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How housing associations can succeed as agents of recovery at the vanguard of erupting economic and social change

After the financial crisis in 2010, housing associations were often the best-resourced organisations operating at a community level as public services were decimated by austerity. Here we are again – success requires an honest examination of our role in communities, writes Stuart Ropke

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“The 2010 financial crisis left housing associations as the best-resourced organisations in localities as public services were decimated. Here we are again – success requires an honest examination of our role in communities,” says @stuart_chc #ukhousing

“After all the talk, now there is surely a need to bring competing philosophies together and produce concrete proposals that could genuinely create a sustainable future for all in the shadow of the pandemic,” argues @stuart_chc #ukhousing

“Is it housing associations’ role just to be delivery agents for government, sticking to the knitting? Or is there no option but to step up as agents of recovery at the vanguard of the economic and social change?,” asks @stuart_chc #ukhousing

My lockdown listening du jour has been dominated by revisiting Arcade Fire’s 2010 album The Suburbs. The often bleak, brutally honest song writing in tandem with soaring arrangements and optimistic moments pretty much characterises my lockdown experience. It’s also an album that rewards listening to the tracks in chronological order, building a compelling narrative – it’s not one for shuffle mode.

At the moment it feels like we are operating in the half light, a strange world where what was considered normal is trying to reimpose its will. But as long as coronavirus lurks in the shadows, it’s hard to see if a return to the previous flawed and inequitable economic model will be successful and if what emerges will be better.


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Of course there is no shortage of ideas. All around abounds the sound of policy wonks indulging in furious debate and discussion. Working life is currently spent in webinars and Zoom calls discussing the ‘post-Covid world’.

We’re guilty of joining the ‘Build Back Better’ party at Community Housing Cymru too – taking the opportunity to look again at our ‘Housing Horizons’ ambition for housing associations in Wales originally launched in 2017 – starting with looking at the values we espouse as housing associations.

Of course pluralism is positive, but very soon there is surely a need to bring competing philosophies together and produce concrete proposals that could genuinely create a sustainable future for all in the shadow of the pandemic. A compelling and persuasive vision of a future that could establish a new societal and political consensus.

There is no sign yet of that consensus emerging. The government and politicians are yet to accept that a return to a pre-pandemic world is neither desirable or in reality possible.

An economic revolution has already begun – a major employer based in Cardiff city centre has confirmed that they won’t be reopening their call centre after discovering that services can be successfully delivered from a dispersed workforce operating out of their own homes.

Surely that is an experience being replicated across the country.

Yet from the UK government we see a familiar playbook with half-hearted capital investments in infrastructure and the green economy touted as “world-leading” and a reliance on old standbys such as stamp duty holidays.

I am slightly more optimistic in Wales, where at least the immediacy of a forthcoming election in May 2021 should provide the space for what needs to be a robust debate.

While the Welsh government has asked for ideas for recovery to be submitted by the end of July, and there has been encouraging words from ministers on fairness and well-being, it remains to be seen how radical party manifestos for the election will be.

Meanwhile the prime minister recently threatened to interfere in devolved responsibilities. In a rhetorical flourish, he pledged to “unblock the nostrils of the Welsh dragon” by building the controversial M4 relief road which was rejected by first minister Mark Drakeford in 2019. Here we see, again, the attachment to pre-coronavirus economic norms with added populism inbuilt.

Whatever your view on the merits of road building, surely we need to assess what post-Covid traffic levels and patterns may be and equally consider the benefits that might accrue to the whole of Wales if capital borrowing for the new road was instead, for instance, directed into a wide-scale retrofitting programme to decarbonise the housing stock, providing new opportunities for jobs in deprived communities which have suffered disproportionately due to the pandemic.

“There is surely a need to bring competing philosophies together and produce concrete proposals that could genuinely create a sustainable future for all in the shadow of the pandemic”

So where does all this leave housing associations? In the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2010, they were often the best-resourced organisations, operating at a community level as public services were decimated by austerity. The same situation almost certainly applies now. This requires an honest examination of our role in communities. Managing and building social housing will always be at the core of our purpose and in an economy that is almost certainly going to be ravaged by a deep recession, that will be more important than ever.

But is it our role just to be delivery agents for government, sticking to the knitting? Or is there now no option but to step up even more than we have previously: as agents of recovery at the vanguard of the economic and social change that is erupting, helping to set the strategy with and for communities, directing our spending power towards local businesses which need support and ensuring that individuals are able to access the opportunities that a post-Covid economy might bring? Do we build different types of homes in future with integrated workspace included and do we open up our office space to local start-ups and individuals who can’t work from home?

The state has immense power to take positive action and of course we need politicians from all parties to understand the importance of capital investment in new housing and green retrofit. But real, lasting economic and social change is often driven by the actions of individual organisations and people. That mode of social change can often be deeper and longer lasting, insulated from the ebb and flow of the political battle of ideas.

In the aftermath of coronavirus, what is the change we need to see? Our work to revisit our own vision as a sector – that Wales is a place where good housing is a basic right for all – has already exposed that talking solely with and between ourselves will not provide the answers. The answer is surely local and surely shared.

To borrow some words from Arcade Fire: “Now our lives are changing fast, hope that something pure can last.”

Stuart Ropke, chief executive, Community Housing Cymru

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