4102; looking back on the year

No it’s not Usher’s latest album, this is my reflection on the achievements and challenges that 2014 brought (apologies in advance, it’s quite long, but hopefully quite interesting also :) ).

Starting with the day job, I’m really pleased with how far the Private Sector Leasing (PSL) scheme has progressed in 2014 compared to 2013 and 2012, particularly the part of the scheme that helps owners of empty properties to bring them back into use as affordable housing. We started the year with the renovation of the first homes in Erewash (St Mary Street, Ilkeston) and by the end of the year we’d hit 31 renovated homes, including two old office buildings, an empty pub and an old school swimming pool building. Many of the properties had been empty for 4 or 5 years; now they provide affordable housing (see one tenant’s story of how he feels like he’s won the lottery), Council Tax and New Homes Bonus revenue and more business for local builders and shops.

Whilst we’ve hugely exceeded our own expectations in bringing a total of around 90 empty properties back into use since 2012 (back in 2012 we expected to do 30!), it has been far from plain sailing. A lot of people argue that tackling the hundreds of thousands of empty properties in the country is an easy way to solve the housing crisis, but let me tell you (as I recently told Daventry MP Chris Heaton-Harris! (click day 22 here)) it takes a vast amount of time, money, perseverance and sometimes ultimatums (see my Guardian article on the subject of empty homes here). Whilst we secured additional funding from the HCA beyond our initial allocation for 30 units as we realised we could do more, we’ve also had to return some of our allocation just before Christmas as some owners just couldn’t meet the HCA March deadline, despite a £20,000 incentive in some cases (although we did manage to find last minute replacements for 4 units that pulled out, thanks to an owner that could get major renovation works done at all four in just 6 weeks!). One such property is a family home in a desirable rural area that has been empty for 20 years and which is a great annoyance to local residents; despite the very regular efforts of myself and the local authority empty homes officer, a threat of enforcement action and a significant grant offer, I am gutted that the owner couldn’t be persuaded in time. Nonetheless, our hard work with other owners was recognised early this year by the Empty Homes Network with an award for Local Authority/Housing Association Partnership of the Year. Sadly, the future of this part of the PSL scheme is unknown as we weren’t successful in securing any HCA grant in the 2015-18 bid. Despite facing significant challenges such as two difficult HCA audits, the scheme not taking off in Northamptonshire as we’d hoped and some tough Governance lessons, I’m still keen to do more (although I might be the only one in the team who is!) and I’ll be pursuing any and every option in 2015 including EDMOs, a project in Rutland, internal funding opportunities and other external funding opportunities. My first job on January 5th is to make sure the works are on schedule at the remaining 15 flats and houses, all due to complete by the end of January, eek!

March saw the completion of a scheme that I had been working on since the very beginning of the PSL scheme in 2012, a new development of 18 two-bedroom apartments, on the site of an old Royal Mail sorting office. This was the first scheme we’d leased to let at market rent (although, in Amber Valley market rent, social rent and LHA rent levels don’t vary greatly) and as such this was the first time we’d asked for tenants to pay a month’s rent in advance and a deposit. Overall, I’m pleased with how things are going at the scheme, although I did learn the lesson that taking handover of 18 units in one go is a lot to deal with! We’ve also had a couple of difficult rent arrears cases to deal with but we’re making sure we learn from the experience to improve our performance in this area. I’m hoping 2015 will see more new build developments like this one join the leasing scheme.

This scheme was closely followed by another first; in April the PSL team took handover of Futures Housing Group’s first new build market rent acquisition. We used our experiences gained only a month earlier to let these two and three bedroom market rent homes and we’ve had wonderful feedback from the tenants so far, as well as a challenging out of hours incident involving a leaking boiler.

It’s easy to overlook all our achievements in the last 12 months so it’s great to have some time to reflect on the work of the PSL team, however, challenges such as a short but intensely painful period of poor rent arrears performance, being audited three times in a year, team members who still dislike or don’t understand the scheme and getting to grips with health and safety requirements (far from my area of expertise!) can sadly overshadow the fact that we re-let properties in around 7 days, the scheme is regularly and positively discussed at management, executive and board meetings, our Halloween themed staff briefing received amazing feedback and above all that we are increasing the amount of quality, affordable housing in our communities.

In addition to the day job, I’ve completed quite a few extra-curricular activities in 2014 (you might call it ambition, or being a glutton for punishment, all I know is that I don’t want to miss any opportunity to be the best I can be). 2014 was my first full year as a CIH East Midlands Board member and I’m excited to have played a role in providing valuable information and events to CIH members in the East Midlands, including creating and managing a Twitter account, co-chairing a very successful health and housing event and co-authoring the first regional newsletter. January will see our annual leaders’ round table event which I have helped to organise this year, including adding a young leaders element to the event and in February I will attend my second CIH Presidential Dinner with my fellow board members. The event last year was a wonderful opportunity to dine in a magnificent building next to Dippy the Dinosaur but also to get to know my board colleagues better and to make some new contacts too. I also hope to attend One CIH in 2015, the annual planning/away day for CIH all regional boards.

I spent a lot of time at De Montfort University (DMU) this year, primarily as I was a distance learning student completing the final year of a BSc (Hons) in Housing, which mainly involved a 15,000 word dissertation on the role of the UK Government in subsidising affordable housing, under the wonderful guidance of Dr Peter King and Professor Jo Richardson. I am pleased to say I will return to Leicester on the 22^nd January to graduate from this course with a First Class honours degree and I will thereby become a Chartered Member of CIH. I have recently submitted an abstract of this dissertation to two academic journals and hope 2015 will see the publication of my research. Another reason I spent a lot of time at DMU was my involvement in the Department of Public Policy and Politics’ Policy Commission, the aim of which was for students to present 100 policy ideas to change Britain to policy makers at an event as Westminster Palace; I was the lead of 4 housing students working on 20 policy ideas regarding welfare reform and communities, which you can read here.

I think 2014 has been the peak in terms of award nominations, I am very lucky to have been in the running for two individual awards and two team awards. Both individual awards (CIH/Inside Housing Rising Star award and Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce Young Person in Business award) were very intense, challenging and rewarding. The highlights of these experiences were the opportunity to spend at day at Shelter HQ with the campaign team, spending 3 days and nights at CIH Manchester making new friends, Twitter conversations with the likes of Natalie Elphicke and David Cowans, getting much more involved with the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, making important connections with local businesses, attending a Chamber event at Westminster Palace and all the personal development opportunities and lessons learned. It was a shame not to win either of these awards but ultimately I’m glad to have had the opportunities and the exposure but I’m happy not have the expectations many will put on the winners. I think perhaps 2015 will be the year to leave the award entries to others, perhaps…

Other things I’ve been doing include: a research project for the FHG Board of Directors which considered who our current and future customers are, what their needs and wants are, and if and what products and services we should provide to them; a project based on the NHF Homes for Britain campaign to raise the profile of housing in the run up to the election with FHG staff, customers, stakeholders and local policy makers, which has included giving a presentation at the board planning/away day and may involve a relay-style event in the run up to the Homes for Britain rally (watch this space!); a presentation at the NHF Hot House Future Leaders event, appearing in a video at the NHF conference played to the Housing and Planning Minister (my write up of this conference also featured on the Guardian website, to my amazement/embarrassment!); two briefings (one on PSL, one on developing through partnership working), a benchmarking study and my first consultancy project with HQN; an invitation to attend the Young Leaders Experience; speaking at a University of Sheffield careers event to promote housing as a career option and finally becoming a Board Director at the Gleadless Valley Community Forum which aims to grow the capacity of the local community so that local people are able to overcome barriers to social and economic inclusion.

I hoping to do even more in 2015, (although after writing this that could be quite a challenge!) and I’ve already mentioned a few of the things that I’ll be getting up to in the first few months of the year and 2015 will also see me take on some additional responsibilities for the management of two colleagues and so this will bring another dimension to my day job and probably also to the topics covered in this blog.

A very happy and prosperous new year to you all, see you on the other side :)

Building Together – why bother?

Some of you following my Rising Stars journey may be wondering why I’m even bothering with the Building Together campaign idea, why it’s important and if it’s even a realistic idea.

Hopefully, by the end of this post you will understand why I’m so passionate about it and will want to join me on my quest for the housing sector to develop new and creative ways of working in partnership to Build Together without Government funding for the benefit of their communities.

There are a whole host of financial based arguments that I can make as to why the sector needs to pull out every stop it can find to build more homes, but I want to start with my personal view of the situation.

Essentially, it boils down to this: life is short and I want to make the most of it by having a positive impact on the world. I’m fortunate to have had the opportunity to go to a good university to study a good degree subject (Law with French at the University of Sheffield), which opened my mind to some of the problems in the world (crime) and some ideas about how to change things. In my final year I decided I didn’t want to follow the traditional law student path to practising as a solicitor or a barrister, I wanted a meaningful career.

For a number of reasons, I set my career sights on the housing sector and I was fortunate to discover and successfully apply for the Futures Housing Group graduate scheme in 2009.

Of my 4 and half years of working at FHG, I have spent 3 of them as a member of the Housing Advice team, which advises around 700 homeless households each year. In my early days with the team, I would advise some of these households and although my role has changed since then, I still deal with families in housing need on a very regular basis.

And this is why I’m bothering with the Building Together campaign, because of these experiences on the front line, with people from all sorts of backgrounds, who all want to know why is it so difficult and why do they have to wait so long for a place they can call home?

As a committed housing professional, passionate about the work of our sector, I have always found it really challenging to say to people: “well, it’s because of X Government policy”, or “we’re waiting to hear if we’ve been successful in our funding bid”, or worst of all “I know you have nowhere to stay tonight, but you’re not in priority need, so you’re only option is to travel 15 miles to the nearest emergency hostel, queue for a space and hope they can put you up for 3 nights”.

The Building Together campaign is all about what the sector can do now, without waiting for Government policy, election results or funding bids. We are an innovative, financially robust and committed sector that can do much for ourselves and much for our communities that are relying on us to provide the affordable housing they so desperately need.

Since 2012, I’m honoured to have had the opportunity to coordinate a scheme that provides affordable housing by working in partnership with local property owners and developers. Admittedly, we have received some HCA grant for part of the scheme, but at an average of £11,000 per unit (with owners often contributing significant funding of their own) to bring empty properties back into use as affordable housing, I hope you’ll agree that we’ve made good use of the grant.

Recently, the scheme has started working with local developers who are building significant numbers of new houses and apartments at their own cost, which are leased and let by my organisation at LHA rents. This means we are providing much needed homes to our local residents without central or local Government grant and even without funding from my own organisation. It also means that when I speak to a family in housing need, I can now say “would you be interested in a brand new apartment at LHA rent?”, which is such a good feeling. Already, I can look back on my career and think, I’ve done my bit to sort out the housing shortage and as I’ll probably have to work until I’m 80, I’m excited about what other schemes and opportunities the future will bring my way.

And in case that isn’t’ enough to convince you that my campaign idea is worth bothering about and that it can be achieved, here are some facts and figures that might help (also available as an infographic here) (p.s. if you are convinced, please vote for me as your Rising Star here: https://polldaddy.com/poll/7973880/):

It makes economic sense:

Every pound spend on construction generates £2.09 of economic output

92% of all housing investment stays in the UK

56p of each pound spent returns to the exchequer, of which 36p is direct savings in tax and benefits

There’s an affordable housing shortage!

Around 250,000 new homes required each year, but in 2013, only 110,000 were completed, of which 87,000 were complete by private house builders.

1.68m households on social housing waiting lists in 2013

53,000 households statutorily homeless in 2013

13 million people in the UK live in poverty (2011/2); more than half of these are people are in work (6.7m)

More than 1 million working households claim housing benefit and in 2010/11, 93% of new claims were from working households

We are financially strong:

The sector has a combined worth of £360bn; housing associations posted a surplus of £1.8bn in 2012 and a turnover of £13.8bn

£3.8bn raised by housing associations through public bonds and private placements in 2012/3; the HCA Affordable Homes Programme 2015-18 offers £1.7bn funding

Times are changing:

77% of respondents in a recent survey of the housing sector said they do not anticipate an increase in bricks and mortar subsidies at all; 77% also thought a self-financing sector is desirable and already 24% of respondent’s development plans are for market rent.

It helps the public purse:

Decent homes save the NHS £39.2 million each year

For every property developed, local authorities receive an extra £3,000 each year for six years on average (£1,464 council tax per year plus £8,784 New Homes Bonus)

Poor housing causes many problems:

Poor educational performance and attendance

High crime rates

Increased risk of accident and

Increased transaction and production costs for goods and services

Low-paid workers are unable to live close to centres of economic activity

Serious health problems

Making a profit for social purpose

It is a much written about subject, the what, why and how of social housing providers engaging in profit making activities to generate funds for their social activities.

As the Government grant available to the sector continues to disappear (with ever more strings attached to what is left), local authorities and housing associations have increasingly embraced the need to secure funds from other sources so they can continue to provide affordable housing in their communities.

Some have chosen to build homes for market rent and sale, whilst others have diversified into other sectors such as leisure facilities, social enterprise, health services and education provision. To be successful in any and all of these endeavours, providers must adopt a commercial attitude.

At Futures Homescape, in April 2012, we began leasing and managing properties on behalf of private landlords. In just two years, we’re really proud to be leasing over 100 properties, which are offered as affordable housing, often to those in housing need stuck on the waiting list. Many of these properties were previously empty, some for 3 or 4 years, but thanks to HCA funding we’ve helped owners complete the required renovation works using only a fraction of the grant normally used for new builds (around £11,000 per property).

Recently, we’ve started to work with local developers to lease properties that they have built and wholly funded themselves. We’re really keen to do more partnership working like this as it creates so many benefits for local people, businesses, economies and councils, and all without any government funding.

A commercial attitude has been a really important part of this work; without it we wouldn’t have enjoyed the successes above or generated sufficient income to cover our expenses, let alone make a small surplus.

To achieve these successes, we have:

• Continually developed our products and services in response to what our customers tell us they want, we use every conversation with our customers as an opportunity to find out what they think.
• Considered anything, no matter how wacky or unusual, such as barn conversions in the middle of a golf course or renovating a pub with a chequered past.

• Thinking creatively to make a difficult project work, often through partnership working. We fully explore every leasing opportunity, we hardly ever say no straight away no matter how weird or wonderful it may sound (see above!)
• Let our products and services speak for themselves; we’ve focused on providing excellent products and services and we’ve really felt the power of word of mouth, no flashy or gimmicky marketing tricks have been required.
• Thoroughly researched our competitors and what customers think about them to learn what works well and what doesn’t.
• Scrutinised and questioned every penny of expenditure.
• Supported colleagues to develop their commercial skill sets and recruited from the private sector where necessary.

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of developing the private sector leasing scheme, and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved in just two years. Things have never been easy and we’ve hit numerous bumps in the road along the way, but as I read on LinkedIn recently, a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. It’s fantastic that this work has been recognised by Inside Housing and CIH, who have shortlisted me and my work in this year’s Rising Stars competition.

Whilst some may still be questioning whether or not and how to diversify, for me it’s vitally important that the sector maximises its financial strength and experience to ensure our communities are provided with the affordable housing they so desperately need.

Welcome to my new blog :)

Hello and welcome to my new blog :)

I’ve blogged previously on my organisation’s intranet site and I’ve copied my old blogs over to this site.

I’ve also been tweeting for a while but 140 characters is never enough, so here I am in the blogosphere!

Here you’ll find my thoughts on a range of housing issues that I find interesting, such as developing and financing new housing, bring empty properties back into use, homelessness and the cost of living to name a few.

I’ll also write about what I get up to as a housing professional, a student at De Montfort University, a board member of the CIH East Midlands board and an associate at HQN.

Find out more about me on the ‘About my work’ page and if you’re interested in developing affordable housing without Government funding through local partnership working, check out the ‘case studies’ page.

I’d really like to hear what people think about this blog, including suggestions for topics and your views and experiences compared to mine.

What I’ve been reading this week (February 2013)

As I’ve said before, I like to keep a keen eye on the housing news (the daily 60 second housing news bulletin is a great way to do this, sign up here) – here are some of the things I’ve been reading this week

A Shelter blog on Going Digital by Default which discusses the problems of developing digital services purely to achieve financial savings as those who are offline are likely to fall behind – thoughts Louise Invine-Rawlins ?

A story about a London authority that is converting empty garages into pop up homes at £11 a week (apologies its from the Daily Mail!) – what do you think Sara Mackie ?

Searching for funding opportunities on Funding Central

Following on from my last post, keeping up to date with government announcements on new funding opportunities for house building

A post event briefing from A CIH event I went to a couple of weeks ago: Improving you career prospects in housing

Let me know your thoughts, or what you’ve been reading recently below :)