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 :)

Win some, lose some

Those of you following the CIH Rising Stars competition will have seen that last Monday one of the other finalists was crowned the winner (here we are just before the announcement was made).

I’ve said for a few weeks that I wouldn’t like to call who would win as I thought all three of us did a great job of the tasks we were set and have a lot to offer the sector. I also said I would be completely gutted if I didn’t win.

So it came as a shock to me when I felt relatively ok when it wasn’t my name that Martin Hilditch and Grania Long read out. I think this is because being a finalist has opened up so many doors and opportunities already, I wasn’t relying on winning to provide these. And what has been important to me throughout the competition is that I can promote my work at Futures Homesape and also my idea of getting out there and working in new and creative ways with partners to meet housing need rather than waiting for Government funding and policy announcements. It was less important to me to have the glory of winning and the achievement for my CV.

In fact I think not winning will have its advantages (I would say that though wouldn’t I!) as there will be less pressure and expectation and I will have the freedom to quietly pursue my chosen interests.

So free of the responsibility of winning, I enjoyed the rest of the awards dinner on Monday night with my lovely work mates, fellow Rising Stars, CIH and Ocean Media colleagues. The dinner featured Baroness Tanni Grey-Thomspon as the speaker and presenter of the Housing Heroes awards and one thing in particular that she said resonated with me: “I’ve lost more than I’ve won”. I find Olympic and Paralympic athletes incredibly inspiring due to their unbelievable determination, enduring motivation, resilience, physical and mental strength, commitment to their sport, etc. I think it’s amazing what they go through and amazing what they achieve. This is something I need to remind myself of more often when I think some insignificant, easily-addressed issue is the end of the world!

Following the awards dinner, I stayed in Manchester to enjoy the full three days of the CIH conference. I’ve been to the conference before but only for one of the three days and previously it’s been quite a lonely experience as my network was quite limited. Due to my involvement with CIH East Midlands and HQN, for the first time this year I found myself bumping into all sorts of people and having a quick catch up. I even met some Twitter friends in the flesh!

I’ve still to digest the notes I made at the conference before I could say what I got out of it, but a couple of things spring to mind:
– discussing PRS policy and good practice with CIH colleagues and hopefully I will be spending a day with them to find out even more and contribute my insight to their work;
– hearing David Cowans from Places for People talk about their approach: ‘the best way to predict the future is to invent it, we can do it, lets get on with it’, I agreed with everything he had to say and he was the best speaker of the week in my opinion. I’d like to learn a lot more about the PfP approach;
– being completely uninspired and quite annoyed by Kris Hopkins MP and Eric Pickles MP who deny all sorts of facts and figures that everyone in housing knows to be true;
– sharing good practice on Health and Housing with Gentoo colleagues which I will feed into the November CIH East Midlands event on that very topic.

However, by the end of the three days I was itching to get back to the office and do something practical, all the endless debating, commenting, political arguing and talking about talking to ourselves too much (!) was taking its toll on me.

So whilst the Rising Stars competition and the CIH Manchester conference are done and dusted for another year, their impact will be long lasting and I’ve plenty of things I want to do as a result of them and I’ll be sure to keep you updated with future blog posts.

For now, I will leave you with a picture of me meeting Lewis the Dulux dog (yes the actual one from the advert!) :)

On the home straight

It’s now just over 9 weeks since I found out I was in the final of this year’s CIH and Inside Housing Rising Stars competition and with less than two weeks to go until the winner is crowned at the CIH Manchester conference (vote for me here), I’m glad to be on the home straight.

We three finalists have been well and truly put through our paces, and rightly so.

In May we had the pleasure of spending the day at Shelter‘s head office and were given a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the inner workings of their campaign team and advised how to improve our campaign plans. You can read more about our day with Shelter and my finalised campaign plan here (register). I’ve written a blog on what I learnt during this day which should be on the CIH website shortly (as a teaser, the title is ‘Campaign Supernovas’, get it?).

Later in May, we were part of a twitter debate, taking questions from across the sector and beyond on a huge range of issues, catch up on Storify here.

The beginning of June saw a double whammy of tasks: a day at the CIH London offices for a 30 minute interview with the CEO of Amicus Horizon, a CIH director and a CIH Governing Board member, and a presentation and Q&A session at the CIH East Midlands and De Montfort University student conference.

Whilst the interviewers weren’t quite as tough as Sir Alan, I felt like I’d been grilled a bit more than medium-rare. Questions covered a whole host of topics such as the fine detail of my campaign plan, including funding it, risks, getting it off the ground, pitching it to politicians and the housing sector and if it lets politicians off the hook. I was also asked what I’d do if I won and why I want to win, what I would ask the housing minister, why I entered, three things I’m good at, what I’m proud of, how colleagues would describe me in three words, if agree with conditionality, my career plan and many, many more. I think in total I was asked between 40 and 50 questions! Check out Inside Housing next week (Friday 13th!) for the write up.

At the student conference, we finally had the honour of meeting last year’s Rising Star, Peter Bond. The four of us were the last session of the day: a 15 minute presentation by each finalist with Peter facilitating a Q&A session afterwards. I was almost looking forward to this task as it felt the least daunting; I was on home turf with my fellow DMU students, CIH East Midlands Board members and colleagues from Futures Homescape. I was keen to do something informative yet fun during my 15 minutes so I did away with the usual slides of bullet points and opted for a few images (below) instead and included some audience participation (see the full presentation here Student confrence presentation).

The conference was a great day, check out the Storify here

So now that all these challenging hurdles have been jumped, I can relax a little bit, pick up some of the things I’ve put on hold (like my dissertation!) so that I could focus all my efforts on the Rising  Stars tasks, rustle up a few more votes and cross my fingers until the winner is finally announced!

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

Rising Stars: the journey so far

It’s 10 days since the announcement was made by Inside Housing and CIH that I’m in the final of this year’s Rising Stars competition.

I was put through to the final following my entry to the question: how would you go about establishing a campaign which raises housing as a key issue for the forthcoming election?

The title of my campaign idea is ‘Building Together’ and it’s very much rooted in the private sector leasing work we do at Futures Homescape. It’s all about doing something now rather than waiting for the outcome of the next election. We don’t need to wait for the government to issue a policy or create a pot of money that we bid for, there are a lot of things we can do now, with little or no government funding.

Throughout the competition, we three finalists have a number of tasks to complete, including producing a campaign plan. We’ve also been encouraged to shape and test our ideas so that they start to come to life and to get people to support and vote for us.

To this end, so far I have done the following:

• Started my own blog and posted 3 posts which detail my entry to the competition, how we (PRS team) have adopted a commercial mindset to make profit for a social purpose and how we’ve recently worked in partnership to develop affordable housing without government funding.
• Created a Pinterest board to inspire the housing sector with examples of developments funded either without Government grant or in a nontraditional way
• Been interviewed by Inside Housing for the article announcing who’s in the final three of the competition
• Contacted as many friends, family and colleagues as possible through email, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to ask them to vote for me!
• Written an article for the Guardian Housing Network on how to turn empty properties into affordable homes
• Been asked 10 questions by the CIH to find out more about me both personally and professionally
• Submitted a blog post to the De Montfort University student blog page on the importance of being a student and the benefits that continued studying brings to your professional career. It will be published shortly so keep an eye out.

There are still 8 weeks of the competition to go and at least 3 tasks to complete (an Apprentice-style grilling, a Question Time session and a campaigning master class at Shelter) but I’ve got plenty more cards up my sleeve to further shape, test and promote my campaign idea, so watch this space!

If you’d like to make any comments, suggestions or get involved in any way, please do get in touch :)

And if you haven’t voted for me yet, here’s the link you need:

I’m a CIH & Inside Housing Rising Stars 2014 finalist :)

So my first blog post is more of an announcement… I’m in the final of this year’s Chartered Institute of Housing & Inside Housing Rising Stars competition!!

The first Inside Housing article is here: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/analysis/7003301.article

I’m so thrilled to be one of just three people chosen by an expert panel of judges. I wasn’t sure if the ideas in my entry would appeal to the judges so I was certainly shocked when I received a phone call to tell me otherwise!

What makes this really special is that the ideas in my entry were based on the work I’m doing at Futures Homescape, so it makes me incredibly proud to have my team’s work recognised in this way :)

I’m really passionate about my work so I’m really looking forward to sharing this with others and encouraging and supporting them to develop their own schemes.

At this stage all I know is:

• Between now and CIH Housing 2014 in June, we three finalists will be asked to perform a range of tasks that will showcase our skills, knowledge and professionalism.
• Colleagues from across the housing industry will be encouraged to vote online for their favourite Rising Star throughout the process and specifically after each task
• The overall winner will be announced at a gala awards ceremony on Monday 23 June 2014

I’m feeling a whole world of emotions at the thought of what the next two months have in store for me: nervous, scared, excited, optimistic, challenged, ambitious… but I know that it’s going to be a great experience no matter what.

I’ve reproduced my entry to the competition below, if you like what you see please share, like and vote for me here: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/SPIN2_NO_ADS.aspx?navCode=2098

And of course please leave comments, ask questions, share your experiences and join the debate.

 

Without promoting any political party, how would you go about establishing a campaign which raises housing as a key issue for the forthcoming election?

• Your campaign title: Doing it for ourselves

 

• Who your target audience would be and why you would target them? (max 150 words)

The housing sector needs a new approach to how it funds and develops housing at an affordable price. Government funding for the sector is increasingly limited and, no matter which party is in power following the 2015 elections, this looks set to continue.

I would call upon all housing associations (HAs) and local authorities (LAs) to focus on what they can achieve without Government funding.

We are an innovative, financially robust and committed sector that can do much for ourselves and much for the communities we serve. Indeed, our communities are relying on us to provide the affordable housing they so desperately need.

We are well placed to forge strong relationships with the wide range of people and organisations that support our work, such as credit unions, local faith groups, training and apprenticeship providers, local developers, self-builders, local investors and entrepreneurs, etc.

• The key message(s) of your campaign? (max 150 words)

That housing associations and local authorities can do so much without Government funding.

That we can start now, we don’t need to wait for the outcome of the next election to provide more homes in our communities.

That the words profit and commercialisation are not necessarily dirty words if you still have a social purpose at your heart.

That housing needs local solutions and we are well placed to deliver the right solutions, at the right scale, with the right partners.

To inspire HAs & LAs to action by highlighting examples of how others have innovated to meet the housing needs of their communities without Government funding. For example, as part of our private sector leasing scheme in Amber Valley we have worked with a small local developer to transform an empty office into 18 brand new apartments at a rent local people can afford. The developer has wholly funded the development, no HA, LA or central Government funding has been required.

• How you would engage with people to get your message across? (max 150 words)

I would contact LAs and HAs directly to discuss how they are and can develop affordable housing without Government funding through local partnership working.

To inspire people to answer my call to do it for ourselves, I would highlight the financial and non-financial benefits of taking this approach for the benefit of our communities, including, creating local training and employment opportunities, supporting local supply chains, increasing council tax and New Homes Bonus receipts, increasing footfall in local towns to support local businesses, supporting local developers, reducing waiting lists, improve health outcomes through quality housing provision, reducing poverty through affordable housing provision and reducing benefit dependency. All without Government funding, and even without LA or HA funding. How could anyone say no to all of this?

As detailed above, I would give examples of how others have innovated to meet the housing needs of their communities without Government funding. This would give HAs and LAs confidence to do it for themselves.

• How would you judge whether your campaign was successful? (max 150 words)

This campaign would be successful if every HA and LA recognise that they can do much for their communities without Government funding and they embrace and utilise their ability to do it for themselves.

As a result of this campaign HAs and LAs would work in new and creative ways with their partners for the benefit of their communities; in every borough and district, HAs and LAs would develop quality housing at an affordable price through local partnerships rather than with Government funding.

Most importantly, communities would benefit hugely as those stuck on waiting lists, in expensive temporary accommodation or sofa surfing are provided with quality, affordable housing, jobs and training opportunities are created, local business are supported through supply chains and increased footfall and poverty, poor health and benefit dependency are tackled. And all thanks to LAs, HAs and their partners building homes.