The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has launched SHDF Wave 2.2.

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The guidance documents, clarification responses, application forms and supplementary tables are all now available here on GOV.UK.

The latest round of SHDF funding will allocate £80m to social housing providers across England to help fund home energy efficiency upgrades.

Registered providers, including local authorities, housing associations and charities, preparing to bid for SHDF funding are eligible for free one-to-one support from the SHRA team. The SHRA has launched a brand new series of masterclasses, drop-in clinics and bootcamps tailored to organisations bidding in this round of funding. Click here to register for the free support.

By completing a 10-minute Self-Assessment, you can find out how prepared you are to bid for funding, and what support is available to you.

Summit 2023 event write-up

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The Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) annual Northern Housing Summit took place at Aspire, Leeds on 9th November. This annual event brings Northern housing colleagues together from government, housing providers and more to discuss the key challenges facing the sector.

 

Housing in 2030 and politics today

The Summit was kicked off by NHC’s Chief Executive, Tracy Harrison, to introduce the key focus for the Summit – housing’s vision for 2030. Tracy asked the sector to think beyond the immediate future and to see the day as a blank page on which to layout what the housing sector wants to achieve by the end of the decade.

Just two days since a King’s Speech where housing played a minor role, the Summit’s host Mark Easton, spoke on the wider political context and the possibility of a new Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer coming to power in a 2024 general election. Starmer and his top team have consistently said that they will see housebuilding as a priority in government, with a commitment to build more than 1.5 million new homes within the first Labour parliament. Mark also noted the appropriate nature of Aspire, the venue for the day, which was originally built as the headquarters for the Yorkshire Pennybank – an institution dedicated to helping working people save for to buy a home. In the midst of a housing affordability crisis, an apt venue indeed.

The Summit was closed by guest speaker, political pundit and ex-advisor to Ed Miliband, Ayesha Hazarika. Ayesha stressed the importance of the housing sector in the current political context, saying that this appears to be the first general election in her career where housing plays a key role within all of the major issues, with pundits, politicians and voters making the inherent links between housing, local government pressures, immigration, public service levels, climate change and the cost-of-living crisis. Ayesha also made it clear that the sector should be stressing to Labour that to meet their ambitious housing targets, they will need the social sector to play a counter-cyclical role to compensate for plummeting private housebuilding.

 

Devolution

Devolving power locally was a key focus of the day. NHC members were joined by Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, to discuss the merits of devolution. The Mayor discussed how the Liverpool City Region was beginning to see the fruits of the establishment of a Mayoral Combined Authority for the area, and was beginning to chart its own course. Mayor Rotheram outlined the scale of the challenge on Merseyside as to decarbonising the area’s housing stock which totals more than 700,000 homes, with over £100m of investment required to retrofit the stock effectively. One major criticism of the current devolution agenda was that that it doesn’t yet go far enough, that while it is positive that more funding can be delivered more locally, funds often come with difficult strings attached and limitations on how spending can be administered, meaning that the Authority doesn’t really have autonomy over spending – “It is decentralization, not devolution” was a common sentiment in both the Mayor’s plenary, and the subsequent devolution panel session including Karbon Homes Chief Executive, Paul Fiddman; MSV Housing Chief Executive, Charlotte Norman; Newcastle City Council Chief Executive, Pam Smith; and the Chief Executive of Connect Housing, Helen Lennon. Everybody involved in devolution discussions agreed that a single departmental-style funding settlement, with autonomy over local spending, will be the golden prize for Mayoral Combined Authorities.

 

Housing today

The state of housing in the North today was the focus of discussion during an afternoon session teasing the upcoming 2023 Northern Housing Monitor. Arc4’s Graham Long spoke through some preliminary findings and highlighted four ‘strategic challenges’ for the North’s housing sector:

  • An undersupply of homes – around 44% too low in total
  • Systemic unaffordability for private tenants
  • Under-investment in existing homes, especially in the private rental sector
  • Homes unfit for the climate

An additional focus was placed on the affordability crisis for private tenants on low incomes. The freezing of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates at 2020 levels. This year’s Monitor will show that the impact of this decision three years down the line is that only 7% of homes in the North are now let at levels at or below the LHA.

The Northern Housing Monitor will be released in full, and made available to NHC members, in December 2023.

 

Regulation

With less than six months until new consumer standards come into force in April 2024, the topic on the mind of every registered provider at the moment is the changing regulatory environment. A consultation on new, strengthened consumer standards closed in October.

Richard Blakeway from the Housing Ombudsman, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing, Kate Dodsworth, and Indra Mudie – a Customer Board Member at Home Group – joined the Summit to discuss the emerging regulatory changes and some findings from the consultation.

All members of the panel stressed that landlords should have already started aligning with the new standards and the importance of strong data and the need for data systems to speak with one another. Landlord mergers and associated merging of data systems were highlighted by the Ombudsman as a possible pinch point leading to poor data outcomes and possible complaints.

Kate Dodsworth also noted that the consultation on draft consumer standards received over 1,000 responses and that, in general, responses from tenants were more positive about the new standards than landlords.

 

Pride in Place: views from Northern Communities

A new piece of research developed by the NHC and Thinks Insight & Strategy was also presented at the Summit, into how Northern communities perceive ‘Pride in Place’. This research involved speaking with residents across five different communities in the North to discuss what they thought of their local area, what issues there were and what they would like to see to improve where they live. The areas were:

  • Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Blackpool, Lancashire
  • Knowsley, Merseyside
  • Moss Side, Greater Manchester
  • Skipton, North Yorkshire

The research identified significant existing pride in where people live, some consistent sources of dissatisfaction emerged as part of the work. These were:

  • Access to basic services
  • Sense of community decision-making
  • State of the local environment

A key solution throughout the work, amongst others such as rebuilding local capacity to enact change, was that devolving power closer to communities so that those with the most investment in their area feel empowered to deliver change would be of great benefit. Residents involved in the work also greatly valued green spaces that are well managed and accessible, as well as communities having a space to host events and activities.

The full report can be accessed here.

Reshuffles and Resignations: November’s key ministerial changes

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November saw major changes in government with prime minister Rishi Sunak carrying out a reshuffle ahead of the Autumn Statement and a potential 2024 general election. The spotlight of these changes fell on the unexpected return of former prime minister David Cameron, who was made Foreign Secretary by Sunak, marking his return to government since stepping down as prime minister in 2016. Cameron takes up the role vacated by James Cleverly, who replaces Suella Braverman as Home Secretary.

Further changes to the Cabinet include Victoria Atkins becoming Health Secretary, replacing Steve Barclay who has taken over Therese Coffey’s role as Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

There was major news for the housing sector as housing minister, Rachel Maclean, was removed from the role after nine months and replaced with Lee Rowley. Rowley, MP for North East Derbyshire, was briefly made housing minister by Liz Truss in September 2022 but was later appointed as Minister for Local Government and Building Safety by new prime minster Rishi Sunak in October 2022. Lee Rowley becomes the 16th housing minister since 2010. Simon Hoare MP has been appointed to take on Rowley’s former local government brief, whilst Baroness Penn has been appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

There were also changes to the Labour frontbench this month, with eight junior ministers resigning to back an amendment to the King’s Speech which called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The resignations included Paula Barker, who left her role as Shadow Minister for Devolution and the English Regions. Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West and Royton, has become Shadow Minister for English Devolution and Local Government. Labour have also created a new role within Angela Rayner’s Shadow Levelling Up, Housing and Communities team, with MP for Blaydon, Liz Twist, being appointed to the new Shadow Minister for Local Services and Communities brief.

For more information, see details of all Government Ministers and the Shadow Cabinet.

The NHC will continue to engage with both the government and the opposition in the run-up to the next general election, as we focus on our influencing priorities of putting housing at the heart of a rebalanced country and meeting the net zero challenge.

How Valuations could assist Balance the Decarbonisation Investment Cost

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There is an increasing amount of pressure from funders within the sector, for the valuation of securitised portfolios to include the associated costs of decarbonisation works. Whilst the Government’s most recent messaging on EPC and Net-Zero targets may have softened, we can be assured the sector will not overlook the importance and the need for more energy efficient homes and the benefits they provide the communities they serve. As a consequence, and rightly so, this investment is a necessity and one which will continue, with all actions focussed upon providing the best homes possible.

There is no getting around the fact that the level of capital expenditure required to fund decarbonisation, creates a significant challenge and putting these costs into valuations takes a huge amount of value out, however with some changes to loan security requirements, there may well be a part solution we can explore.

As Valuers, JLL are currently urging funders to adopt a ‘lotting’ approach to loan security valuations to help the sector’s stock decarbonisation efforts. ‘Lotting’ involves the allocation of different properties into groups according to factors such as tenure, size and geography, as well as other portfolio characteristics.

This is by no means a new approach to assessing value; it has been used in stock rationalisation sales for the past two decades as a means to generate demand. In turn this can often drive more value, by opening up sales to a wider audience and parties who may not necessarily be in a position to acquire an entire portfolio. It assumes the ability to purchase individual lots and is conducted with the support of a direct evidence base from previous market transactions.

Although this approach is adopted under commercial lending, for loan security valuations in social housing finance, valuers have not been permitted to use ‘lotting’. Funders currently instruct on a restricted basis of valuing units in a single hypothetical portfolio.

We would argue that the current restrictions are not maximising value, as it does not truly reflect how a lender would actually realise its security if there were a default. The value of ‘lotting’ is making valuations a truer reflection of the market into which the security would be sold. To provide some context, if valuing 1,000 units for loan security, we are currently assuming a single hypothetical transaction rather than four lots of, say, 250 units each, which is not how the market generally trades.

If funders were to allow valuers to overlay how the market actually operates, in most cases, albeit not all, you should be able to produce a higher value that is more reflective of how security would be realised. This additional value would then allow us to deal with a large part of the decarbonisation problem and its impact upon portfolio values.

JLL is actively lobbying the sector via various forums, providing the supporting modelling to demonstrate the positive impact ‘lotting’ can provide in meeting some of the current investment
challenges. As with anything new to the sector, it is an evolving conversation, but if anyone would be interested in finding out more, we would very much welcome the opportunity to share the discussion.

Richard Houghton – JLL Affordable Housing Valuation North
richard.houghton@jll.com

Pride in Place Goes to Preston for Peoples Powerhouse Convention

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The NHC will be in Preston this week for the This is the North Convention 2023.

 The NHC is delighted to be on the agenda at the Peoples Powerhouse This is the North Convention, taking place in Preston across the 29th and 30th of November. Alongside Blackpool Coastal Housing, we’ll be providing a workshop discussing the findings of the recently published Pride in Place: Views from Northern Communities. Based on workshops undertaken across the North with NHC members and their residents, the session will discuss the community view on what makes a great place to live.

Peoples Powerhouse exists to help every northerner have a voice on the decisions that affect their lives and puts the views of northerners themselves central in conversations on what the future of the North should look like. The Convention promises to bring together thought leaders, activists, and change-makers from across the North to discuss, learn, and embolden the power of citizens at a local and regional level.

With our own contribution to this vitally important discussion, Pride in Place has worked with social and private rented tenants in Benwell (Newcastle), Skipton (North Yorkshire), Moss Side (Manchester), Knowsley (Merseyside), and Blackpool (Lancashire) to understand how community power can go hand in hand with the work of local organisations like NHC members. With the final report northern communities themselves have put forward a range of recommendations, from thinking differently about how public services are accessed, how everyone can be involved in shaping neighbourhoods for the better, and identifying a range of small projects that can be championed at the local level.

At This is the North the NHC joins a stellar line up or organisations including CLES, IPPR North, Involve, and the JRF. More information can be found HERE and tickets can be accessed HERE.

Pride in Place: Views from Northern Communities can be viewed HERE.

Get retrofit ready!

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The government has opened the window for applications to Wave 2.2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund. This top-up fund will make available up to £80m in grant funding to help social housing landlords install energy efficiency measures.

If you’re thinking of applying, or are already working on energy efficiency improvements, make sure you put residents at the heart of plans with our free resources.

Heartwarming Homes, produced in partnership with PlaceShapers and Tpas England, will support you to communicate with, and engage residents in energy efficiency projects. Using input from the Behaviour Change Network, it will help you work with residents to overcome barriers to having energy efficiency work done. It’ll support you to build trust and put residents’ needs at the heart of energy efficiency improvement programmes. It includes practical advice, and provides a range of resources, such as template letters, videos, a step-by-step communication process, and a language style guide.

The Retrofit Self Assessment Checklist looks at ways to make sure your sustainability programme meets the needs of residents and communities. It includes real-life examples of how you can make the make recommendations from the award-winning Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury a reality. It can also be used to benchmark the effectiveness of your sustainability programme.

How social housing boosts our economy – Hays Guest Blog

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As homelessness numbers soar and rent prices are ever-increasing, the importance of social housing is more apparent than ever. Currently, almost one-fifth (17%) of households in England live in social housing; that’s four million households. However, a further 1.2 million are still on the waiting list.

New laws point to better living conditions for people in social housing, but how will advancements in the quality – and potentially quantity – of these properties create more jobs, increase social mobility, and have a positive impact on our economy?

Changes for the better

Developments in recent months have seen the Social Housing (Regulation) Act – which aims to support tenants living in unsafe homes and hold inadequate landlords accountable for such conditions – became an enforceable law. This will greatly improve the quality of life for many social housing residents, as new powers have been given to the Regulator of Social Housing and the Housing Ombudsman; landlords may now be issued unlimited fines, strict time limits can be set to address unsafe living environments, and social housing managers have new qualification requirements.

Aside from the obvious benefits of improving quality of life and safety, these new regulations will also bring economic advantages, due to the increased level of management now required for these homes. In fact, housing associations and local authorities’ management of properties in England already adds around 12.7 billion to the economy and supports over 200,000 jobs; this figure will likely rise as a result of the more stringent requirements.

Social housing can reduce unemployment  

People in social housing may be facing challenging personal or financial situations, which can act as barriers to employment. But social housing providers can offer valuable services such as support with job hunting, access to training, skills development and funding. Reducing unemployment can bolster economic growth, due to a decrease in benefits payments, among other secondary economic pressures that come from high levels of unemployment.

Increased social housing construction offers ample job opportunities for construction workers. Between 2016-2023, an impressive 140,000 construction jobs were created as a result of a record number of new affordable housing in London. However, the ratio of new social housing in comparison to other builds is decreasing.

Job opportunities within social housing

Social housing generates a variety of job opportunities within communities. Besides construction workers, here are some other positions required in the social housing industry:

  • Housing officers oversee properties on behalf of housing associations and local authorities. Responsibilities include assessing the needs of housing applicants and inspecting properties.
  • Property upkeep roles – such as damp and mould surveyor, fire prevention, retrofit, and backlog maintenance – as homes need to be kept in working order and free of hazards.
  • Countless other jobs, including tenant advice, income recovery, leasehold officer, and project worker.

Future social housing growth is uncertain

With the general election approaching in just over a year’s time, the outlook for social housing growth is still up in the air, as social housing policies vary heavily between political parties. One thing for certain is that increasing social housing would have a positive impact on our economy, something that is more important than ever as the nation battles turbulent waters and shoulders the strain of the cost-of-living crisis.

Hays is working in partnership with Band of Builders to support the wellbeing and mental health of construction workers. We’re also proud work with The Retrofit Academy, supporting their mission of driving retrofit skills and knowledge.

Recruiting for your team or organisation? Then register your vacancy with us today.

North East housing providers form partnership to help deliver more social homes across the region

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With over 40,000 North East households on the waiting list for social housing, there’s a desperate need to rapidly build more genuinely affordable homes across the region.

A group of North East based housing providers have joined forces to tackle this crisis head on and to support the Mayoral Combined Authority to deliver the social housing the region needs.

The North East Housing Partnership (NEHP), which launched this week, is made up of 17 North East social housing providers with a strong presence in the seven local authority areas covered by the new North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

NEHP partners consist of housing associations, local authorities and arms length management organisations (ALMOs).

The partners are Karbon Homes, Bernicia, believe housing, Castles & Coasts, Gentoo, Thirteen, North Star, Home Group, Livin, Durham Aged Mineworkers’ Homes Association, Tyne Housing, Johnnie Johnson Housing, South Tyneside Homes, Gateshead Council, North Tyneside Council, Northumberland County Council, and Newcastle City Council.

Paul Fiddaman, Chair of the North East Housing Partnership, said: “As a partnership, we hold onto a simple belief that a house is more than just a roof over your head. It’s something you can build a life around. The evidence is clear that good quality homes is intrinsically linked with a number of social outcomes, such as education, health and employment, and devolution presents a significant opportunity to address these disparities and build our region better.

 “With new powers and funding, managed and delivered close to local needs, we have the opportunity to take on some of the deep-seated problems that have long held us back.

“However, to make a real success of devolution, anchor institutions across the region need to get behind it, lend their enthusiasm and expertise, and align their own work and investment with that of the new combined authority. That’s what the North East Housing Partnership is all about.”

 The partnership will be focusing on four key themes: Regeneration, development and placemaking, Net zero and sustainability, Employability and social inclusion and Health, care and homelessness.

The partners will work collaboratively to deliver significant change in these working thematic areas, within which housing provides a starting point to wider social, environmental and economic outcomes, and will work closely with the newly elected mayor and the new combined authority to support with the delivery of its priorities.

John Johnson, Vice Chair of the North East Housing Partnership, said: “Through the partnership I hope to see housing providers from across the North East shift from a group of individual organisations, working in relative isolation, to a strong and unified partnership.

 “When we invest together, work together, and plan together, we can achieve economies of scale, shape supply chains, regenerate communities, decarbonise our region, create and prepare people for jobs and support longer, healthier lives. If we align ourselves in each of these areas with the new combined authority, we can achieve even more.”

 Combined, the 17 partners own and manage over 214,000 homes in the region, housing around one in six households in the new mayoral combined authority area.

The concept of the partnership mirrors that of similar partnerships in other combined authority areas, such as the Greater Manchester Housing Partnership and the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership.

Autumn Statement 2023 – NHC on-the-day briefing

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The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, today delivered his Autumn Statement amid a setting of a stuttering British economy, struggling public services, record-high levels of taxation and some of the highest levels of peacetime public borrowing and debt.  

After the Government met its target of halving the level of inflation, following its fall from a multi-decade high of 10.7% to 4.6%, many Conservative backbench MPs had been calling for any fiscal headroom available to the Chancellor to be used to cut income and inheritance taxes. The Chancellor has himself publicly agreed that tax levels are higher than he would like to see but stressed that any changes to this would need to be considered alongside maintaining sustainable public finances, supporting the UK economy back to growth, incentivizing additional business investment and not allowing inflation to tick up once again.  

Today, the Chancellor announced a series of tax cuts, which he framed as part of the Government’s long-term strategy for growing the economy and getting more people into work. Government says these will cut taxes for over 29 million working people, measures include reducing employee National Insurance contributions by 2% from 6 January 2024.  

Ahead of the statement, the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) submitted a representation to HM Treasury, calling for the urgent uprating of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to ease affordability pressures in the private rental sector (PRS), the release of remaining Social Housing Decarbonisation Funds (SHDF) alongside a long-term funding commitment of £6 billion per year for housing retrofit, and additional funds for local authorities to effectively monitor and enforce compliance with the Decent Homes Standard when it is applied to the PRS for the first time.  

Northern Housing Consortium CEO, Tracy Harrison, also met the Housing Minister before the Autumn Statement to once again call on the Government to uprate the LHA as a matter of urgency. 

The Chancellor’s announcement that he intends to unfreeze LHA and uprate the benefit to the 30th centile in April will therefore be welcome news for renters and councils across the North.  

This NHC on-the day briefing summarises this, and other relevant announcements. If you would like to discuss any of the details in the Autumn Statement, please contact the NHC’s Joanne Wilson (Head of Policy) at joanne.wilson@northern-consortium.org.uk 

 Read the full briefing here.

Pride in Place: views from Northern communities

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‘Pride in Place: views from Northern communities’ explores views of residents on what contributes to feelings of pride in their local area and the role NHC members could play in boosting pride in place.

Fostering pride and belonging in local areas is a source of community cohesion and social capital and will play a key role in reducing local and regional inequality across the UK. Research commissioned by the Northern Housing Consortium enabled residents in locations across the North of England to discuss life in their local area. Residents highlighted a wide range of specific factors which contribute to feelings of pride in their local area.

These are:

  • Access to basic services
  • Sense of community and decision-making
  • State of the local environment

The research highlights key challenges such as: the fragmentation of services, a lack of capacity across public services and a lack of visibility of housing and other service providers to residents. These challenges can be overcome with specific action from housing providers, local councils and national government by: encouraging devolution of power to a regional or local level, rebuilding local capacity and supporting innovative engagement and creating community hubs.

This research will play a key role in the NHC’s influencing activities over the next 12 months providing a robust evidence-base for the NHC to present to Government and opposition parties. NHC members will find this a useful insight for their activities within their communities.

Read the Report and Executive Summary here.