By Joanne Heyes, Head of Member Services
Housing is a complex and complicated sector. Many of you reading will have heard of the “housing crisis” that the country is facing, but what exactly is this?
Is it a lack of homes? Is it about the quality of our homes? Have we got a damp and mould crisis in our affordable homes? In truth is it most likely a combination of all these issues and more.
This housing crisis has placed the sector at the centre of the current political debate. The current government have set out a bold ambition to build 1.5 million homes over the course of this parliament (out to 2029 at least), which is a house building cycle at levels we have not seen for decades. Many question the ability to deliver this. There are many reasons why, with one of them being the availability of labour and skills to deliver at such a volume, coupled with a question of “Are planning considerations adequately resourced and placed to meet increased levels of demand?”.
But the one thing that binds all this together is the simple fact that we need to build, manage and operate better homes, ones that are warmer, more comfortable, healthier and safer for residents and occupiers.
As well as building new homes, we can’t ignore the state of our existing housing stock which is some of the most energy inefficient in Europe. With another clear political (and some would say human) imperative to address our changing climate, we cannot ignore the contributions our existing homes make to the level of carbon emissions the country produces. To reduce these levels requires intervention and a lot of retrofit work, an awful lot of retrofit work.
In essence we have two big challenges in housing today. How to build new homes at the level proposed and how to decarbonise our existing housing stock that will still be in place in 2050 – the target for the country to reach net zero. While we are building these new homes, to avoid creating future problems, should we not also be ensuring they are low to zero carbon in construction and operation to not add to the volume of retrofitting required in the future decades to come?
When you look at it this way, the sector’s challenge is one of volume.
We should not be looking at this not as individual providers challenges, but rather as a wider sector challenge that demands collaboration and partnership working to overcome. Individual actions alone will not be able to deliver the numbers we are talking about here, so how do we enshrine collaboration and partnership working in everything that we do.
Housing providers need the supply chain. The supply chain needs the housing providers. Both need funders and professional advisors to operate and prosper. Therefore, there is already an interdependency. The question becomes how we get everyone working around a shared vision. One stated vision is the provision of better homes, that benefit and improve the lives of residents. This should seek to ensure the homes we do build and operate are ones that work for what residents and occupants need.
This will mean something different to everyone, but it is a simple guiding principle that can be shared by everyone working within and supporting the sector.
Partnership working succeeds with good relationship management. It is an old cliché, but people really do buy people so the strength of relationships, sector and product expertise as well as cost are important contributing factors to deciding upon a partner of choice. People who understand your problems and the dynamics of the sector can help housing providers deliver on these broader challenges. They understand the dynamics better than people who view everything as a simple transaction.
You might view us here at CHIC as purely a procurement services provider. This is our primary focus, but we are more than that. We are a team of housing professionals grounded in the sector and its challenges. But most importantly we are a member organisation. We are made up of organisations facing and looking to solve the same challenges as each other. We generate collective knowledge. This provides a great foundation for us to coordinate and push partnership approaches. It allows us to be a business advisor as well as a procurement specialist. This is driven by a push to ensure mutually beneficial outcomes for both landlord and resident.
As part of a membership organisation, you get access to more than just the procurement frameworks. The first is other members. It’s a network of like minded individuals, focused on the same challenges. We also provide insight to the sector. Through articles (such as this one!) but also through roundtables, in person events, regular newsletters and the sharing of case studies. An important ingredient to advancement is learning from what we do. We learn best when we share. Share the best approaches to common challenges, the obstacles to overcome, who has worked on what and importantly what we will (and will not do) moving forward – be that in the building of new homes or the decarbonisation of properties.
As a social and affordable housing sector we should look at these dual challenges as a collective challenge for the sector, rather than as a series of individual issues for different providers. The benefits, especially from the decarbonisation aspect come from when everyone has reduced the carbon footprint of their portfolio. It is a case of not looking at this as a competition to get somewhere first, but rather a collaboration to deliver the widest benefit to all, with the resident at the heart of all that we do.
That is why a shared vision is a galvanising force.
If we have an end outcome that we want to provide better homes, this is something we can all buy into and work together to achieve. Our actions should be measured against delivery for this objective. It is easy to get distracted by new guidance and regulations, however a central theme, better homes, is an outcome that benefits us all, not least the resident. Good relationship management can help us deliver, and if we deliver better homes we will be delivering on the new build and decarbonisation targets ahead of us.
