Building on the leadership and management training opportunities running over the course of the year, the NHC continues to partner with Abode – the home of education and training for the housing and community sectors, to offer three courses designed specifically for those on the frontline of housing management. Here, Abode training consultants Gill Bramfitt and Claire Harvey talk us through why, when it comes to the housing sector, now is the time to get back to basics.

Since it’s publication in August 2018 the Social Housing Green Paper has had a huge impact in focussing minds on the core features that make up the landlord-tenant relationship. While all social housing providers will have organisational ambitions and challenges that require bespoke responses, all agree it is more important than ever that their organisation is best placed to provide a home and a service resident can be proud of.  In practical terms that means rents are collected effectively, arrears kept to a minimum, voids turned around quickly, and repairs carried out efficiently.

If this wasn’t enough, Brexit uncertainties means housing management officers continue to face a fluid legislative landscape. This means not only having to make sense of policies before implementing them, but having to explain them to tenants and customers. Welfare Reform for example, has many implications for allocations, arrears and support staff, while the range of new tenancy types and the obligations placed on landlords can leave heads spinning.

It is vital that frontline staff have the knowledge and skills to tackle these potential obstacles. Organisations will know the importance of ensuring that legislation is interpreted correctly, policies comply with requirements and are less open to challenge, all without impacting on levels of customer satisfaction. Well-trained, knowledgeable employees will also have the confidence to implement these changes and deliver good quality services in an increasingly pressurised environment.

Working with the NHC, we have developed a range of courses to meet these needs. Delivered throughout May, these sessions will equip staff and supervisors with the knowledge and skills to meet current and future challenges.

Our first course, What you should know about… Social and Affordable Housing, delivers exactly that. Looking at the different types of housing organisations in the UK, the diverse range of services they provide, and the financial and regulatory environment in which they exist, this course is ideal for anyone looking to gain a background knowledge of affordable housing provision in this country.

Similarly, How to… Manage Tenancies is a primer for those wanting to ensure their knowledge of tenancy management is up to date and accurate.  Looking closely at recent legislative changes and the tenancy types they affect, this course will underline the responsibilities of landlords and tenants as well as discussing issues such as terminating tenancies and dealing with abandoned properties.

Finally, we have prepared our How to… Develop Policies and Procedures course with all those involved in the policy process in mind. This interactive half-day session will cover all stages of policy development from formulating policies and procedures, implementing them, and monitoring their effectiveness. This session will also look at the wider landscape of developing policy, from using data sources to inform strategies to knowing how and when to involve stakeholders.

Available to book now:

 What you should know about… Social and Affordable Housing

8 May 2019 – 9:30 – 16:30 – Yorkshire Housing, Call Lane Training Offices, Leeds

How to… Manage Tenancies

9 May 2019 – 9:30 – 16:30 – Yorkshire Housing, Call Lane Training Offices, Leeds

How to… Develop Policies and Procedures

20 May 2019 – 9:30 – 13:30 – Yorkshire Housing, Call Lane Training Offices, Leeds

Advice was published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)  on 18 December last year on ‘external wall systems that do not incorporate Aluminium Composite Material’ – in other words, buildings where the type of cladding used on the Grenfell Tower is not present. Despite this, MHCLG has advised that there are still a range of other materials and risks that pose a threat to buildings over 18m in height (tall buildings). Here we discuss the steps that RPs can take to ensure that they keep their buildings and their tenants safe.

Advice Note 14

The advice was produced by an independent panel of experts who laid out the decisions and steps that must be taken by the owners of buildings and a building’s ‘responsible person'(for buildings that fall within the scope of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005)– the people who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that they and their residents remain safe from fire. The MHCLG’s panel is chaired by Sir Ken Knight, former London Fire Commissioner and former Government Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser, and includes other esteemed experts such as Roy Wilsher, Chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council and Ann Bentley MBA MICE FRICS, Global Director of Rider Levett Bucknall.

Main recommendations:

• Limited combustibility materials should be used in existing buildings UNLESS they have passed a BS 8414 test, gaining a BR135 classification
• Check wall systems have been installed and maintained correctly
• Obtain an up to date fire risk assessment (FRA) under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• A wall material with a Class 0 rating alone does not evidence a safe wall system

Only materials of ‘limited combustibility’ should be used on the external walls of tall buildings. There are particular classes of materials and tests that those materials must pass in order to meet this standard.

The Advice does emphasis that the safety checks can be carried out by competent professional advisors as well as building owners; so it may be prudent to defer to expert advice if there is any confusion about the materials used. The competency of such advisors, however, is not defined. This could leave RPs in a difficult position; essentially determining the competency of experts themselves when they are seeking to defer to a party with more knowledge than themselves. It is therefore recommended that RPs read the Government’s own information on where to find appropriate professional advisors contained here at Annex A.

Where desktop studies or technical assessments have been carried out by professionals on the likely performance of external wall systems, the building owner must still ensure that a check of the technical basis of such tests has been made. The assumptions should be based on established scientific and engineering principles and supported by reference to relevant BS 8414 fire test data.

Further regulation

The Government also decided in December that it would be implementing the entire suite of recommendations contained in the Hackitt Review. The Hackitt Review was led by Dame Judith Hackitt to provide recommendations to the regulatory system after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

This means that building owners could be liable for tougher sanctions if they are found to fall below safety standards. In light of this it is paramount that sufficient steps are taken, likely to involve taking advice from independent experts as discussed above.

Enforcement recommendations in the Hackitt review included the ability to serve Improvement/Correction Notices and Prohibition Notices on individuals or organisations responsible for buildings. Failing to comply with these notices within a particular time period will be a criminal offence.

Future recommendations are expected to come from the Industry Safety Steering Group, a panel made up of housing, construction and fire experts headed by Hackitt. The Group was established in January 2019 to hold the industry to account and accelerate change.

In summary, those responsible for tall buildings must ensure they have a clear knowledge of the building materials used, procure that checks are completed and that the walls are regularly maintained. RPs should regularly carry out FRAs and obtain professional advice where necessary to comply with the MHCLG advice and the law.

For example, Type 1 FRAs are carried out on common areas only. Type 3 FRAs ensure that common areas as well as a sample of the individual flats are checked for hazards. Although completing Type 3 FRAs as well as Type 1s is a helpful measure in and of itself, this physical presence in flats may also provide an extra level of reassurance for tenants.

The full range of the MHCLG Advice Notes can be found here.

Landlords have a legal requirement to ensure that a property is safe before letting it to a new tenant and local authorities have a statutory duty to keep the housing conditions in their area under review. It is now almost thirteen years since the introduction of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). Introduced under the Housing Act 2004 and implemented in April 2006, it is the approach used to assess risks to health and safety in the home.

The rationale for its introduction was to standardise the way Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP) rated the risk to health and safety to occupants of dwellings and in doing so, replaced the more basic housing fitness standard assessment tool, introduced in the Housing Act 1985, which was based on whether the conditions in a property met a defined minimum level.

The new system was designed to be more comprehensive, and a range of different issues are now banded under a set of 29 categories which range from the more serious Category 1 and 2 where there is a serious danger to health and safety, through a range of other problems decreasing in severity such as design that might cause sprains and strains (Category 28). Some of the hazards include:

• Excess cold (because of increased heat loss)
• Fire (by allowing fire and smoke to spread to other parts of the dwelling)
• Lead (from old paint)
• Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse (by providing access and breeding places for pests, which are a source of infections), and
• Noise

MHCLG’s Local Authority Housing Statistics Data Return provides useful information on the presence of Category 1 hazards in each local authority area in England. The data for 2017/18 showed that out of a total of 2,676 local authority owned dwellings in England with a Category 1 hazard, only 49 could be found in the North.

The total estimated cost of removing the Category 1 hazards from these dwellings in the North amounts to £97,450 – an average of £1,989 per dwelling.

There was a total of 6,533 dwellings in the private rented sector which, following an inspection, were found to have one or more Category 1 hazards according to Local Authority Housing Statistics Data Return. In the absence of an estimated cost to remove hazards in the private sector, I have used the average cost for the local authority removal as a proxy to give an indication of costs. Using this £1,989 average above equates to an indicative cost of £12.9m to remove Category 1 hazards from private rented dwellings in the North.

Whilst tackling the most dangerous hazards is expensive, Cambridgeshire Insight carried out analysis that shows there are wider benefits to doing so. Taking one example, their analysis shows that tackling all instances of excess cold would cost some £6bn. However, this would result in savings of £848m per year to the NHS and would pay for itself in 7.14 years.

Despite the more stringent assessment system that the HHSRS introduced, a survey by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health found that the vast majority of EHPs felt that the HHSRS should be updated. Subsequently, MHCLG has now commissioned a review to identify the extent to which the HHSRS needs to be updated and revised, including exploring the scope for setting minimum standards as part of the HHSRS framework.

The MHCLG project specification sets out to:

• Identify which parts of the HHSRS are out of date and need to be revised
• Demonstrate whether there would be scope for introducing a sampling and cloning approach – and where this approach might be appropriate
• Indicate whether the current penalties for non-compliance are appropriate and proportionate
• Show whether there is a need for additional worked examples in the guidance
• Help establish the feasibility of using digital technology to develop an app for the HHSRS, and
• Consider whether minimum standards should be included in the framework.

In 2017/18 the total number of private sector dwellings with Category 1 hazards which were made free from hazards as a direct result of action of local authorities was 5,559 in the North and 18,582 nationally. Whatever the outcome of the review and any subsequent change to legislation, it is clear that there is an ongoing battle for EHPs and NHC members to ensure that people are safe to live in their own homes.

In 2005 the World Health Organisation estimated that in the UK over 2.7 million people were injured at home, almost twice as many as those injured at work and over eight times those injured on the road. Consideration clearly needs to be given to wider health and safety issues in the home. But how are landlords and local authorities to determine what is a safe home in future?

Bookings are now being taken for the NHC’s 4^th Annual Health and Safety in Housing Conference which will be held in Leeds on 13^th June. Delegates will be given an update on the HHSRS from the Regulator and issues such as the implications of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2019 will be discussed. We are running a session looking specifically at the legal aspects of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2019 with our Supporter members Ward Hadaway on 7^th March – you can see more details here.

The cross-party forum for parliamentarians to discuss and advance northern specific housing challenges, the APPG Housing in the North, met again this week to explore further how housing can play a central role in supporting personal health. The group, made up of MP’s and Lords of all political persuasions, heard from a range of speakers outlining how we can achieve this ambition whether in identifying where funding should be targeted or understanding what good practice already exists and how it can be disseminated across the region.

Last October the Smith Institute published the Hidden Costs of Poor-Quality Housing in the North.  Commissioned by the Northern Housing Consortium and supported by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Karbon Homes, the report highlighted the nearly 1 million owner-occupied homes in the North that currently fail to meet the decent homes standard and the health impacts this can have on residents.

In the time since, the prevention agenda in health has only grown in importance with the recently released NHS Long Term Plan announcing a focus on prevention which could save 500,000 lives. The challenge outlined at the APPG was to now underline and acknowledge the role housing should play in this approach.

It is clear that sub-standard housing can have negative health and wellbeing impacts on any household. We all could suffer at some point from falls or respiratory problems because of poor housing conditions. Similarly, households pay more if their homes are not energy efficient and there is a growing body of academic literature from organisations such as Public Health England and the Kings Fund linking poor housing to health inequalities.  Despite this evidence, Northern Housing Consortium members continue to tell us of the challenges they face in striving for greater collaboration with health services.

One area the North can look to for inspiration is Greater Manchester, where housing providers have established a key partnership with the GM Health and Social Care Partnership.  ‘Connecting health and housing’ has become a central tenet of Greater Manchester Housing Providers highlighted by the ambition to reduce the pressures on health and social care by investing in new modern homes and support packages for an ageing population. With this in mind, the APPG was delighted to welcome colleagues at the centre of this collaboration to discuss what learning we should take when it comes to the integration of health and housing and how good practice can be spread across the North.

The benefits of a collaborative approach are widespread. Homes with a category 1 hazard are estimated to cost the NHS £1.4 billion.  The impact of poor housing on residents’ health, such as the development of respiratory and circulatory diseases, set against the treatment costs, if the causes of the ill health are not dealt with, are significant. For example, the relatively small cost of fitting a handrail on the steps of a vulnerable person’s home to prevent a fall will be far more cost-effective than treating the subsequent fall injury. This is not simply about monetary gain; it is about a respect for people in aid of assistance and support, demonstrated through the prevention of illness and injury.

The All Party Parliamentary Group Housing in the North took place 26^th February 2019 at the House of Commons, Westminster.  Meeting notes and further information will be available soon via the Northern Housing Consortium website.