How Would You Choose Between Tenants?

So, Frank Field is off down a familiar path, gaining attention and headlines for his views about the purpose of social housing. People who have paid their “rent and taxes” should be prioritised he says, thereby excluding in one sweeping statement all those philanthropists who have the marginal tax rate of a gnat who are currently seeking a social housing home. But I somehow feel that his comments are driven rather more by his concerns over immigrants than by my concerns about the future of charitable giving. It's funny, we seem to have a Government intent on demonising both immigrants and philanthropists, when in fact they both serve useful, indeed arguably, essential, purposes.

It is perhaps predictable that some quarters have poured scorn on Mr Field’s ideas, but I can’t help thinking that there is a good case to look much more closely at the methods used to prioritise social housing – not least as the Localism Act and the changed regulatory environment allows providers much more scope. It's always been something of a puzzle to me that government policy should focus so much more on the provision of new housing than the better use of existing stock. New lettings made in existing stock accommodate far more people each year than first lettings in new stock. It is those re-lets that shape the current state and future projections for the character of an area – the more so where social housing is the majority tenure. Add to that the impact that welfare reform will have on the housing choices made by Universal Credit dependent people of working age and there has never been more opportunity (and need) for the sector to think differently.

Who should decide on who gets housing? And how?

Mr Field’s ideas of a “good citizen test” to sit alongside (or even ahead of) tests of housing need is only one idea about how to change the way we prioritise our housing. At Trafford Housing Trust we are just starting our own exercise to look, from scratch, at who we aim to house and why. It's an exercise that asks some searching questions: should we move away from our council heritage as a “universal landlord” and more actively seek a particular type of tenant – perhaps those who are actively seeking to get, or get back into employment? Should we take more notice of prospective tenants ability to pay? Should we prioritise the needs of our existing customers over the needs of those we do not yet provide a home for? What part should people currently living in the area play in determining who their new neighbours should be?

The mechanics of the process need looking at too. I’m incredulous that even under our Choice Based bidding system, where prospective tenants bid for a home, we still get people turning it down when they are offered the very home they’ve bid for. I know that time-wasters are a regular problem for eBay sellers, but, really, for a new home? Landlords also generally use some variant of a process designed to allocate a  scarce public resource to choose between potential tenants – something more redolent of the ration queues of wartime than the consumer-driven world of today.

In amongst all of the changes that are going on in housing I hear more discussion, and more passion, about how the development of new homes can be continued than about how they should be let and re-let once built. We need to pay more attention to the lettings question and ensure it is properly aired at local and national level. Hats off to Mr Field for continually raising this issue, but if his is the only voice in that debate we are likely to end up with the wrong outcome.

Consulting With Customers

I’m confronted with a familiar blogging problem this week: do I risk censure from the comments and spend the next 600 words revelling in THT’s triple success, which comprised of the Health and Well Being Award, the Customer Service Excellence Award and the all-important Gold Award from the Investors in People? I’ll risk your wrath and hope you’ll allow me a paragraph of pride in my staff who have ensured that of the 24,163 organisations (give or take) we are noted as being in the top 1.38% (I can go to more decimal places if you wish). It’s a testament to the continued hard work of our staff and the managers who work to ensure that they are supported.

This week has been unusual as not only have I managed to get a year older, I’ve also been away at the National Housing Federation’s Annual Conference (have a look at the hashtag #nhfannual11 for all the Twitter gossip and reporting from the event). I’ll be rounding up my thoughts on the conference for the blog next week, but this week I wanted to report back on the Customer Day that went on at THT just before I left.

I feel events like our annual Customer Day are essential to establishing and building relationships with our tenants. We are a service provider and we need as much feedback – both positive and negative – as possible to ensure that our customers get the very best service that we can provide. The Customer Day is a chance for interested parties to come and review the annual report, ask questions and learn more about the work we do.

Although no Housing Association ever really struggles to get opinions from tenants, getting them to come and consult with us has proven to be more of a challenge. Last year we had over 100 tenants at the Customer Day but this year, somewhat disappointingly it was just over 80. When you consider that we invite every single THT tenant to the Customer Day, you could argue that it’s a small percentage. I think this puts the incentive back onto us to come up with increasingly interesting and innovative ways of eliciting feedback. A few options we’re already looking at for next year involve fun days, teaming up with other local Housing providers and the always-intriguing possibilities of social media. As ever if you have any thoughts about encouraging this vital participation then let me know.

One of the main jobs that the Customer Day attendees had to do this year was to review the Big Day In… long-list and decide on which projects will be undertaken on October 5th. The Big Day In… is an initiative where we’re attempting to put our commitment to our communities into action. We appealed for ideas everywhere from our Facebook page to speaking directly to tenants for nominations of what people would like to see THT staff doing. The ground rules were simply that any projects had to be achievable in a short space of time and benefit our communities. The response was amazing with over 70 ideas suggested and the breadth and ingenuity of some of them show that crowd-sourcing ideas can produce some great results.

The next step for these winning ideas (full list below) is that between the 10th September and 5th October the top 20 projects will be planned out and on the 5th October they will be carried out by THT staff and, yes, that does include me and the whole Senior Management Team. It was interesting to see that alongside the clear-up projects which identified known and new grotspots, there were also some really innovative projects such as establishing a farmer’s market in front of the new Lostock units to sell local produce to the community.

Another one that caught the eye was the I Love Stretford project which sought to show before and after photos of the area and promote civic pride. It would be terrific if we could capture some of the energy and vitality of the I Love Manchester campaign and help Stretford hold its head up high. Finally, the most voted-for idea was to teach basic DIY skills to local people; a classic example of the “give a man a fish” philosophy. The hope is that with an introduction to these skills, tenants might feel more comfortable undertaking basic DIY work (not that they can’t turn to us if they need help anyway) and who knows where exposure to a new skill might lead…

Top 20 Projects Voted For By Tenants

1. Learning Basic DIY
2. Skip day and Community Clean Up
3. Moorside Road fence painting
4. Farmers Market in Lostock
5. All our yesterdays history project
6. Story time children's centre
7. Shopping services for the elderly
8. Jet-washing grotspots in Old Trafford
9. Clear ginnels in Broadheath
10. I love Stretford
11. Building Bridges reading project
12. garden clearance Granary Way
13. Welcome to Stretford House floral display
14. Shrewsbury St Community centre
15. School Road/Lester St yard planters
16. Grass and hedge cutting knock on
17. Clear ginnels in Oldfield Brow
18. Garden clearing Manor Ave
19. Baguley Lane and Croft Road clean-up
20. 120 minute property makeover

From Newbury Court To Newhaven

I was perplexed to read about a recent report by The Institute of Public Policy Research which described the “supply black hole” facing housing in the UK. According to the IPPR, England faces a daunting shortfall of 750,000 buildings by 2025.

The reason I was confused is because the report states that the only area that is exempt from concern is the North West. In fact, not only will the North West of 2025 avoid a shortfall, it will somehow produce a 40,000 surplus of homes! You can understand my confusion when Trafford Housing Trust’s waiting list for property currently stands at 7,500 and is growing at a rate of around 400 applicants per month.

Regardless of what may happen in 2025, in the context of new properties I have excellent news – Newhaven, a new development of 38 homes (great blog posts documenting the build here, here and here) built by Trafford Housing Trust in partnership with TMBC and the Department of Health is being opened today by the inspiring Bill Speakman. As well as being a war hero, and a holder of the Victoria Cross, Mr Speakman is also one of the new tenants of Newhaven.

 

As Newhaven opens I was thinking back to the moment when I told the Newbury Court residents that their much-loved home was going to be re-developed to make way for Newhaven. The reaction was mixed. One of the over-riding emotions was confusion. Newbury Court was a well-respected and solid development - why on earth would it need to be knocked down? The answer to that question lies in wider social trends and the changing needs of an ageing population.

As well as there being an ongoing question of whether there are enough homes, there is also the complex problem of whether there are enough of the right types of homes. Britain’s care needs are changing. Whereas once we might have looked to build Category 2 properties, now the demand is for Category 2 ½. For anyone who has yet to confront the complexities of housing categories, here’s a brief introduction (there’s a more in-depth guide to sheltered housing here if you need it). Beyond ordinary housing you have Category 1 accommodation, which is essentially an ordinary house with a pull cord. Then you have Category 2, which is usually a group of independent flats, with a small communal area and a scheme manager.

Newbury Court was a Category 2 development and it’s this type of facility that demand is falling for. The reason is simply because Category 2 is about enabling independent living. But if people are capable of living independently then they would rather do it in their own house that has been modified with the assistive technology that is available now. Beyond Category 2 then, you have what is often referred to as Category 2 ½ or Extra Care, and it’s this type of care that Newhaven falls into. The difference is the assumption that people need care and support, but that they also want a private space for them to go to when they want to get away from it all. 

When you see the residents begin to move into a new development it makes you see the really important element of what we do. As much as I understand the need for new development in the North West and across the UK, for me the satisfaction is less in chalking up another new development and more in understanding them as homes for people. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always a job to build something of a decent design quality and do that on budget and on time. So I feel incredibly proud of the people who have done that work. But, it’s a building and it only comes alive when you get people in it. 

Newhaven is going to be home to 38 people and I think the exciting thing is the future that this group have. What sort of community will Bill and his fellow residents create? How will their lives, and their relatives’ lives, change because of the building? In the drive to meet the shortfall of houses and reduce the waiting list, we always have to remember that it’s not the buildings themselves that are important, but the people who fill them.

Things To Do In 2011

Just because you’re a CEO it doesn’t mean that you escape the yearly employment rituals of assessments and objective setting. If anything, when you’re a CEO you’re subjected to more checks and balances than other employees and that’s probably not a bad thing – after all, the original point of objectives is to provide some structure to the year and set targets.

Late in December the board identified the five things that they’d like to see happen. Rather than keeping these secret I thought I’d share my To Do list with you – after all, there’s a chance that you will have a part in helping these to happen, so it makes sense that you’d at least know about them!

1 – Identify The Things That Really Matter To Our Tenants

This is particularly important when the allocation of resources has to be carefully managed. We need to know exactly what our tenants want and do our best to deliver those things. One thing that the board added to this point, which I thought was interesting, is we should think through what we expect in return from our tenants, and that doesn’t just mean that they pay their rent. It might be that you’ve got your own ideas about what (and if) a tenant should be asked to do and please feel to add a comment below this post or tweet me.

2 – Protect Our Income Stream

I mentioned in my last blog about how the cuts to public services would affect our work and to give you an idea of how much it’s changing our world and our customers’ worlds, there have been over fifty benefit changes already and there are more on the way.

That raises a risk to our income stream between half a million and two and a half million depending on how you calculate it. So from doing everything we can do to encourage people to pay rent (for example we now have a voucher that a family member or friend can buy to help someone struggling with paying their rent), through to looking at how we can support people getting into jobs - those are the two ends of a spectrum that is now a crucial focus for us.

3 – To Investigate The New Development World

This world sees new affordable housing development - something Trafford and indeed the whole country desperately needs - being funded much less by capital grants from Government and much more by the future tenants themselves through higher rents much closer to the levels charged by private landlords.

How will new development work in 2011?

We quickly need to get to grips with this new reality and make sure that, if we do develop new homes on this basis, we are doing so without making rents unaffordable for the future tenants. This is a difficult balancing act and we will need to consider the options very carefully. We are not alone, Housing Associations up and down the country are grappling with the dilemmas that this new Government policy creates. Again I'll blog more about new development in future posts.

4 – The Big Society

The Big Society is something that I’m unfashionably optimistic about and there’ll be more on that next week. The Big Society is something that I’m involved with both through Trafford Housing Trust and personally – and I’m really excited about the possibilities that it has. In the simplest sense if you remove power from people, you create dependency; people then want a “hand out”. But if you give power away and create independence, then what people will want is a “hand up”.

5 – Develop Our Care And Support

This is another huge opportunity to develop the way we support and help our customers. In Trafford we have around 3,000 residents who receive some kind of support and the funding for that support has been cut by between 50 and 70%, so there is a real dilemma – do you cut your service - which is most people’s instinctive reaction. We are interested in taking a different approach; we want to throw ourselves right into building a strong and robust care and support business.

So we are planning how to take our support work and back it into a much broader range of care. We know we will need to invest in that business in the short term for the next three or four years but are looking at how it can become self-financing, meeting the needs not just of our present customers but also of others who are prepared to pay for a trusted and reliable service. This could have a big implication for pricing and before we take any steps we need to know we can get to the critical mass of customers to make the services affordable – and, you never know, that may be through acquiring an existing care business.

So there you have it – a short list of five things to do, which will ensure we are all kept busy. Generally speaking I’m not seeing very much positive on a wider social level until 2013, I think the impact of cuts will make the next 18 months difficult, so it’s important that we stay true to our vision of creating neighbourhoods where people choose to live and maintain our energy, so that as the economy starts to recover we find ourselves in an even stronger position to help our communities.