Along with the rest of the sector the Northern Housing Consortium had been anticipating the publication of a Social Housing Green Paper for some time.  So, when the document was finally released on 14^th August, it was important for the NHC to bring members together and take full advantage of the opportunity to give detailed feedback to Government on what the Secretary of State described as a “landmark opportunity for major reform”.

Consultation Roundtables were arranged for each region of the North which drew around 50 attendees.  Karen Brown, Senior Policy Adviser at the Northern Housing Consortium provided an update on the Green Paper and highlighted that the door was now open for considerable debate on a range of issues – empowering residents and tackling stigma, resolving complaints and ensuring homes are safe and decent, through to expanding supply and development opportunities.

The evidence collected will be used as the basis of the NHC’s response to the Green Paper and members provided many points of discussion.  Organisations were keen to emphasise the work that is consistently completed to ensure homes are safe and to meet the Decent Homes Standard.  Overall the feeling was that health and safety regimes are robust; the issue at hand was more about ensuring consistency and clarity in the regulations which are currently complex and contradictory.    On mediation and resolving disputes, some members felt that, while there have been consistent improvements, that this is an opportunity to look at all good practice but that changes need to be proportionate and to manage expectations.   Considering the Government’s proposals on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be published through League Tables, members felt that the implementation and use of a basket of measures would be most usefully linked to improvements measured through a structured plan so that outcomes were transparent for residents.  Some of the indicators proposed will be difficult to measure and a more nuanced and partnership approach may be required.  There was consensus that KPI’s would be affected by local circumstances and this would have to be sufficiently taken into account.

The meetings reflected the NHC’s earlier assertion that there is much in the detail that is welcome: the focus on decent homes, thriving communities and reversing the decline in council housing all of which reflect calls the NHC has been making for some time.  There are of course areas that may be of concern in the Green Paper and it will be interesting to see how the proposals on a new regulatory framework, the funding for supply of homes for social rent, and continued emphasis on home ownership are all evolved.

The Government has stated that it intends that the Green Paper will generate “a nationwide conversation on social housing”.   Through these roundtables and other engagement, the NHC is  working with politicians and civil servants to ensure a strong Northern voice is part of this conversation.  We would encourage our members to engage constructively in the debate that follows the Green Paper.

One area of interest contained in the recently published Social Housing Green Paper was the renewed focus on neighbourhood management and addressing anti-social behaviour as a core component of the ‘new deal’ between tenants and landlords.  This work has always been vital and respected as such by social housing providers, yet it was notable to see that alongside ensuring properties were in good repair and buildings were structurally safe was the announcement that the Government were considering introducing a key performance indicator (KPI) covering neighbourhood management “responsibilities” as well as a KPI that will “help tackle anti-social behaviour” (ASB).

The Social Housing Green Paper proposes separate KPI’s for ASB and neighbourhood management, both underpinned by obligations set out in the Neighbourhood and Community Standard.  Excluding ASB, the Standard requires registered providers to not just maintain but improve the neighbourhoods where their homes stand.   In keeping areas ‘clean and safe’, landlords should consult with tenants and work with partners in ‘promoting social, economic, and environmental wellbeing’. Landlords should work to appreciate their role in communities and outline the positive impact they can and will make.

A central tenet of the Neighbourhood and Community Standard is the landlord’s duty to prevent and tackle ASB.   There is again a strong emphasis on “local area cooperation” and working in partnership with various agencies.  Between stakeholders there is a clear need for a joint understanding on each other’s roles and responsibilities.  Within this eco-system though, it is the landlord that must demonstrate “strong leadership, commitment and accountability” in addressing ASB “promptly, appropriately, and decisively”.

It is in dealing with complaints where the Green Paper shows concern. “Some residents were concerned that their landlords were not taking appropriate action to tackle anti-social behaviour. Residents told us that they felt their concerns were not taken seriously or were resolved too slowly.”  Additionally, In the much-vaunted section addressing the stigma felt by social housing tenants, a good proportion of the Green Paper is dedicated to the stigma borne out of interactions with landlords themselves. “Too many residents felt they were treated with contempt by their landlord – that they were spoken down to, or treated as a nuisance.”

In thinking about how these KPI’s could be gathered and presented, the Green Paper puts forward the NHS ‘Friends and Family Test’ as a blueprint.  Operational since 2012, the test is based on the premise that patients (or tenants in this instance) have the right to participate in giving feedback as a standard part of their interaction with a service.  This feedback is gathered in as close to real time as possible and is a staple of every interaction; not a one-off survey or annual comms project.  Results are gathered by and published locally by NHS England for users to “inform their decision making” and for organisations to “highlight practices that lead to good experiences and where improvements could be made”.

In our ‘On the Day Briefing’ covering the Green Paper the Northern Housing Consortium queried whether KPI’s  and league tables could prove to be a too simplistic way of ranking services: “It is important that any measure doesn’t provide an incentive to make it difficult for tenants to register complaints if it means that those encouraging honest feedback find themselves languishing at the bottom of a league table.”  Indeed, and especially in relation to tackling ASB, landlords will be all too aware of the balance between resolving complaints swiftly, but also correctly and to the long-term benefit of their tenants and neighbourhoods.  The Government however does appear to appreciate these concerns, and as part of the consultative Green Paper outline they will need to “consider how [the KPI’s] could impact on areas, and whether it could lead to some people feeling more stigmatised.”

The NHC have invited members to a series of roundtables to help formulate a collective response to the Social Housing Green Paper, these meetings can be viewed and booked onto here.  The Neighbourhood Management and ASB specific questions, listed below, will be considered by the next meeting of the Safety in Neighbourhoods Network which will also be focussing on partnership working between housing associations, local authorities, and the emergency services.

• What key performance indicator should be used to measure whether landlords are providing good neighbourhood management?
• How are landlords working with local partners to tackle anti-social behaviour?
• What key performance indicator could be used to measure this work?

The next Safety in Neighbourhoods Network will meet Monday 1^st October 2018, 13.00 to 15.30, at Yorkshire Housing, Leeds.  The network is free to attend for NHC members,  follow this link to register your place.

Over the past year Government policy has understandably turned to focus on the social housing sector and particularly the needs of residents. Against this backdrop, a strong attendance of over 100 tenants and housing staff attended the National Resident Involvement Conference in York to make sense of the recent changes in housing policy as well as casting an eye to the future in anticipating what changes are expected.

Joint-Chair Eamon McGoldrick, Managing Director at the National Federation of Arms-Length Management Organisations, began proceedings by looking at the positive responses landlords have made in refocussing on tenant engagement, co-regulation, and health and safety. Eamon’s presentation outlined that these welcome changes were in many ways preparation for a ‘new order’ where landlords would be required to be more transparent, would be more regulated, and would have to take ‘complete ownership’ of new build and refurbishment schemes.

Building on the theme of transparency, Jacqui McKinlay, Chief Executive, Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) was invited discuss her organisations role in promoting accountability and involvement in governance and scrutiny. Central to this to championing these improvements was appreciating that transparency is a long-term commitment and not just about processes. Also important was getting the balance right between national and local leadership, but with a consensus on what transparency meant and how it can improve resident experience. Finally, Jacqui put forward a template for making change happen; talking the audience through setting standards, raising performance within those standards, and finally using effective oversight to ensure that standards are met.

Delegates took centre stage in the morning’s closing session where Yvonne Davies, Managing Director at Scrutiny and Empowerment Partners Ltd and event organiser led the hall through an interactive session. A series of questions were posed to the group covering a range of issues. Firstly, what must a ‘Transparency Charter’ include if it was to improve the tenant customer experience? Secondly, how can tenants keep up to date with the breadth of information available; whether from think tanks, policy makers, or regulators? And finally, with resident involvement as important as ever, what were the barriers people felt were inhibiting them from playing a role in the decision making of their Housing Association. In the group responses to each question, it was clear that ‘access’ was an integral factor. Easy access to information to improve transparency and knowledge, and access to the decision-making process through improved resources.

Throughout the day a series of workshops had been arranged to enable delegates to learn best practice from across the region. In the morning, the conference heard from organisations who had received recognition for their governance models, youth participation schemes, and widely praised estate-based engagement activities. Following lunch, attendees gained insight and advice from colleagues who were currently reviewing their involvement strategies, whilst also hearing from the frontline on how data innovations and national issues such as the rollout of Universal Credit was impacting on communicating with residents.

The conference closed with a Key Note session provided by Shelter as part of their ‘Big Conversation on the Future of Social Housing’. Rachel Casey, Policy Engagement Manager, and Deborah Gabie, Policy Manager, began by introducing the Big Conversation to delegates as an independent commission setting out what’s wrong with social housing, what’s good with it, and what is needed for the future. The audience heard how a combination of poor housing conditions, stigma, and a lack of tenant influence had compelled Shelter to launch this piece of work which would report back in November 2018. Ultimately, the Commission wished to see a bigger and better social housing sector that amplifies the voices of tenants as well as the broader community, something which all present could agree on.