Start with a bang

The only way is up for Campbell Robb, Shelter’s new chief executive - quite literally. Just a couple of hours after this interview, Mr Robb will be making a mad dash up the 42 floors of Tower 42, the tallest building in the City of London, a participant in his charity’s Vertical Rush fundraising event. The feat is the result of a new-boy promise made when he took over the helm of the UK’s largest housing charity in January. Mr Robb’s ambition to push housing to the top of the political agenda is just as high but, like climbing 900-odd steps of Tower 42, it could be an uphill struggle.

The 40-year-old former civil servant has taken on a charity emerging from a turbulent couple of years, which included six strikes in 2008 over extended working hours without extra pay and downgraded payscales. Between 2008 and 2009 the organisation made 47 redundancies, leaving it with 860 staff.

Mr Robb says it is hard to predict what ‘efficiencies’ he will have to make in the future but admits one of the biggest challenges for all charities - not just Shelter - during the coming years is the squeeze on finances. Nonetheless he is determined to rise above the organisation’s past troubles to focus it on persuading government to make housing a priority alongside the policy heavyweights, health and education.

‘If you solve the housing problem, you begin to solve so many problems,’ he explains, talking in his modestly-sized and furnished glass-panelled office in east London, as his finance department works quietly outside.

‘We all know that this financial crisis has, in part, been caused by people’s attitudes to housing,’ he adds. ‘We must be able to come out of the recession with a new approach to housing that takes it as seriously as health and education.’

He sees this goal as eminently achievable, noting the historical precedents set by the post-Second World War elections in 1945 and 1950, which, he argues, were fought largely on housing issues. Although he concedes it might be a little difficult to achieve his aim by this year’s general election, he is setting his sights on the next.

Mr Robb believes there is much to learn from his native Scotland, where he believes that housing has always featured highly on the political agenda. He believes anyone growing up in 1980s Glasgow as he did - he moved to London in 1992 - is aware of homelessness.

He has spent weeks reading up on housing policy and has some first hand experience of social housing, living on a Peabody estate for a couple of years shortly after moving to London.

With any job such as this a reputation is at stake. However, the task in hand is very difficult. Housing has not been on the political agenda for years. As the repercussions of the recession continue, the threat of high numbers of repossessions looks likely. In this area, though, Shelter has a good reputation for providing housing advice when cases come to court. In 2008/09 a £1.3 million funding fillip from the Legal Services Commission enabled it to increase its legal services staff from 71 to 123 - so it is more than likely to be able to make real progress in this area.

Shelter isn’t the first organisation Mr Robb has led. But as an independent charity, it is very different from his last, the Office of the Third Sector, where he spent two years as director general. The poacher turned gamekeeper takes over Shelter from interim chief executive Sam Younger (now interim chief at an education charity), who filled the gap after Adam Sampson left last May to run the Office for Legal Complaints, a new government watchdog.

Although Mr Robb will not be drawn on Shelter’s past leadership problems, perhaps there is implied criticism in his own intention to ensure staff, clients and all others involved in the organisation are happy with its future direction. ‘My style will be a partnership style,’ he states. ‘Not about what I want to change at Shelter. Not what I want to do. What I want to do with our partners and friends.’

Mr Robb will not drawn on any details, but with this ever-so-friendly approach in mind he has spent the last few weeks travelling, visiting clients and projects across the UK. He plans to run a staff survey in the coming weeks, adding he has been ‘taken aback by the passion and commitment’ of Shelter’s employees.

The new boss, who took over in January, is at pains to point out he will not tell anyone how to do their job. ‘My job is to listen to all these people and come to a considered view of where we take Shelter,’ he explains. How this catapults housing to the forefront of national politics remains to be seen.

The same could be said of his approach to rival housing charities, with which he seems keen to branch out and work. It’s something former boss Mr Sampson has told Inside Housing he wished he’d done during his time at the charity. ‘I am a real believer in alliances,’ says Mr Robb. ‘I have started to meet some of my counterparts [in other homelessness charities]. What I am interested in is wider relationship building.’

His desire not to upset people has seen Mr Robb’s Shelter join up with three other charities to support Bolton MP Brian Iddon’s parliamentary private members’ bill calling for better protection for private tenants.

Perhaps this collaborative approach is not to be sniffed at. Other charities say they hope to build on this sort of initiative, too, admitting to high hopes of strengthening relations with Shelter - ‘particularly at a time of such political change,’ says Leslie Morphy, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, who stops short of commenting on Mr Robb himself.

But not everyone is invited to the party. Mr Robb emphasises he will not be allying with any political party, conscious, no doubt, that aspects of his career to date make him vulnerable to the charge of bias. In the early 1990s he worked as a researcher for Labour MP David Blunkett, going on to handle press for another Labour politician, Chris Smith, between 1996 and 1997.

The new job, he says, has already seen him meet politicians from all main political parties but, perhaps predictably given his apparent desire to befriend, gives little away on what they may have discussed. ‘[It is] not about politics but who has the commitment to housing,’ he avers. ‘The most important thing in housing is [to be] taken seriously. The thing about Shelter is we will always want more from the people who are there [in government].’

Mr Robb declares himself ‘passionate about everything,’ adding, contrary to the evidence thus far, ‘I like a good argument - I suppose it links to being passionate’. It’s a skill he’ll need to call on if he’s to succeed in his ambitions in lean financial times when many others will be competing for the scarce resources available. He may even, perish the thought, find himself having to bite the hand that feeds his organisation.

Shelter, which turned over revenues of £48 million last year, has become increasingly reliant on government money. The charity’s largest income boost in 2008/09 came from the aforementioned government-funded legal services contracts, which enjoyed a 49 per cent rise on the previous year. Other statutory and grant-funded activities also delivered a 3 per cent increase - £307,000 - in income from these activities compared with 2007/08.

‘If the government is paying for things that Shelter is doing which will help people, advising clients, which we are good at doing, we will take that money,’ says Mr Robb. ‘Our mission is not to take as much from one source. Our mission is to help as many people as we can help with advice and services. We would always want to make sure we were campaigning. I don’t think Shelter will ever be beholden.’

At present, the charity is working with advertising agency Leo Burnett on an ad campaign to highlight the problem of housing inaffordability. Depicting recent increases in everyday food prices, it draws the illuminating comparison of how much such food would be worth if it had gone up in line with housing inflation. A small piece of chicken would cost more than £47, for instance, had its price risen in line with housing inflation.

The campaign follows years of glossy marketing which firmly established the Shelter brand. The approach has been criticised as an expensive diversion from worthier pursuits. But former PR man Mr Robb defends it. ‘What Shelter has to do constantly [is] keep housing up the agenda. It allows us, hopefully, to drive people to our helplines. It’s important we have a name and recognition. I don’t think that’s a bad thing,’ says Mr Robb. ‘It’s a good brand, we [just] have to use it wisely.’

With that, Mr Robb leaves to warm up for Vertical Rush - his time is 7.54 minutes, exactly three minutes slower than the winning time and bringing him in 313th in a field of almost 850. The political challenges ahead are likely to take slightly longer.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment