SteveGough
Southampton
Worked for nearly 30 years in the field in various roles for local authorities and Housing Associations and now a university. Interest in housing started when a member of a student self help housing co-op.
Recent activity
Comments (14)
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Comment on: Root of all evil
Gavin - my figures are a guess at the amounts that might be involved bearing in mind that Board Members are not full time and so would be paid for 10 - 20 days. Full time 'professional' Board Members would as you say cost a substantial amount.
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Comment on: Root of all evil
It certainly is a tangled thicket of argument and counter argument Jess.
If payment brings in people who would otherwise not have the time would paying them encourage them to displace another activity, and are the amounts on offer actually enough to do that on their own? The logic of that part of the pro payment argument would be to pay at the top end of the scale. After all if you paid your Board Members £15000 bog standard and £25000 for chairs I should think that HAs would inundated with applications. For a Board of say 12 you could get away with about £250,000 all told (depending on how many committees etc). Though this seems a lot it's about the cost of one house - chicken feed compard to the amount of money most medium sized HAs deal with as a matter of course.
Joe's point about smaller charities being dragooned into larger HA's approaches also raises some interestng angles as trustees of charities are not supposed to paid beyond expenses (though this may be about to change), yet they are then being expected in his example to travel miles to do things they might not really want to do. Would the bitterness of that pill be sweetened by payment?
In general I'm still looking for evidence of the strange alchemy that changes someone from being an uninvolved Board Member to a keen one for £x000/year. -
Comment on: Root of all evil
Peter - I can only assume that your board was/is different from ours - cringing imbeciles are in short supply. What kind of things were not asked or were not answered to your satisfaction?
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Comment on: Root of all evil
Quite right Joe, but given that all HAs are being told that they must demonstrate VFM in everything they do, from building new schemes to procuring toilet paper, the question can also be looked at from that angle - show how it improves Board Member performance (beyond the assumption that it does)and at least part of the argument is won, surely?
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Comment on: Root of all evil
Having just come back from the NHF Board Members conference in Birmingham I have to confess that I'm probably not as hard line against payment as I used to be.
I take your point Philippa that organisations should be free to make their own minds up on the question. I am asking for a rational debate when the decision is taken, rather than an assumption that 'if its not paid its not worth doing'. There are plenty of Boards who operate, and have operated, effectively and have overhauled their Board Membership without pay. If there are members of boards who are ineffective or maybe past their sell by date they should be politely (or more brutally) removed -paid or not.
Jono - my complaint isn't about falling standards - they should be dealt with whether someone is paid or not. Its about the assumption that if you pay your board members automatically they will do better.
Bill - the injustice of Board members (tenants or not) who are on benefits being penalised has been buzzing around for years. Apparently the NHF are having another bash at trying to persuade the relevant govt depts, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
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Posts (5)
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Posted in: Board member pay
Anon : Since you ask my experience in housing started as a member of a self help housing co-op so my bias will always be for people to have an active say in how their housing is run. As it was student based I couldn't stay forever and ended up in the same city but working in housing for the next 20 years for various landlords.
I became a board member when the university where I taught CIH Housing Professional courses received a letter asking if anyone would like to apply.
As F451 says theree are numerous ways in which tenants can end up on Boards, but I think you are being very harsh in your condemnation of board members. Of course my complete ignorance of your HA's set up probably helps!
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Posted in: Board member pay
Anon : Do you mean that all Board Members should be elected, or a proportion? Also, I think I know what you mean about 'nodding horses' but could you expand a bit? If your experience is that Board Mmebers simply accept what the mamagement team want without debate then I cam see the justification for a sceptical view. If they debate the points fully and end up agreeing that's a different thing.
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Posted in: 55,000 silent voices.
Chris : While I agree with your approach to co-ops, if only enough people were able to see teh benefits of taking control, you are a bit off the mark to suggest that RSLs are defacto private busineses. In some respects they are being seen by the law as closer to public bodies - thats what all the fuss about the Weaver and LQ case was all about
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Posted in: IS Housing truly an incestious sector?
There is always going to be a tension between trying to encourage good existing staff and the need to attract new blood, fresh ideas etc. I have been involved on both sides of the debate - to this day I regret one particular appointment that went to an outside candidate, leaving the internal frustrated and somewhat bitter. They left the organisation and the 'new' person didn't stay for long either.
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Posted in: PAID BOARD MEMBERS AND CHAIRS
I'm a Board Member and we have been debating this for years. We are not paid atm and I have always argued against it. Others who I respect have equally argued in favour. It is also true that attendance at Board meetings isn't all that members do - for example we have Board members woven into the complaints process, and we have mini board conferences from time to time so as to remain properly informed as things loom into view in the wonderful world of housing. Some are able to put considerably more time into doing these things than I can and I can see the argument for payment.
The problem is that I have yet to see compelling evidence that payment actually does the trick of improving Board performance, in order to move the debate onto the question of whether or not to do it at all. Even then unless the pay is truly astronomical those of us in work will always have to bow to our employers if there is a conflict between for example turning up to a meeting and doing something for work in work time. I'm less hard line than I was but I still say 'no' to payment.