Good morning colleagues.
Well when I spoke on this platform at last year’s
Conference, I said I’d be back and like Arnie,
here I am. Not that I am in any way trying to compare
the role of CIH President to that of a cybernetic terminator
sent back from the future or, even more ridiculously,
to that of the Governor of California.
Looking back at the weekend’s rugby results it
seems like a good time to tell you that at the Welsh
conference last year I was introduced as ‘an honorary
Welshman’, so congratulations on Scotland’s
victory at the weekend!
Well, what an amazing last 12 months it’s been.
At the start of 2007 we would probably have settled
for just one of the major reforms from the last year
but instead we’ve witnessed a Local Government
White Paper, the John Hills’ Review, OFTENANT,
the Firm Foundations Discussion paper with a whole raft
of proposals including the abolition of Communities
Scotland (isn’t it ironic that they’re now
setting up it’s equivalent in England –
the new Homes and Communities Agency). We’ve also
had the Essex review of regulation in Wales –
together with plans for a new national housing strategy
there, the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly
and its recent budget announcement to build thousands
of new homes, the Housing Green Paper in England, John
Calcutt’s Review – and, of course, a Housing
and Regeneration Bill that is currently going through
Westminster. Otherwise there’s not much happening
really.
Now if you’re an optimist you’ll see our
glass as half full. If you’re a pessimist you’ll
see it as half empty. You might even be an engineer,
in which case you’ll see the glass as being twice
as big as it needs to be.
There’s no doubt that, however you see it, it’s
going to be a challenging time for all of us. In the
words of the philosopher Homer…Homer Simpson that
is: “You don’t get anything in this
life without hard work. Now shut up, they’re about
to announce the lottery numbers!”
One of the changes with the most potential to have a
major impact on service delivery is the introduction
of OFTENANT, with its promise of greater emphasis on,
and involvement of, tenants. It will hopefully move
inspection in the direction of more customer-focused
organisations.
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Consensus and crisis
All this activity is testament to the powerful consensus
that has emerged around the need for an adequate supply
of affordable housing.
This is because we have a crisis in access to affordable
housing. A crisis that has got much worse over the last
few years, that is now touching a far wider group of
people across the whole of the UK, and one that is likely
to have profound implications for how people live in
the first half of this 21st century. Despite all our
efforts, the lack of affordable housing means that:
• There are over 1.6 million people on a waiting
list for a home,
• There are more than 100,000 homeless households
spending tonight in temporary accommodation; and
• We still have nurses, teachers and police officers,
to name just a few who can’t take up employment
opportunities because they can’t afford anywhere
to live.
Whatever the cause, the lack of decent, affordable housing
can ruin life chances and undermine the sustainability
of our communities – all of which means that we
have to exploit the current political interest in housing
to deliver real and lasting change. Our economic success
in a global economy depends on us doing so – as
does our ability to build a healthy, well educated and
cohesive society.
One of the great causes of our time
And Gordon Brown knows this too. It might be different
for you, but for many of us in England and Wales, July
11th 2007 is one of those dates that we’ll remember
for many years. Why? Well, July 11th last year was when
our new Prime Minister promised to make housing one
of the great causes of our time. On the one hand it
was fantastic to see such a high level commitment to
housing – on the other hand, housing’s elevation
over other important areas of government work brought
home the severity of the challenges we face.
The good news is, that on the back of this Prime Ministerial
pledge, there are now ambitious plans for the biggest
house building programme in my career – and over
8 billion pounds of investment to deliver it. Excellent
news but let’s not be under any illusions about
the delivery challenges ahead – not least in the
context of the current economic uncertainty. Much has
been said about these challenges but for me the 5 biggest
are capacity, planning, land availability, NIMBYISM
and mix. Housing growth remains stubbornly as a bad
news story – whilst we continue to build the vast
majority of social housing in areas that are already
deprived. Bevan’s famous “living tapestry”
concept may have entered housing’s lexicon but
most of us still live in essentially mono-tenure estates.
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Capacity
However I do have a concern about capacity – capacity
in terms of the availability of skilled workers, of
labourers and of the supply of construction materials.
Levering up housing construction and meeting all the
Housing Quality Standards may well add pressure to the
existing capacity and this could get worse with forthcoming
major projects such as the Olympic Games in London and
the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The CIH believes
that the Scottish Government should undertake a review
of the construction industry capacity similar to that
already carried out in England. This could help ensure
that the construction industry meets the challenges
faced without further driving up costs in the sector.
All Pain No Gain
Hopefully some of you will have seen
All Pain No Gain produced for CIH
in Scotland by Newhaven Research – and no, it’s
not the Institute’s latest guide to bondage. What
this is intended to do is to contribute to the important
debate of ensuring that the planning system and private
developers are able to contribute much needed affordable
housing without racking up costs and creating lengthy
delays. It suggests that the current Affordable Housing
Policy and Section 75 agreements approach may not deliver
very much for the future and that they are lengthy and
costly processes.
The report suggests, and the CIH agrees, that now is
the time to open a debate on introducing a tariff system
for developments. Local authorities would identify their
future infrastructure needs, including for affordable
housing, cost these and then levy a set charge on developers
to help meet these needs. The CIH fed the report into
the Housing Supply Task Force and hopefully it, and
the Government, will take forward an appraisal of such
an approach to deliver more affordable housing. If you
want to hear more about the report and its findings,
the breakout Getting More Affordable Homes
from Developers on Thursday is for you. And the keynote
panel session also on Thursday Unlocking Land for
Affordable Housing will no doubt touch on the issues
raised in All Pain No Gain.
Existing housing and reform agenda
There have been times in the last 12 months when we
at CIH felt that talking about the problems with our
existing housing stock was something you just didn’t
do in polite company. Having supported John Hills in
his review – and having championed some radical
thinking around the future of social housing across
the UK – we’re therefore delighted to see
some recent progress around the reform agenda. At its
best social housing transforms lives – at its
worst it fails to create a platform for aspiration and
opportunity and constitutes the equivalent of feeding
your kids a diet of turkey twizzlers. On our reform
wish list is the need for far better tenure-neutral
housing advice; flexible tenure products that are designed
primarily with customers in mind, programmes that allow
tenants to build up a financial stake in the rising
value of their home, housing benefit reform to address
worklessness, and, last but by no means least, a political
commitment to tackle the CO2 emissions from existing
not just new homes.
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Directions of travel
Looking further ahead 3 broad, and inter-linked directions
of travel seem apparent.
The first is about the mixed economy of providers that
will be needed to deliver this massive agenda. In the
old days we understood the differences between renting
and owning; between councils, housing associations and
volume builders. The future is going to be more blurred.
Blurred for customers who face a housing career based
on a more flexible approach to tenure. And blurred too
for providers. What will distinguish us going forward
is not our different institutional structures but our
ability to use our negotiating skills to put together
added value partnerships that work. We will be judged
not just on the success of our individual organisations,
but on our contribution to successful place-making and
neighbourhood regeneration.
The second is about the need for new, genuinely consumer,
rather than provider, driven businesses. In a world
of increasingly well-informed and demanding customers
with stronger voices and more choice, customer insight
and bespoke menus of services will become ever-more
business critical. Unfortunately we continue to ask
what people think of what we give them, rather than
asking what they want. And, it’s still the case
that your supermarket probably knows more about you
than many of us know about our customers.
Thirdly, Westminster is clearly interested in housing
as a platform for social mobility – and it has
CIH’s full support. Where you live can literally
be bad for you – knocking years off your life
expectancy. But it doesn’t have to be like that
– and thanks to the work of people here –
it often isn’t. Did you know that 84% of the people
without bank accounts live in social housing? Not a
great statistic but one the CIH is tackling head on
by working in partnership with the Financial Services
Authority and Department for Works and Pensions, to
support landlords to build the financial capacity of
some of their poorest citizens. This is one simple but
effective example of the added value work of housing
organisations.
The role of the CIH
Across most of the UK, we now have in place a robust
national policy framework, effective institutional arrangements
and the necessary funding to make change happen. Now
it’s up to us. As the leaders in our sector, more
is expected of us than ever before – and it’s
therefore never been more important for CIH to be on
top of our game.
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CIH really exists to do just one thing – to help
the people involved in delivering the housing and community
agenda to be the very best they can be. We take this
responsibility very seriously – and last year,
we worked harder than we ever have before to support
the sector to deliver. From our cutting edge regeneration
masterclass to our on-line Housing Manual; from e-learning
modules to bespoke organisational development programmes;
from our policy seminars to CIH Level 2 Certificate
in Housing by attendance at training courses; from our
skills courses to our training on the National Accommodation
Strategy for Sex Offenders; from national policy debates
to Board member recruitment – CIH is helping improve
individual and organisational performance across the
whole sector.
Of course you can’t stand still and so we can’t
either – and we have some more ambitious plans
for 2008:
• The CIH in Scotland is going to carry out some
research into the learning, development and skills opportunities
currently available to housing staff, and those required
to equip them for the future. I’ll certainly be
interested in the results from that exercise.
• We have just introduced a new membership rate
designed specifically for tenants.
• In February, our Council approved a plan to
launch a new programme called Active Learning for Residents
to formally accredit the learning gained by tenants.
• Perhaps most exciting of all, CIH is now working
with partner organisations across the UK to form new
strategic alliances offering a bespoke package of professional
support services and membership benefits. Wakefield
Housing Group is the first organisation to work with
us in this way – the first of many I believe.
Thank you for listening, thank you for inviting me back
and I wish you well in meeting the challenges that 2008
will bring.
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