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Alistair McIntoshAlistair McIntosh is one of the social housing sector's most respected and best known personalities.
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There is little difference in repairs costs between large and small providers
Landlords have slashed repairs spending and merged on the wrong assumption that larger providers are more cost efficient – now we need a regulator focused on safety writes Alistair McIntosh
“I got 21 seconds before I gotta go” – the So Solid Crew hit ought to be Kit Malthouse’s theme tune.
Housing ministers are lasting as long as a toddler’s ice cream cone on a hot summer’s day.
Kit Malthouse, you have one shot at glory.
What would I do in your shoes? It’s simple. I would make housing safe. After Grenfell, it’s the least you can do.
Ditch the politics and get on with the job.
“One minute we are marching to the bottom of the hill by slashing repairs to meet the rent cut, and the next we are climbing back up to sort out safety after Grenfell.”
We have to face facts: things are not going well. Is the Grand Old Duke of York in charge of housing policy?
One minute we are marching to the bottom of the hill by slashing repairs to meet the rent cut, and the next we are climbing back up to sort out safety after Grenfell.
Our regulator says that cost per unit for major repairs has gone down by 16% as the rent cut bit.
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That was at a time when costs of labour and materials were rising. So repairs took a good old hammering. These decisions sailed through lots of boards. “Don’t worry, it’s not urgent and the tenants can wait,” is pretty much what the surveyors said.
You know what happened next. A terrible fire killed many in the most horrific way. What do we get now?
Yes, it’s the classic case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. We are seeing big hikes on spending on repairs. Why did it take this tragedy for things to change? It’s not good enough; not by a long chalk.
Landlords knew next to nothing about the homes they owned and took ill-informed decisions, and it is costing a fortune to put this right.
So much for the rent cut. It didn’t save a brass farthing.
Some of the ways people tried to deal with the rent cut just did not work.
Do you remember when we were all told to merge? “You will see economies of scale” – that’s what the experts and politicians said.
Yet again they were wrong. There is no real differences in the costs per home for repairs between the giants and the smalls.
Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth.
Here is a table showing the regulator’s figures for cost per unit by organisation size:
The government needs to stop making up policy on the hoof. It won’t work. Hire some people that know what they are doing and listen to them. Governance in housing does not look too clever, does it?
First and foremost, are part-time board members up to the job? Do they know what they need to know? Can the experts and surveyors that boards rely on hold their heads high? It seems to me they are now seeing safety issues, they should have spotted before. And where was the regulator?
Locked up in a dungeon underneath the government and starved of cash. And spare me the guff about co-regulation. That just means no one knows what they are supposed to be doing.
Please, Simon Dow: use your new broom at the regulator to sweep the jargon away. Take charge.
We need a regulator that is on top of safety at associations and councils, and is match fit to sort out private blocks.
If you do one thing Kit, help them get ready to do this.
Alistair McIntosh, chief executive, Housing Quality Network
