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Alison is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She is a Board Member at Colne Housing Society. Alison is also on ...more
Housing leaders must be honest and open about things that have gone wrong
David Montague’s showing of humility in the face of problems is welcome, writes Alison Inman
Towards the end of last year, I interviewed housing minister Kit Malthouse as part of the National Sales Group conference at Homes 2018.
After a slightly iffy start, where he outed himself as a New Romantic who hated Punk (thank goodness it wasn’t The Guardian Blind Date), we settled down to talk all things housing.
There were three main things on the minister’s mind: supply, stigma and what he saw as the need for social landlords to up their game as service providers.
I was reminded of that conversation when I read David Montague’s article this week.
It is unusual to hear a chief executive put their hands up and admit that their organisation has got something wrong.
It is almost unheard of for someone to do it in the way that he did.
Not only did the L&Q chief executive outline what had gone wrong, he apologised publicly and personally for the failures, commissioned an independent review and published the results, and increased investment in repairs and maintenance.
“It is unusual to hear a chief executive put their hands up and admit that their organisation has got something wrong”
As Mr Montague said in the article: “We will and should be judged by the quality of our homes in management and the quality of our service to existing residents.”
For too long the housing sector has been reluctant to admit that not everything in the garden is rosy.
Even a cursory look at social media shows that some of the homes rented from social landlords are far from the shiny show homes that form the basis of the sector’s publicity.
Those tenants that take to Twitter or Facebook are often ignored, their posts unanswered.
They are asked to take their complaints offline and often end up seeking help from their local councillors and MPs.
“For too long the housing sector has been reluctant to admit that not everything in the garden is rosy”
These representatives are the same people that make decisions about funding and they are constantly told how brilliant the sector is, bombarded with glossy publications showing perfect brand-new developments.
How on earth do they reconcile these two realities? Who do they believe, who do they trust?
Trust is one of the four principles in Civil Society Futures, the final report of the two-year inquiry into the third sector chaired by Julia Unwin.
The report proposes a ‘PACT’, based on power, accountability, connections and trust. I heartily recommend that you take a look at it, encourage as many people as possible to read it and then act upon it.
The problems we face are too great for outmoded concepts of ‘command and control’ leadership and we must begin by being honest with each other.
It may seem a small thing but showing a little humility, like Mr Montague, seems a pretty good place to start.
Alison Inman, board member at Colne Housing and Saffron Housing, former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, and co-founder of SHOUT
We at L&Q got it wrong and let down our residents
“I’m pulling no punches here: we got it wrong, we didn’t fix things when we should have, and as result we let down our residents”
David Montague, chief executive, L&Q
Click here to read an article by Mr Montague explaining more about the repairs controversy