NHC launches Pride in Place Project in Partnership with Members

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We may not hear about ‘Levelling Up’ as much as we used to, but the underlying principles of the agenda remain. Indeed, ‘Pride in Place’ has proven to be one of the more resilient ideas found in the Levelling Up White Paper published little over a year ago. All political parties are developing their own policies to tackle local inequalities and restore the social fabric of communities. Whilst Party Manifesto’s may be a little while off yet, much will be place-based, and people-centred.

The local dimension of inequality is very much the focus of politicians, policymakers, and academics all looking to improve areas perceived as ‘left behind’, grappling with issues like civic identity and an areas’ ambitions. A welcome legacy of the White Paper is the space that has opened up for community anchors to think differently about their roles in communities, and the intertwining issues of improving housing quality, regenerating town centres, and how all this corresponds to residents’ sense of pride or belonging.

Here at the NHC, we’re working with members to ensure that housing, and housing providers, are valued in this work. After all, housing providers have a central role to play in working collaboratively across areas and sectors to support thriving neighbourhoods, including empowering and working with communities directly.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce the launch of the NHC Pride in Place Project alongside Blackpool Coastal Housing, Karbon Homes, Livv Housing Group, MSV Housing Group, and Yorkshire Housing. Inspired by the innovative work of the Social Housing Tenants’ Climate Jury, we’ll be engaging directly with residents across the North explore with residents the relationship between their home, how they feel about their neighbourhoods, and the potential for collaboration between landlord, tenant, and other stakeholders to make tangible contributions to boost pride in place at the neighbourhood level.

In the coming weeks and months we’ll be sharing more about the project and it’s research. To keep up to date, visit the NHC’s dedicated Rebalancing Webpage:

https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/influencing/rebalancing/

Consultation on the Infrastructure Levy

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Blog by Rob Loughenbury, Director of Strategy Onward Homes

 

Consultation is underway on the details of an Infrastructure Levy that will replace Section 106. How should housing associations respond?

Social housing has greeted plans to introduce a new Infrastructure Levy with a slightly weary ‘if you must’. It will replace Section 106, the imperfect, but workable, way contributions are secured from housebuilders to pay for affordable housing and other infrastructure needs arising from development.

The big idea behind the Levy is to give local planning authorities more freedom around raising and spending money from development. Councils will be able to set different Levy rates for different kinds of development and collect it in a big pot available for infrastructure, as well as potentially for services or even to subsidise tax cuts. Revolutionary stuff.

The Levy will be a new sales tax, applied after a development is delivered, rather than negotiated at the outset. This will remove (some kinds of) negotiation from the planning process, as fixed rates mean the contribution is clear at the beginning and can be factored into land deals and viability planning. Of course, expect levy rates to be a new excuse for blood letting during local plan making.

What’s the catch?

There is real danger here for our sector. Around 78% of S106 is currently spent on new affordable homes. Despite some soggy promises to the contrary from Government, few people expect that a similar proportion of Levy proceeds will be spent in the same way, up against hot competition for funding from new roads, surgeries and schools.

But realistically a number of horses have bolted. Government is committed to introducing the Levy  and is prioritising giving councils freedom on how money is raised and spent. A consultation is underway on the nuts and bolts but will not revisit or unpick the principles. Another consultation will follow but this is the one that matters.

Responding to the consultation

So what is the best thing for housing associations to say in response to the consultation?

If contributions from development are heading into a big pot, it is in our interest first to make that pot as big as possible, and second to get as much from it for affordable housing as we can.

Maximising developer contributions can be done by including as many different kinds of development in the Levy system as possible; small developments, warehouses, commercial, permitted developments. Lots of these don’t contribute, or don’t contribute much, to S106 currently. Money is leaking from the system and this is a good chance to hoover up more. This is precisely what Government is hoping will happen. We should heartily agree.

But maximising the proportion of Levy receipts that councils spend on affordable housing will be tougher. Councils will get more freedom to spend as they wish, come what may. In response, we should argue that Levy proceeds must be used to support capital investment, not to subsidise revenue based decisions (services, tax cuts). Council finance officers will murmur consent.

Chunks of income are earmarked for elsewhere, including a rather nebulous ‘administration fee’ and a ‘neighbourhood share’ for parish councils, or similar. These should be as small as possible. Only parish councils with a Neighbourhood Plan addressing affordable housing need should get anything.

A ‘right to require’ is proposed, where councils will get the freedom to require an in kind provision of affordable homes instead of cash. This should become a ‘requirement to require’ so that a percentage of Levy income is automatically converted into affordable homes where there is evidence of unmet local need, tied into the numbers in the local plan.

The clock is ticking

The punchline is that a series of pilots and a staged implementation stretching over several years is foreseen. We should argue that a full roll out must not happen until the pilots are complete and assessed – even for Councils who just want to get on with it –  so we can see how this all works in practice. Meanwhile, a new government may or may not be elected with ambitions for planning reform. The whole process could be junked and off we go again.

Invitation to discuss housing outcomes for refugees

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Refugees and new arrivals often experience the worst housing outcomes in the UK. Over the last two years our team (University of Huddersfield and Migration Yorkshire) has been working to better understand the housing situation faced by refugees. This has included improving the evidence base on how refugees gain access to housing post-decision and post-arrival in the UK and their pathways through in order to understand their experiences.

From this work we have produced a number of reports notably a research digest and a detailed paper which summarises the existing evidence about how housing impacts refugees and a policy briefing based on the findings arising from our research. In an attempt to engage a wider audience in these issues we have also produced a comic based on our research to help document the day-to-day housing and integration struggles refugees often face in their settlement. We now working towards trying to find out what works in terms of housing solutions for refugees and new arrivals both in terms of the current policy framework and possible future contexts.

We are looking to bring together experts who are working in housing at a strategic level, at a service delivery level and those working to support communities from within the voluntary and community sector. We are holding a series of online workshop discussions to hear and share your practices, experiences and learning. We want to draw on these discussions to develop recommendations for policy makers and offer housing organisations, local authorities, and voluntary and community sector partners opportunities to learn from one another. We will be producing briefing notes and policy recommendations throughout the year and drawing on your experience and expertise to engage decision makers.

We have a number of workshops available and this link will allow you to book a date and time that suits you. You will then be sent more information and the link to the meeting. Please do share this invitation with others you feel would offer insights on practice and policy. We are looking to speak to senior policy and practice, frontline workers in public authorities and housing organisations and those who are working in the voluntary and charity sectors on this agenda. More information about the project and your rights as a participant is available here. Please contact the lead researcher directly if you wish to discuss anything – Prof. Phil Brown, p.a.brown@hud.ac.uk

Decent Homes Review – sign up for updates

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The Review of the Decent Homes Standard has been underway since early 2021 – and the Northern Housing Consortium are part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Review Sounding Board.

With a consultation on extending the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector having concluded last year, the NHC are expecting the Review of the Standard itself to pick up pace in coming weeks.  During the passage of the Social Housing Regulation Bill, Ministers also pledged to bring forward a consultation on a regulatory standard for energy efficiency in the social rented sector, within six months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.

The NHC are therefore expecting the next few months to be a critical period to influence the development of both initiatives, and to ensure we have ambitious and deliverable standards to take us into the 2030s.  Commenting, NHC Executive Director (Policy and Public Affairs) Brian Robson said, “We welcome the Government’s commitment to bringing forward a new Decent Homes Standard to replace the current 2006 version. Energy efficiency will form an important part of updates to the Standard, and the NHC is therefore

encouraging the Department to bring these consultations forward in parallel, in order that social landlords can provide holistic and considered feedback.”

 NHC members can sign up for updates direct from the NHC’s policy team, ensuring that you are kept up-to-date on the progress of the review, and get to shape our response. If you’d like to receive our Decent Homes Review update, please email kristina.dawson@northern-consortium.org.uk

 

APPG Hosts Minister for First Session of 23/24

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Monday 13th March saw the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North reconvene for 2023 / 2024. The Group, which brings together Parliamentarians from all parties and both Houses together to discuss and advance northern housing policy, successfully held its AGM and opened the new year hosting a Ministerial dialogue with Lord Callanan, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance).

Chair Ian Mearns MP, Member of Parliament for Gateshead and Chair of the influential Backbench Business Committee, confirmed to the Group of his intention to continue as Chair alongside all other returning officers. It was noted that Kevin Hollinrake MP and Richard Holden MP were to reluctantly withdraw formal involvement in the APPG following their appointments as Parliamentary Under Secretary of States in the Department for Business and Department for Transport respectively.

The APPG meeting was held under the theme of “Delivering Housing Quality in the North”. Chair Ian Mearns MP opened the meeting noting the pollical consensus behind the drive to ensure every single person lives in a home that is decent, safe and secure. Not just a moral right, the Government’s Levelling Up agenda is right to assert that housing sits at the heart of physical and mental wellbeing, contributes greatly to the sense of belonging to a community, and offers a strong foundation from which to participate in the local economy.

Despite these imperatives however, Ian put forward that housing decency remained a persistent challenge citing analysis from the Northern Housing Consortium’s annual Housing Monitor that non-decency in the North of England sat at 17.6%, above the national average of 15%. With that figure in mind, and with progress on a new Decent Homes Standard slowing, it was vital that the APPG bring stakeholders together consider delivering housing quality across all tenures.

Lord Callanan was attending the APPG for the second time, having also spoke to the Group in October 2021. He used his opening remarks to underline the important connection between improving housing quality and energy efficiency. He discussed Government support to date, from households to date and outlining on further programmes to come covering Homes Upgrade Grants / Boiler Upgrades, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Energy Company Obligation, skills and training in the supply chain. In a wide ranging Q&A attendees, including many senior leaders from the NHC membership, Lord Callanan discussed a variety of barriers to upscaling retrofit, including hard to treat properties, challenges in skills and the supply chain, and the specific issues found in the Private Rented Sector.

Following Lord Callanan, a series of stakeholders had been invited to share their thoughts on how to effectively deliver housing quality in the North. Firstly Charlie Norman, Chief Executive, MSV and Vice-Chair of the Northern Housing Consortium discussed the work and recommendations of the Better Social Housing Review. She highlighted both the technical challenge of repairing homes but also the underlying equality issues. It was important for the sector to lean into some uncomfortable truths. Following Charlie, Michael Marshall from the University of Sheffield shared insights from the report Lessons from Last Time: A Review of Evidence on the First Decent Homes Programme in the Social and Private Rented Sectors. Michael advocated for a holistic approach to decency, moving beyond the front door to make homes and neighbourhoods climate-conscious and pleasant places to live. Finally, Steve Coffey, Group CEO of Torus, built on Michael’s remarks by sharing his experiences of the first Decent Homes Programme. He welcomed that the discussion on creating decent homes and neighbourhoods had become a non-party political point but this could go further. Homes are the foundations of people’s lives, and investment whether in decency or energy efficiency should be organised in tandem to bring economic uplift through skills, training, and well paid green jobs.

For more information on the APPG for Housing in the North and to access the post-meeting pack for this and other meetings of the group, please visit the APPG’s dedicated webpage:

https://www.northern-consortium.org.uk/services/policy/parliament/appg-for-housing-in-the-north/

Talent for Sustainability – A unique campaign for embedding sustainability in the housing sector

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Meet our Sustainability Leaders

Rhys Bevan, Environmental Sustainability Business Partner (Development) at Stonewater

As the housing sector continues to face major challenges, developing and retaining a talented workforce has never been more important. The Talent for Sustainability campaign is a call to action from an innovative partnership which aims to make a difference by embedding sustainability in the sector’s talent pool in the North.

In partnership with the GEM Programme and Talent in Huis in the Netherlands, this dynamic three-year campaign is ambitious in its quest to discover and develop talented and inquisitive minds who think fast, act quickly and make a difference to sustainability for housing organisations, their tenants and communities, providing them with training, guidance and assigning projects to develop them into future leaders with a solid understanding of sustainability challenges.

Following the launch of the campaign last Summer, our Sustainability Leaders Group, who have been steering the shape of the campaign, have met frequently to identify the problems we want to focus on and to set the GEMs the challenge of tackling them.

 We caught up with Rhys Bevan, Environmental Sustainability Business Partner (Development) at Stonewater, former GEM and part of our Sustainability Leaders Group, to find out more.

 

Rhys, tell us about your role and why sustainability has a high profile at Stonewater?

My title at Stonewater is ‘Environmental Sustainability Business Partner (Development)’. My role is to assist the wider development team in reaching our sustainability objectives, such as to adopt a pathway towards accomplishing the goal that all new starts on sites from April 2025 will be Net Zero Operation Carbon (NZOC) for our land and build schemes. I also help to identify new sustainable build methods and technologies to ensure we are building high quality homes that are cost efficient for our customers.

At Stonewater we believe in a holistic approach to sustainability across all aspects of our business, looking to improve the energy performance of our new and existing homes, but also keeping our customers at the heart of our sustainability efforts; through energy advice, green living and ensuring customers learn alongside us on how to get the most out of their home. To this end, our Sustainability team has now expanded to 6 business partners, sitting under the Assistant Director Environment and Sustainability, covering all areas of the business, and ensuring that all teams keep sustainability at the heart of their thinking and that we don’t implement policies or changes that undermine our sustainability objectives or customer commitments.

 

What would you say are the main benefits of your participation in the GEM Programme, and why, as a former GEM, did you want to become involved in the design of the GEM Sustainability Stream?

Alongside giving me invaluable knowledge around the built environment and housing inequalities within the UK, the GEM programme helped to me to build a network of likeminded peers across social housing in the UK who are as passionate about sustainability and housing as I am. It was for this reason that I was eager to be involved with the GEM Sustainability Stream. I wanted to do my part in order to help young professionals interested in social housing and sustainability to have a graduate programme that gives them both the knowledge they need to succeed in their careers, and to help them build a network of their own peers across the industry to share ideas and insight into the issues we currently face.

Collaboration is essential for tackling the climate crisis, and I think the Sustainability Stream is a good first step for these graduates to have the biggest impact possible throughout their careers. The design for this Stream consists of professionals with knowledge covering all aspects of the built environment, meaning we can all provide greater insights into our individual specialisms for these GEMs.

 

What are your hopes and aspirations for the GEM Sustainability Stream over the three years of the Talent for Sustainability Campaign?

It is my hope that the GEM Sustainability Stream will help inspire the next generation of housing professionals to embed sustainability at the heart of their thinking across all aspects of the industry and push them to pursue greater positive change within their respective companies. Encouraging collaboration and networking are key parts of making meaningful change and in order to properly tackle the climate crisis we need passionate and informed individuals to take the lead, and I believe the Sustainability Stream will help to achieve this.

The GEMs will begin their work in March and conclude in late May. During that time they will have the opportunity to visit sustainability projects in both the UK and Holland to further develop their knowledge and understanding of good practice and key issues. Look out for further updates!

To find out more, or to get involved in future streams, contact Trevor Smith, Director, The GEM Programme: trevor.smith@centreforpartnership.co.uk or Kate Maughan, Director of Member Engagement, Northern Housing Consortium: kate.maughan@northern-consortium.org.uk

NHC responds to Labour’s National Policy Forum consultation 

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The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) has responded to the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum (NPF) consultation on how a potential future Labour government can create a “fairer, greener and more dynamic Britain”.  

Of the six policy commissions, under the consultation, we submitted a response to four: A green and digital future; Better jobs and better work; Public services that work from the start; and A future where families come first.  

Included in the submission are the NHC’s key asks of Labour policy, which include:  

  1. Make a manifesto commitment to a minimum of a £6bn per year programme of energy efficiency upgrades, making homes warmer, cheaper to heat and clean energy-ready.  
  2. Commit to an Affordable Homes Programme which will meet the independently-assessed need for new genuinely affordable homes across England.  
  3. Invest £3.8bn to remediate all the North’s brownfield land over the course of two Parliaments, to unlock 310,000 homes.  

You can read our full response on our website.  

We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the policy making of all parties and would be happy to engage further. If you’d like to get in touch please contact Joanne Wilson, Head of Policy, joanne.wilson@northern-consortium.org.uk  

New ONS analysis shows similarities and differences between local authorities 

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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published analysis exploring the similarities and differences between local authorities in England – grouping together local authorities with similar characteristics to create ‘clusters’.  

The ONS says that the findings from their analysis “allows users to understand the similarities between local authorities, while providing local authorities with control groups for investigating the impact of policy interventions.” 

A new interactive map allows you to view the data easily (Figure 1) and shows results for each cluster. You can select individual local authorities to highlight their characteristics.  

The map provides analysis of the clusters for a range of themes – economy, connectivity, education, skills, health and well-being. 

It provides insights into some of the North’s characteristics and illustrates some differences between certain areas in the North and South. For example, many of the local authorities that are ‘far below the median’ for health metrics are in the North. These local authorities include urban areas in the North East and North West. On the economy, many of the urban areas in the North are generally in the ‘below the median’ cluster. This data and the new interactive map may be a useful reference tool for members.  

View the ONS interactive map and the subnational indicators data used for this analysis. 

£338 million decarbonisation boost for housing in the North

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The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has announced the successful bids from Wave 2.1 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) for successful local authorities and providers of social housing to install energy efficiency upgrades in their housing stock.

£778 million has been offered to 107 projects for Wave 2.1 of the SHDF, with just over £184 million going to Northern regions. This represents 23.7% of total funding going to the North.

All successful bids can be seen here and the regional breakdown for the North is:

  • North West: £105.3 million
  • North East: £29.3 million
  • Yorkshire & the Humber: £50 million

 

NHC Chief Executive Tracy Harrison said:

“This latest wave of funding adds to the momentum already built around green home upgrades in the North.

Retrofitting homes towards net zero is a key priority for councils and housing associations across the North. Our members want to continue to scale their activity to support the development of the supply chain, and to deliver good, green jobs.

We were delighted to see even more ambitious partnership bids submitted to this Wave – an approach which we hope to see followed through in delivery. But most importantly, these successful projects will help create warmer homes and improve the physical and mental health of people in our communities.”

 

The Government has said that around 90,000 homes are expected to be upgraded under the scheme and funding will support around 13,000 jobs annually in the green energy sector, creating the conditions for growth in the retrofit supply chain and boosting productivity and innovation in the construction sector.

We know that upgrading the North’s homes will reduce carbon emissions and help to achieve net zero targets, alleviate fuel poverty during a cost-of-living crisis, and bring new skills and jobs to the region, and we will continue to work with our members to support them to deliver for people and communities across the North.

We are delighted to see many NHC members being awarded funding to complete energy efficiency upgrades on their homes rated below EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) C rating – including Together Housing Association, which has been awarded £9.5 million from Wave 2.1 of the fund.

It’s also great to see Combined Authorities awarded large grants. Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has been awarded £37 million – one of the largest grants awarded in SHDF funding. This will go to multiple NHC members in the Greater Manchester Housing Providers group, who submitted their bid as a consortia through the GMCA. Other Northern Combined Authorities (CA) have received funding for their consortia bids including Tees Valley CA (£32.4m), Liverpool City Region CA (£31.7m) and West Yorkshire CA (£14.7m).

Congratulations to all of NHC members who have secured investment from this wave of funding.

Today, DESNZ also announced £630 million of funding awarded under the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) Phase 2, which will go to local authorities to provide energy efficiency upgrades and low carbon heating to households in England that are low income, off the gas grid or have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) between D and G.

The full list of successful local authorities under the HUG Phase 2 is here.

The regional breakdown for the North is:

  • North West: £83.8 million
  • North East: £28.5 million
  • Yorkshire & the Humber: £41.1 million

Spring Budget 2023 – NHC on-the-day briefing

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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has today (15 March 2023) set out his first Spring Budget outlining the Government’s plans on taxes and key decisions on spending.

Following the Chancellor’s announcements, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published its economic and fiscal outlook.  The OBR are expecting inflation to fall sharply to 2.9% by the end of 2023.

The Spring Budget was set against a backdrop of growing pressure to do more to help people cope with the ongoing cost of living crisis. Energy costs, private rents, food prices and childcare costs have all been the focus of debate. In the run-up to the Budget, Government has also focussed efforts on helping social housing residents, through their new ‘Make Things Right’ campaign, and we understand the review of the Decent Homes standard is expected to pick up pace soon – sign up for updates.

At the Northern Housing Consortium we used our budget representation and influencing work to highlight the immediate need to uprate the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) back to the 30th percentile and ensure it reflects the real cost of renting in future years. Ending the freeze on support for private renters’ housing costs makes economic sense too – as members tell us the freeze is resulting in homelessness presentations and driving up the use of costly temporary accommodation. Many in the housing sector focussed their efforts on this policy issue, including the Chartered Institute of Housing and Shelter – as it was widely seen as something the Government could do now to help people.

Commenting on the continued LHA freeze, NHC CEO Tracy Harrison said:  “We are hugely disappointed that the chancellor has failed to use his Budget to uprate Local Housing Allowance. This will be a blow to renters across the red wall, who have seen rents consistently rise since 2020 while support for housing costs has been frozen. The continued freeze on LHA also puts our councils under huge pressure and is likely to result in more homelessness presentations and drive up the use of temporary accommodation.”

Members will be aware, the NHC also has long term asks on investment in energy efficiency of existing homes, on brownfield land remediation and local authority capacity. For the Spring Budget we added to these by supporting a coalition, including Age UK and National Energy Action, calling on the Government to:

  • spend at least £6bn annually to help upgrade homes.
  • improve training and supply chains to support the rollout of heat pumps.
  • set aside an initial £5bn for home insulation and £3bn for the installation of heat pumps.

While the Chancellor did not make announcements on energy efficiency investment at the Budget, we understand the Government is planning further net zero announcements this month, which may include allocations from the second wave of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

The Chancellor set out the Government’s priorities in what he described as a ‘Budget for Growth’, with key announcements on energy, childcare, social security and regional economic development.

Our on-the-day analysis of the Chancellor’s announcements is set out in our on-the-day briefing.

Read the full analysis here.