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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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Keep focusing on tenants amid the Brexit noise
Nobody knows what will happen with Brexit but social landlords need to focus on safety and service standards, writes Alistair McIntosh
You’ve got to feel for Fiona Bruce, she is taking over as the host of Question Time – who would want that job?
How on earth do you keep order when all that anyone on it wants to do is shout about Brexit?
The show makes a dreadful din, a bit like a set change in a bad am-dram panto. But at least the clumsy stage hands have some sort of idea of where Snow White and her pals are going.
I have no idea where we are heading with Brexit. But it’s wasted a lot of time this year. Will it do the same next year? Yes is the simple answer.
Just look at the response to Grenfell. We can see that landlords are spending more on safety and, of course, that’s good.
“Why is it taking so long to put in place a regulator for housing that puts tenants first? Where is the national tenant’s body?”
There’s a lot to like in the Social Housing Green Paper, too.
But when will we get the changes that are needed? Why is it taking so long to put in place a regulator for housing that puts tenants first? Where is the national tenants’ body?
Brexit is sucking up the time that could sort this out. Compare and contrast the intensity of effort from civil servants with 100 days to go until Brexit with the snail’s pace of progress over the hundreds of days since Grenfell. When Dominic Raab ran away from housing and onto Brexit, we found out where we stood.
But in some ways that’s a surprise. One of the main ways you measure an economy is by looking at the gross value added (GVA) figures. Will it go up or down with Brexit? That’s the test. GVA is driven by the biggest industry in the UK. Do you know what that is? Well, it is the imputed rental income from owner-occupiers.
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Or to put it another way, that’s the value of owner-occupiers unknowingly letting their homes to themselves. That’s why pushing up homeownership is such a big deal.
Yes, Help to Buy makes perfect sense now doesn’t it? What a mess we get into when we start chasing the wrong figures! One of the biggest scandals of the year was the shocking standards of new build homes. No one measures that. Or if they do, they’ve been asleep at the wheel.
It’s no accident that so many associations have been encouraged to get into selling homes – it’s their patriotic duty to boost GVA.
But who will carry the can if this gamble does not pay off? Will it be the Brexiteers? No. Will it be the housing bosses who went along with it? No. You know where this is heading... it will be the tenants that foot the bill.
The money men that advise associations are telling them to hoard cash. That’s the way to get through any storms. And magically these guys can find the cash for you at a price.
There may be something in this. But what if Brexit really is a car crash? Won’t the government just take your money off you and spend it the way they want to? They’re in charge after all.
On the other hand, what if everything works out fine?
Are we worrying about nothing with Brexit? It might be all right on the night or it might never happen. Maybe it’s the Millennium bug all over again – do you remember when the boffins told us that our computers would crash at the end of 1999? They were wrong.
“The money men that advise associations are telling them to hoard cash.”
If the same thing happens again, what will you do with all this money? It could be a good time to buy into the market. But if we set off another boom, it might make it even harder for people to get on the ladder.
What’s the best way forward? I like what Simon Wolfson, chief executive of Next, is saying. Now I know he voted to leave, so maybe he is biased. Mr Wolfson points out that come what may, people will still wear clothes – his job is to make sure they are buying clothes from Next.
By the same token, I am certain people will still be living in your houses. Your job is to make sure they are safe and that standards of service are top notch.
Yes, we need to keep a wary eye on the spreadsheets but most of you will still be doing the best job you can for tenants next year. I’d just keep on keeping on. And hope that at some point Ms Bruce gets a scrap of sense out of her guests.
Alistair McIntosh, chief executive, Housing Quality Network
