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Lynsey SweeneyLynsey Sweeney is Managing Director of Communities that Work, the voice of housing providers that deliver social mobility through ...more
Value for Money Standard will shift sector’s focus towards tenants and social investment
It is time for a renewed commitment from housing associations to help tenants into work, argues Lynsey Sweeney
Whisper it quietly: the housing sector is changing – again.
The many mergers, the imminent Social Housing Green Paper, the succession of new housing ministers, the end of the Homes and Communities Agency and the arrival of the new Regulator of Social Housing – we can’t catch our breath.
However, for Give us a Chance (GUAC) – a membership organisation made up of social housing landlords who are passionate about helping social housing tenants into work – it’s the regulator’s new Value for Money Standard, which makes the sector sit up and listen.
Having come into effect in April 2018, it reflects new-found support towards community investment and social objectives, and a move away from focusing solely on maximising financial returns.
This change is seismic. The standard will likely act, not only the yard stick that measures the sector’s social investment, but also as the catalyst that sets off the renaissance in social housing’s social investment.
“In this new era, post the Grenfell tower tragedy which has re-centred the tenant-landlord relationship, the sector has started to re-focus its objectives.”
Even just two years ago we could have drawn a line down the middle of the sector – one side, those focused on supply and financial returns and the other, those focused on delivering social objectives.
For a while it looked like the focus on building and supply might win the debate – reductions in grants, the housing supply crisis and the end of subsidies might have drawn even the most reluctant housing associations towards commercial cross-subsidy in order to survive.
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But the housebuilding and cross-subsidy arms race has slowed. Post-recession, post-welfare reform and the Universal Credit roll-out have all meant that tenants need support more than ever before. And in this new era, after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which has re-centred the tenant-landlord relationship, the sector has started to re-focus its objectives.
Of GUAC’s 50 members, the 10 largest providers – which collectively own or manage nearly 600,000 homes – last year invested a combined £18.3m into employment-related services, with that figure set to rise even further this year and next.
This change is gaining momentum.
Some of the largest names in the sector are embracing the renaissance with gusto – GUAC member Clarion, through Clarion Futures, is investing £150m over 10 years to provide support, skills and opportunities to more than 360,000 residents.
Similarly, GUAC member L&Q have announced a new £100m credit facility with French bank BNP Paribas, which includes a provision for a discounted interest rate if they support 600 unemployed residents back into work in the first year, and 25 residents each year thereafter.
These seemingly large numbers are just the tip of the iceberg of the revolution taking place among our membership and beyond.
But more needs to be done to continue the pace of change as well as support housing associations to do more to help tenants into work.
Above all else, we need better recognition of the scale of the unemployment problem in social housing, and recognition for the work that housing associations are doing to help people into work.
Unemployment and economic inactivity are far higher among social tenants than any other tenure or the national average. But too often, policy makers are blindly unaware of the investment the sector is making to help people into work. This blind spot means policy and resources – either centrally controlled or devolved – are not aimed in the right direction.
Without housing associations around the table, policies and resources that seek to tackle unemployment among our tenants and communities won’t be effective.
“We need better recognition of the scale of the unemployment problem in social housing.”
Last week, Kit Malthouse, our new housing minister, in his then role as work and pensions minister, paid a visit to GUAC member Sovereign, to see first-hand how it is working to get people into employment. He was, unsurprisingly, impressed at the level of support that housing associations like Sovereign provide.
And GUAC has a key role in leading the charge for recognition and change. That’s why last week, GUAC and Placeshapers launched a new All-Party Parliamentary Group for housing and employment. Through it, we’re bringing together members of parliament and peers from across the house in order to renew the debate around tackling unemployment and in-work poverty among social housing tenants.
Today, hot off the back of the Centre for Social Justice’s Social housing and employment report, The Institute of Public Policy Research released its latest research Building Communities that Work.
Supported by GUAC, it sets out the true scale of housing associations’ investment into employment-related services, and outlines how government can do more to work with housing associations to close the gap.
So, as GUAC continues to lead the charge for bringing housing and employment together, the time is now for housing associations to embrace the social investment renaissance, reimage their relationship with their customers and find a renewed commitment to helping people into work and out of poverty.
Lynsey Sweeney, managing director, Give us a Chance
