a horrific prospect and it puts an onus on us all to find a more socially-useful application of this fantastic technology. If we want to disrupt, instead of being disrupted then we must look to the new technology and how it can help us achieve our aims, but do so in a relevant, ethical way.
And as for our customers, the disruption here will be obvious, as most of them are about to get the biggest wake-up call for a generation. We are about to witness welfare benefit reform sweep through a customer-base not used to having to think about the value-for-money of the home that they are renting. At the same time the "one best way" regime of the centralist Audit Commission, no longer exists. Finally, housing associations have freedom to respond to their customers in a way that they see best, rather than the way that Whitehall sees best. What they do with that freedom remains to be seen.
My take on all this - and it's one I hope to share with colleagues in the National Housing Federation soon - is that as a sector we are ripe for transformational disruption, it lingers over the sector as both a potent opportunity and a potential threat. What makes this all the more pressing is that if we don't do it ourselves, then there are lots of others waiting in the wings who would be more than happy to bring the disruption to us.
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