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How L&Q will challenge everything about the way we operate as a business

L&Q will challenge everything about the way it operates (apart from it’s mission and values!) and emerge as a more agile, responsive organisation as a result. The sector has a similar opportunity and after 100 days of lockdown, we should be scrutinising how we coped, what we learned, and asking if the next 100 days will be any different, writes David Montague

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A total of 1,800 employees have been working from home during lockdown (picture: Sonny Dhamu)
A total of 1,800 employees have been working from home during lockdown (picture: Sonny Dhamu)
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“As we move from crisis to recovery, there’s an opportunity to challenge everything about how we operate, and that’s what L&Q plans to do," writes @LQHomesMatter chief executive David Montague #ukhousing

“In future, previously office-based staff will be able to live and work anywhere – 9 to 5 culture is over. We’re challenging everything about how we operate apart from our mission and values,” writes @LQHomesMatter CEO David Montague #ukhousing

Before lockdown we already had a crisis brewing. We were dealing with the profound aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy, the zero-carbon challenge, market uncertainty and a new government.

We needed to adapt but we were too busy dealing with the ‘here and now’ to tackle the future. Then, overnight, on 23 March, everything changed.

At L&Q our offices emptied. A total of 1,800 people started working from home and supporting our residents and frontline workers from their spare rooms and kitchen tables.

For a brief moment sales income reduced, deposits were surrendered, direct debits were cancelled and rent arrears increased. But at the same time call volumes and complaints reduced, service demand fell, development sites closed, operating expenditure slowed and key ratios held up.


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Government lent its support with the furlough scheme and the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility. And investors still liked us – in troubled times money needs a safe place and you don’t get safer than social housing.

Our operations and finances stabilised quickly and this enabled us to focus on our residents, our communities and our staff.

Since lockdown we have contacted 16,000 older and vulnerable residents to see how they are and offer support where needed. We repurposed our community investment budgets to support residents, communities and community-led organisations most heavily affected by the crisis.

Buyers returned. We moved to online viewings, online reservations and remote moving in. People bought homes they had never visited.

We stayed in touch through weekly webcasts, weekly board updates and daily executive meetings.

The board and executive stepped back, empowering our frontline and creating a more agile command structure.

What surprised me most is that people like the new way of working. They prefer their new work-life balance; they say that manager relationships have improved and communications are better.

Now we are moving from crisis to recovery. As we step outside again all our old friends are waiting to greet us – fire safety, stigmatisation, zero carbon, market uncertainty, a new government. But there is no going back. This is an opportunity to challenge everything, and that’s what we plan to do.

So, what might the future look like? It’s still early days but already some clear themes are emerging for us.

The days of Monday to Friday in the office are gone. In future, previously office-based staff will be able to live and work anywhere. This will present some practical and cultural challenges but they are challenges rather than barriers.

We have experienced a step change in the adoption of new technology. The way we work and the way we provide services has changed. There is greater confidence and willingness to embrace the digital ‘self-serve’ world.

Our service offer has changed. We are clearer about what we do and don’t do. Going forward our main focus will be on providing a good, reliable core service. But our service to older and vulnerable residents will be enhanced and more personalised, with more support.

We will retain a more agile approach to decision-making. And we will embrace partnership and collaboration with fellow housing associations, community-based organisations and government.

We are challenging everything except two things. First, our mission. The next chapter of housing will see greater poverty, higher levels of vulnerability and greater need. It is our job as long-term social businesses to see beyond the current political and economic climate, adapt and deliver our social mission.

And second, our values. They say that this virus doesn’t discriminate, but it does – against older and vulnerable people, BAME people, people on lower incomes. With the backdrop of Black Lives Matter, the shadow of Grenfell and the recent murder of three LGBT men in a Reading park, our residents and staff need to know what we stand for, and that discrimination will not be tolerated in our homes or our workplace.

As tragic as this crisis has been, it has brought out the best in all of us. It has unleashed kindness, ambition, talent and ideas. We are working across the sector and organisational boundaries in a way that we haven’t before. We will learn from this experience, become a better organisation and a better sector.

From a personal perspective it has been strange leading a £35bn organisation from my spare room. I haven’t worn a suit in three months, my work shoes are gathering dust and my car has forgotten what petrol tastes like. But I am more connected with more people, more often. And I feel more a part of this extraordinary sector than ever.

See you on the other side.

David Montague, chief executive, L&Q

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