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Brendan is the founding Chair of Sustainability for Housing. He has more than 20 years’ experience as a CEO in the social housing sector,...more
The recovery from the pandemic requires collaboration and innovation
The coronavirus crisis has been an immense challenge for all housing associations. The recovery will require a step change in how we work, argues Brendan Sarsfield
Individually and collectively, councils and housing associations have demonstrated their strong social purpose throughout the COVID-19 crisis. We should all be proud of what our teams are doing to support people.
Many of us have lost residents to the virus and grieved for them. Others have lost loved ones. No one has been unaffected, but we’ve managed to find a way through the emergency together in a caring, compassionate and effective way.
“The problems are stark and are likely to become more difficult for individuals, associations and councils alike”
As we move from emergency to recovery, there will be more challenges to navigate. With a recession and more economic hardship likely, our social purpose is going to be needed by more people than ever before. If we are to achieve more and scale up our positive impact in challenging circumstances, we will have to work smarter in the years to come.
In looking at these challenges, it’s important to understand the situation affecting many people’s lives before the pandemic. All was not well.
We entered the period with record numbers living in temporary housing, stubbornly high numbers of people forced to sleep on the streets, and a slowly dying supported housing model. Add to this an inadequate funding model for sub-market rented housing, underfunded local authorities, and a welfare system that isn’t fit for purpose.
There are also building safety and certification problems causing uncertainty for thousands of leaseholders across the country. Our leaseholders will hopefully get help from the Building Safety Fund, but all these issues remain and are in addition to the environmental and sustainability challenges ahead of us all.
The problems are stark and are likely to become more difficult for individuals, associations and councils alike. Clearly it would be beneficial if there was a huge economic stimulus to help tackle the rising tide of poverty and build genuinely affordable homes, to drive the recovery through investment in construction and the green economy, and to correct the welfare system’s failings.
But given the constraints on public finances going forward, it’s reasonable to assume that this may not happen at the scale that is needed.
I don’t list all of these challenges to be negative, or even to call for more government money and action to help resolve them. No, I’m listing them because we need to have a conversation about how social landlords might change and adapt to the new world we find ourselves in.
We need to consider what more we can do as a sector to help meet the myriad challenges in new ways. Basically, how do we collectively achieve more with the resources we have?
“With a recession and more economic hardship likely, our social purpose is going to be needed more than ever before”
We should have confidence in our ability to change and respond to this challenge. We are resilient, strong and effective organisations. Just as we did after the financial crash of 2008, we will need to think about what we prioritise after the seismic shock of the 2020 pandemic.
Some criticise the cross subsidy model we have used to deliver more social rented homes since the financial crash, but without it we would have delivered very few homes for those in greatest need. It may be a model struggling today but the innovation we showed then and our response to the pandemic so far show we can adjust and move on quickly again.
What will make us more efficient and get more resources into homes and services? How can better collaboration and co-ordination between us remove duplication and improve impact? Should we concentrate on trying to solve fewer problems, but more effectively? Peabody’s strategy was already evolving away from us doing everything ourselves to agreeing with our partners who are best placed to deliver services locally.
We need to accelerate that change. To do even some of it better we need to change culturally, letting more decisions be made at a local level.
There are opportunities here.
We are back to building more homes. The risks have changed but so have our ways of managing those risks.
Our joint dynamic purchasing system, jointly procured with Notting Hill Genesis, is an example of this change. This is a digital contracting system that allows lots of small contractors to deliver our repair services. In the new world this could be a really vital strand of activity, opening work for new young companies and enterprises. Hopefully the platform can be expanded to other services, too.
We will all be working on our recovery and remobilisation plans, looking at how we meet the huge challenges in better ways. If the money that is really needed becomes available then we can achieve more, quicker, but let’s not wait to reform. In fact it would be dangerous to do so.
The best time to make a step change for the benefit of our residents and communities is now.
Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive, Peabody
