The Spending Review might not be the only show in town

I’m also realistic – though not entirely without hope – that we might not see an abundance of additional funding across the breadth of competing priorities with which the housing association sector currently grapples.

But the Spending Review may not be the only show in town. This autumn has been a season of big changes to the political and policy landscape the housing association sector operates in – a number of which present clear opportunities for us to grasp.

In September we welcomed a new secretary of state with responsibility for housing and the dawn of a brand new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Michael Gove is the fifth housing secretary in as many years, but the first in a long time to arrive in the role as someone known for his clout. Crucially, when I met with him it was clear he was taking stock of his department’s responsibilities and is willing to listen to new ideas and approaches to longstanding challenges.

“Housing associations are natural and obvious partners for the policymakers who are developing the emerging levelling-up agenda”

There has been much speculation that he’s been tasked with sorting the department’s trickiest issues – such as cladding and planning – but he is also in charge of bringing shape and substance to levelling up. It is in this space that there is a real and substantial chance to place housing associations at the centre of the government’s flagship policy.

As was so very clear from all the discussions we heard last week at the NHF’s National Housing Summit Special Edition in Westminster, the housing sector and housing associations are natural and obvious partners for the policymakers who are developing the emerging levelling-up agenda.

Everyone can agree that a good-quality, safe, secure home in a vibrant community where there is access to good schools and jobs is the fundamental bedrock of tackling inequality and driving up the prospects of people and places. There are so few other sectors that can deliver on all these fronts, but the housing association sector is one of them. We build homes, we build local economies, we build communities and we are there for the long term.

From our reach across every corner of the country, our role as community anchors and placemakers, our work on decarbonisation and our commitment to building good-quality affordable homes in which local resident can live, the housing association sector has the potential to be the engine of levelling up.

“Now with levelling up sitting cheek by jowl with housing under one Whitehall roof, we have our best chance yet of playing a key role in the main act”

Of course, we’ve known all this since levelling up was first mooted and housing associations up and down the country have be making evidenced and impassioned arguments for the inclusion of housing in the agenda over the past two years. But now with levelling up sitting cheek by jowl with housing under one Whitehall roof, we have our best chance yet of playing a key role in the main act.

Spending Reviews are vital staging posts and funding wins, such as more money for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, are always fantastic to achieve. But if we can place housing at the heart of the government’s thinking on levelling up, the longer-term social and political gains could be worth the wait.

Kate Henderson, chief executive, National Housing Federation