Housing Quality Magazine October 2023 by HQN Limited

ISSN 2976-7962 (Online)

ISSUE 15: OCTOBER 2023 aws for thought P Pets and social housing alking heads T The Windrush scandal emporary accommodation T Navigating the crisis

THE HOUSING OMBUDSMAN Richard Blakeway talks complaints, mergers and leasehold

Next Level Law Our Social Housing Team acts for a broad range of national and regional RPs, local authorities, private housebuilders, and funders on a wide range of issues affecting the sector. Discover an approach to law that’s more progressive, more proactive, and more pragmatic. Cambridge | Chelmsford | Ipswich | London | Norwich | Sevenoaks

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CONTENTS

October 2023

Features 12 Paws for thought Keeping pets isn’t always straightforward when living in social housing. Neil Merrick investigates

16 The big interview HQN talks to Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway about the challenges facing the sector

24 Talking heads Victims of the Windrush scandal who lost their homes speak to Danielle Aumord

update The latest research and analysis – in plain English

Bringing you the latest housing research from leading academics, in this edition of Evidence we consider the question of space standards and access to housing in the UK, as viewed by members of the public.

News insights

Views

Spotlight

5 Welcome 6 From the Chief Executive 8 Navigating the temporary accommodation crisis

34 Housing in Practice 37 Opinion: Morgan Vine 38 Opinion: Lara Oyedele

39 A life in 15 questions 40 In the frame 43 Secret diary of an ex-housing CEO 45 The last word

Published by HQN Rockingham House St Maurice’s Road York YO31 7JA

Editorial: Alistair McIntosh Jon Land Janis Bright Max Salsbury

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Design: Sam Wiggle All enquiries to: jon.land@hqnetwork.co.uk Tel: 07740 740417

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NEWS INSIGHTS

Editor’s welcome As part of our planning for this edition of HQM, we asked people to get in touch with any stories or photos showing how their organisations celebrated Black History Month, which runs throughout October. Thinking it was a fairly innocuous request, we were rather taken aback to receive one response from a very good contact who said – “Thanks for your email but we actively discourage performative activism”. It was a phrase I’d never heard before, but as soon as I looked it up, I immediately understood the point that was being made. ‘Performative activism’ is defined as something that’s done to “increase an individual’s or organisation’s social capital rather than because of their devotion to a cause”. Whether performative activism is intentional or not, it made me think about the way the housing sector operates and the disconnect between the way landlords see themselves and how they are viewed by tenants. You can guarantee that every single housing association has some form of mission statement that sets out its social purpose – often linked to doing their best for residents, serving the community, being committed to equality, diversity and inclusion etc. But as we have seen again and again in recent times, the quality of the homes we provide and services we deliver fall way below what’s acceptable. All too often, we hear about the importance of the customer voice and how landlords are really listening to their tenants while at the same time we see and hear horror stories about how residents have been ignored or neglected. This point is underlined by some of the features in this month’s edition. Lara Oyedele reflects on her 12 months as CIH president and her campaign to improve the diversity of social housing boards. Despite speaking at 200 events, Lara isn’t convinced her campaign has made much of a difference so far – despite everyone she’s spoken to making positive noises about the need for change. We also sit down with Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway for an in-depth discussion about the record number of complaints being made against landlords and the reasons for them. While it’s a complex situation and one that is slowly improving, it’s clear that organisations still have a long way to go in addressing some entrenched issues – with the way they communicate with their residents and handle their concerns being chief among them.

Jon Land Editor, HQM

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NEWS INSIGHTS

From the Chief Executive... Playing the inspection card I’m so impressed by all the work I see going on as HQN’s members get ready for inspection. They’re putting together a blueprint for social housing. Will it make a difference to tenants’ lives? We know what to do, but will we get the cash to deliver. Could our plans to improve housing wind up in the sidings alongside HS2? Let’s start off by looking at district councils. I’ve spoken to lots of them in the last couple of weeks. Now, they’re certainly taking inspection seriously. The chief executive turns up to the meeting along with senior councillors. And they’re backing their housing staff to the hilt. Stock surveys are well underway, they’re poring over the tenant satisfaction measures and everyone I meet is going the extra mile to act on what tenants are saying. The districts are doing all they can to stretch their funds to fix the homes. As you would expect, they’re having to make tough choices about when they replace kitchens and bathrooms. But they know they can’t afford to get to net zero without a big chunk of government funding. Rishi Sunak is talking about slowing down on green targets. That may make him the patron saint of housing business plans. Every hue of social landlord is struggling to meet these costs. But I can assure you very few in housing are thanking the PM for his intervention. We want to make the homes energy efficient and we agree with the science on decarbonisation. Let’s not go backwards here – it’s a bit like the PM’s madcap idea to replace modern trains with the Mini Metro. Our friends in the North will point out that this change of mind came about just seconds after the Elizabeth Line was complete. Moving on to the London boroughs and other cities, it’s a similar picture. The effort is certainly going in. But those with many towers were set up to fail by the self-financing deal. There simply wasn’t enough cash in the business plan from day one. It’s a real struggle to replace lifts and heating systems. So, it’ll be another winter of misery for many tenants. Ministers knew this would happen. Ditching the arm’s length management organisation wasn’t always a great idea. It can be a struggle to get housing back on the right footing. The first question housing inspectors will ask is: who does what? And that isn’t always clear right now when the landlord role is all over the shop. To be fair our members are taking the right steps to bring

HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

back clarity. The main problem is that there just aren’t enough council homes. That’s why so many people are in temporary accommodation (TA). According to the Municipal Journal, the costs to councils for this have soared by 71% up to more than one billion pounds a year, which explains why so many councils are now to all intents and purposes bankrupt. This is where housing associations are supposed to ride to the rescue. Some pull their weight but others refuse to do their duty. That may be why the RSH’s new standards insist that associations must help councils meet their homeless obligations. I’m coming across far too many cases where associations use every excuse under the sun to reject homeless people thus forcing them into TA. The inspectors have got to crack down on this cruelty. Often the fact that the homeless will struggle to pay the rent charged by the association bars them from getting a home. That raises the question: what’s the point of you? Since 2010, there’s been no policing of standards at councils or associations. Everyone knew this would end badly and it did. Out of control leaders did a lot of damage. Now we have a somewhat different problem. Thanks to inspection and the work of the ombudsman we’ll soon have a perfect specification of the problems that need solving in social housing. But there’s no masterplan to fix these. Read those Gove letters to recalcitrant landlords again. They’re strong on condemnation but offer no solutions. Blair and Prescott did improve housing because they had a plan to use the carrot and the stick. Will Starmer open up the coffers? We’re in a long queue of neglected public services needing a cash injection. It’s a long shot but we have one card and one card only. We must use inspection to prove that we’re worthy of the trust of government. If we don’t grasp that opportunity, someone else will.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

Proving your worth – keeping tenants safe while meeting the consumer standards The countdown has started. The Regulator of Social Housing’s inspections begin in Spring 2024. Meanwhile, the Housing Ombudsman is publishing its special reports into investigations at landlords. No one wants to receive a follow up letter from the minister. HQN can support you to answer the key inspection questions. Can you prove you: • Hold the right data on all your homes? • Have accurate Tenant Satisfaction Measures and act on them? • Are taking all necessary steps to keep residents safe? • Are listening to and acting on what residents say? • Deal with complaints thoroughly? Do you learn from them? • Tailor services around the needs of tenants and look after vulnerable people? Are your plans to improve services plausible? Are they SMART? Does your board or cabinet have a firm grip on the service? Can they answer questions from inspectors? We can: • Brief leadership teams on what the RSH and Housing Ombudsman expects of you • Brief staff on how they can help meet the standards – “Empowering staff is key to improving service delivery” says the Housing Ombudsman • Run reality checks on the quality of customer-facing services (e.g. call handling, voids and record keeping) • Analyse the quality of complaint handling • Provide hands on help – document reviews and on-tap critical friend support through to intelligence-led in-depth mock inspections.

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To find out more, contact Anna Pattison at anna.pattison@hqnetwork.co.uk or visit hqnetwork.co.uk/consultancy

NEWS INSIGHTS

Navigating the temporary accommodation crisis Finding decent temporary accommodation for homeless households has become one of the biggest challenges facing councils and housing associations. In an exclusive for HQM, Keith Cooper explores how social landlords are responding to what’s become a national problem. The official figures are all headed in the wrong direction. The number of households in temporary accommodation are now at record levels: 104,510 at the last count following an upward journey that began in 2010. This figure includes 131,370 children, thousands of whom were in the worst kind – bed and breakfast-style accommodation – which can see them crammed into a single room with their parents, siblings, and all their belongings. And as demand spirals, councils must also now contend with a relatively new challenging trend. Private landlords have begun demanding back the properties on which councils previously relied for this supposed stopgap supply. The number of ‘notice to quits’ issued by such landlords to London local authorities jumped 120% last year, from 1,601 in 2022 to 3,531 in 2023 according to figures from London Councils, the umbrella body for the capital’s councils.

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Notting Hill Genesis, a London-based housing association that manages 3,000 units of temporary accommodation, has had 450 landlords ask for their properties back. “They have realised that they can earn more in the private sector,” the association’s director of supported and temporary accommodation director, Robert East, told a Westminster conference in September. “As mortgage rates have risen, many are saying that we’re not paying enough to cover their costs. If we don’t get an increase in the rents we pay landlords [those properties] are going to be lost and people are going to be stuck in bed and breakfasts.” Such an increase looks unlikely any time soon. After being frozen for years, local housing allowance no longer covers market rents in many areas, leaving increasing numbers of authorities with little choice but to re-house homeless households outside their areas, cutting them off from their

NEWS INSIGHTS

families, friends and support networks. With such worrying trends, it’s no surprise that the topic of temporary accommodation has attracted the attention of researchers and the media, an interest that’s casting new light on this ballooning crisis and its real-life impact on the individuals and families caught up in it.

than 100 miles away from their local areas. And while these larger distances might seem the most alarming, homelessness charities say that even small distances can be disruptive, especially for low-income families dependent on public transport. A 10-mile trip between Redbridge and Islington, for instance, takes 46 minutes by car but over an hour by public transport. This would be an obviously onerous two-hour return trip for a Spiralling demand parent keeping a child in school in their home borough. Freedom of Information figures show that many So, what do we know about the state of temporary households are spending prolonged periods in temporary accommodation and its harmful effects on those living accommodation, as long as nine years in one case. Our in it? And against this backdrop of spiralling demand and analysis looked at data supplied by 56 authorities which decreasing supply, is there anything more that social used OOA placements. It found that 9,400 households in landlords can do to help those who get stuck in it? 40 authorities had lived outside their areas for more than For this article we have accessed exclusive and published two years. Barking and Dagenham Council has placed research and commentary from councils, researchers hundreds of households outside of its borough boundaries and the frontline charities which support individuals and for more than a year, with five still there nine years after families in temporary accommodation. their original placement. More than 80% of households Evidence points to the rehoused by Brent fact that the practice outside its boundaries of moving households “Local authorities have been more were still there one out of area has spread year later, the analysis focused on rough sleeping than on family beyond London and indicates. In Lambeth, homelessness. But in Manchester we that many households that proportion is 76%. are now stuck in the Barking and are saying it’s an absolute priority to do ‘limbo’ of OOA (outDagenham says most of better for families” of-area) temporary its OOA households are accommodation for in “directly neighbouring Rob McCartney, assistant director of years. And analysis boroughs”, with most of homelessness services, Manchester City Council shows households the rest in neighbouring with Black African or Essex. It keeps contact Caribbean heritage are disproportionately moved out of with its homeless households and offers them support, area and so are subject to all the risks such displacement advice and assistance, a spokesperson added. Like many involves. London boroughs which send households out of area, it’s In a move to mitigate the problems, councils are also home to homeless families sent by other boroughs. In collaborating with charities and landlords in so-called Barking and Dagenham’s case, it has 232 of its own homeless TAAGs (temporary accommodation action groups) to make households in other local authorities while hosting 473 from meaningful improvements for homeless households, and other boroughs. how one council is piloting a more family-friendly approach Brent Council says it kept regular contact with households which has so far seen a dramatic reduction in the number in temporary accommodation for prolonged periods. “Any of families housed in bed and breakfast accommodation. support issues that are identified are tailored to meet the London councils have long relied on neighbouring individual needs of the families,” a spokesperson added. boroughs to augment their own supply of temporary accommodation for homeless households. But our analysis of more than 32,000 placements in the three years between Disproportionate impact 2018/19 and 2021/22 shows this practice has spread across the country. Further analysis of the FoI data raises questions about the disproportionate impact of OOA placements on households with Black or Asian heritage. This analysis, first Shunted miles away published in Inside Housing, examined the ethnicities of households placed out of area in 15 authorities between During that period, more than 2,500 households were 2018-19 and 2020-21. It also examined data from four shunted more than 20 miles from their local neighbourhood councils that found people temporary accommodation by councils outside the capital. Just over 200 households outside of their areas. were moved more than 50 miles away. Birmingham It found that between 2018-19 and 2020-21, Black rehoused households in Ipswich more than 150 miles away and Asian-led households were placed out of area to a and Canterbury sent one household 130 miles away to disproportionate degree in most authorities. Councils accommodation in Hampshire. In total, across the country, that rehouse many Black-led households also do so in including London, councils rehoused 137 households more predominantly white areas. HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

NEWS INSIGHTS

During this three-year period, 12 of the 15 authorities studied housed a greater proportion of Black or Asian households out of area. These disparities were identified by comparing the ethnicities of homeless households helped by the councils with the ethnicities of households housed out of area. Figures for Havering, in east London, show that in 202021, of the 62 households at that time housed out of area, 31% were Black households. To put this in context, 15% of the households it helped with homelessness were Black, and Black people made up 8% of Havering’s total population in 2021, according to that year’s census. The pattern is similar elsewhere. Almost half (49%) of the households Greenwich Council sent out of area were Black-led in 201920, compared with 38% of the households it helped that year. In some areas, this disparity has grown. In Birmingham, it increased from 1% in 2018-19 to 7% in 2020-21. The analysis also found that some authorities frequently put Black-led households in accommodation in predominantly white neighbourhoods. Birmingham places 204 Black households outside the city on average each year, but frequently sends homeless households to B79 in Tamworth, Staffordshire. This postcode splits into nine subareas, only five of which have a Black population of more than 1%, according to the 2021 Census. Redbridge sends households 65 miles away to an area of Tendring, Essex, which includes Jaywick Sands, a predominantly white area and one of the most deprived in England. Heriot-Watt University professor of urban studies Glen Bramley says some of the apparent disparities identified by the analysis looked significant. “Regrettably, harassment of ethnic minority households in ‘white working class’ areas, particularly council estates in more peripheral locations, is a long standing problem, and clearly it continues,” he added. “Being placed a long way from your borough of origin, into an area which combines poverty/deprivation with a lack of population from your ethnic group, as in the Tendring /

Jaywick case, seems clearly wrong and risky.” Birmingham Council recognised it had increasingly moved Black African and Caribbean households outside the city, as their families were often larger. It’s spent £60m on bigger homes in the city and did its “utmost to ensure that all families outside the city are appropriately supported,” a spokesperson said. Havering Council pledged to review all its OOA placements “to eliminate all forms of discrimination”. Greenwich Council says its placement policy follows statutory provisions, government guidelines and case law and “doesn’t discriminate”.

The impact on children Other councils are responding to the growing temporary accommodation challenge in other ways. Manchester City Council has, for instance, recently adopted a more family-friendly policy geared toward reducing the number of households with children in bed and breakfast accommodation. This move comes amid growing concern about the impact of temporary accommodation on babies and young children. Research last year by the National Child Mortality Database linked 34 child deaths from recent years with temporary accommodation. And continuing studies examining the impact on child health, begun during the pandemic, found children in temporary accommodation suffering from malnutrition and breathing problems from living in damp and mouldy, poorly ventilated rooms. The Champions Project research group, led by Monica Lakhanpaul, professor of integrated community child health and honorary consultant paediatrician at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, found that the conditions in temporary accommodation were even stunting child development. “Children were often stuck

“Research by the National Child Mortality Database linked 34 child deaths from recent years with temporary accommodation”

There’s growing concern about the impact of temporary accommodation on babies and young children

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NEWS INSIGHTS

in housing with not much space to play,” says Professor Lakhanpaul. “They can’t walk in such tiny rooms. Parents are frightened to send their children to playgrounds, for fear of where some are located.” Under Manchester Council’s new approach, senior managers carry out case checks and oversee move on panels to help clear caseloads. This had helped reduce the number of families in bed and breakfasts this year from 227 to zero and cut a projected budget shortfall from £25m to £2.5m. “Local authorities have been more focused on rough sleeping than on family homelessness,” the council’s assistant director of homelessness services Rob McCartney told a Westminster conference organised by the charity Justlife in September. “But in Manchester we are saying it’s an absolute priority to do better for families.”

Addressing the temporary accommodation crisis has become a priority for councils across the country

“Freedom of Information figures show that many households are spending prolonged periods in temporary accommodation, as long as nine years in one case”

TAAG teams Councils are also helping families and individuals in temporary accommodation by joining TAAGs. These are a network of regular meetings between support charities, councils, and landlords. TAAGs are already up and running in Brighton and Hove, Manchester, East Sussex, Hackney, Westminster, Newham, Waltham Forest, and Bristol. They’re co-ordinated by Justlife, which says other areas are wanting to set them up. “TAAG meetings aren’t somewhere for people to sound off about their frustrations. They are a no-blame environment,” says Signe Gosmann, network development and researcher at Justlife. “Everyone at these meetings holds a piece of the puzzle and they are better together than when they operate alone.” Brighton and Hove TAAG meets every three months, is attended by council officials, landlords, adult social care, councillors, and people with lived experience of homelessness, and is chaired by Martin Coll, Justlife’s head of service in the city. “We try to be as solution-focused as possible while realising our limits in terms of primary legislation and our own experience,” he says. As a result of the TAAG’s work, the council now has an agreed set of minimum standards for basic facilities such as linen, cooking facilities and heating, known as the emergency accommodation charter. The council has also introduced “dynamic purchasing” which allows it to stop using poor quality providers more easily.

The TAAG is also a forum for information sharing, Mr Coll says. “A lot of the time providers have very little information about their clients. By sharing information, providers are informed and so can act accordingly. Sometimes, it’s just about ensuring they’ve got useful phone numbers so if someone has a mental health worker, and they are in crisis, they can contact them.” Ms Gosmann admits TAAGs are not perfect; they depend on people turning up and the worst landlords don’t. “Some landlords worry that they are going to get shouted at and there are many out there who are really rogue who we aren’t reaching. It’s not model that’s going to work for them.” One landlord who has thrown himself into the TAAG in East Sussex is Michael Groves. Mr Groves owns 30 properties, mainly in Hastings, including a block of onebedroom flats, a six-room women’s refuge, and a house in multiple occupation. For him, the main benefit is in networking. “There’s a lot of support out there for homeless people who have drug, alcohol or mental health problems, but as providers we don’t necessarily know who those people are.” The East Sussex group has also led work to drive up standards, ensuring that basic facilities are provided in rooms even when they’re available in shared spaces. “A lot of people are anxious about shared kitchens,” adds Mr Groves.

Frustrations Like other members of his TAAG, Mr Groves admits to “frustrations” in the temporary accommodation sector. “None of us have the power to make big changes.” It’s a feeling with which many working in this challenging area will sympathise. But as Mr McCartney told the Westminster conference in September, councils don’t need to accept the “air of defeatism” which a sole focus on the depressing bare facts of temporary accommodation creates. Not when there’s still so much more they can do to improve the lives of the individuals, families and children who are stuck there. HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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PAWS FOR THOUGHT: HOW PETS TURN HOUSING INTO A HOME Keeping animals as pets, it hardly needs to be pointed out, is a big part of British identity – but for those living in social housing, having a pet isn’t always straightforward. Neil Merrick explores the issues.

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At times, it was heartbreaking watching people who were homeless being forced to make such an agonising decision. Should they accept the flat on offer to them from Stonewater Homes, which meant giving up their pet, or did they put their animal first? A surprising number of people would choose their animal over a permanent home, recalls Holly Edwards, Stonewater’s assistant director of customer experience. “They were choosing to sleep on a sofa or in a car to keep their pet,” she says. Thankfully, would-be tenants no longer have to take such decisions. Two years ago, the housing association drew up a new policy that means, by and large, tenants in flats as well as houses can keep whatever animals they choose. No permission is required for small animals such as fish and hamsters, but otherwise tenants must first apply to the association. Generally, permission is granted without conditions. Only dangerous animals are banned. The new policy is designed to demonstrate that, as a landlord, Stonewater does not seek to micro-manage tenants’ lives. “We are moving away from a parent-child relationship,” says Edwards. “If landlords want long-term tenants, they need to allow people to live as they wish and treat it as if it’s their home.”

According to the RSPCA, pet owners often make the best tenants, taking proper responsibility for their home as well as their animals. It’s also widely recognised that pets can have a therapeutic effect and provide important companionship, especially for elderly people who live alone.

“If landlords want long-term tenants, they need to allow people to live as they wish and treat it as if it’s their home” Housing 21, which has 23,000 residents in retirement or extra-care accommodation, advertises itself as a pro-pet landlord. Tenants can keep any pet they wish, providing they apply for permission. Bruce Moore, its chief executive, says it would be fundamentally wrong for the association to separate residents from their animals, especially as they bring wider benefits in retirement properties. “It helps with social connection,” he says. “If people are shy it can be a conversation opener.” In 2021, while the UK was still in lockdown, the government unveiled a new model tenancy

Margarette with her grandson Archie and pet dog Mia, Housing 21 Left: Dot Annable, Housing 21

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agreement for private landlords that warns against blanket bans on pets. The right for tenants to request to keep pets is likely to be included in the Renters (Reform) Bill, still waiting to make progress in parliament (and the Scottish government has included keeping pets in its landlord and tenant engagement questionnaire). For now, however, rules remain at the discretion of landlords. Some social landlords have reviewed pet policies, or devised new ones, so tenants are more aware of where they stand. Stonewater received about 1,500 responses to its consultation, which invited tenants to suggest the type of animals they might wish to keep as pets. This threw up some interesting suggestions, including chickens, bees, micro pigs and reptiles. In rural areas, tenants were keen to keep cattle and other livestock. “There were some animals that I’d never heard of,” admits Holly Edwards. Tenants are advised how best to look after animals, such as making regular visits to vets, but welfare decisions are ultimately left to owners. “We made it clear that we wouldn’t police people’s pets,” she adds. Complaints from other residents about problem animals are rare, says Stonewater, but

that’s not the case everywhere. In June, Stockport Homes took out a community protection order against a dog owner that broke the rules and kept a dog in his flat. Other residents had previously complained of barking and howling noises. The case ended up in court, with the dog owner nearly £1,500 poorer. Another arm’s length management organisation, which does not have a policy on pets, spent months arguing with a tenant who kept two chickens in contravention of her tenancy agreement. Eventually, the woman got rid of the noisier chicken but argued that she needed to keep the other bird as it helps with her son’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). According to the Society for Companion Animal Studies, bans on keeping pets in rented homes is one of the main reasons for animals being taken to shelters or rescue centres by their owners. For private renters, the situation was exacerbated by the 2019 Tenant Fees Act, which removed the right of landlords to request a pet deposit in case of damage. This means landlords are more likely to ban pets completely. In 2010, a private member’s bill proposing that people in care homes and sheltered accommodation should have the right to keep a pet was talked out by MPs. But attitudes have changed, with more landlords happy to hear the occasional bark or squawk coming from inside properties. Last year, Anchor reviewed its pet policy in conjunction with residents, its wellbeing team and tenancy managers. Residents without pets were also asked their views. “It’s important to have a policy that everyone is happy with and creates a harmonious balance,”

“Other residents had previously complained of barking and howling noises. The case ended up in court, with the dog owner nearly £1,500 poorer” Regee the tortoise at Eric Morecambe House

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says Pru Choney, Anchor’s compliance and policy officer. “It’s their policy as much as it is ours.” Anchor’s work in promoting animal welfare has been recognised by the RSPCA for the past six years [see box]. If it’s impractical for a resident to look after a pet, they can join a pet therapy group, or spend time with communal pets. These include Regee, a tortoise who resides at Eric Morecambe House, a care home in Lancashire, and which won Anchor’s muchsought-after pet of the month prize for October 2023. As residents in retirement accommodation get older and struggle to look after their pets, cat feeding or dog walking may be included in care packages. At Housing 21, it’s not unheard of for a snake to be kept in an apartment, though cats and birds are more common. Rules apply in communal areas, including gardens. A successful policy, says Bruce Moore, should encourage responsible pet ownership that benefits both animals and other residents. “It says you have a right to have a pet unless we can show it could cause problems for other people,” he says. “If a pet becomes a nuisance, then that’s an issue we have to address.”

Successful pet ownership among renters depends on a positive two-way relationship between landlords and tenants, says the RSPCA. Instead of blanket bans, it advises landlords to have a clear, written policy that allows tenants to request to keep pets on a case-by-case basis, providing they can meet an animal’s welfare needs. Ideally, the policy should set out the owner’s responsibility, along with a definition of each species of animal and how many are permitted in a property. There should be clear procedures for managing complaints or concerns raised by pet owners or by neighbours. Breeding of animals for business purposes should be prohibited. The RSPCA discusses pet issues with social landlords on an individual basis, and runs an annual PawPrints award scheme that recognises excellence. For the past six years, Anchor Housing Association has won a gold (and more recently platinum) award for its pet policy, meaning it provides advice on pet care as well as discounted pet ID and neutering. Lee Gingell, the RSPCA’s public affairs manager, points out not all accommodation is appropriate for animals, and pets should only be permitted where the home and immediate environment are suitable. “Landlords should engage with the community over a policy that works for residents and animals,” he says.

Margaret, Housing 21

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OUR WORK IS A REFLECTION OF THE HOUSING CRISIS Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, is a busy man. But HQN managed to pin him down for an hour, on Zoom, naturally. Max Salsbury reports.

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A man on a mission, Richard Blakeway seems to be everywhere at the moment. Is there perhaps more than one of him, cloned for the vast task of getting the sector in order? This is, by my reckoning, the seventh time I’ve encountered Richard on Zoom. Appointed a few months before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, I’m yet to meet him in the real world. Could the online Richard be a holographic entity? But enough of these strange speculations, we get down to discuss the large, and expanding, remit of the ombudsman, its relationship with the regulator, mergers, the tricky issue of leasehold, and lots, lots more… Complaints are the ombudsman’s main raison d’etre – and the service is currently receiving record levels of them. Why does Richard think that is? “That’s a big question. I think it’s very hard to look at our decisions and say things are better or worse because there wasn’t the level of transparency before. What are you comparing against? What’s your benchmark? And I think there’s a sort of quantitative element to our work. But there’s also a very strong qualitative assessment with our casework, and you can identify quite strong themes from there. But again, it’s harder to be comparative. “I think in isolation, it’s hard to make a judgement, but what you need to do is triangulate it. There are common and consistent reasons driving service failure, sometimes within particular complaint categories, sometimes wider. And organisationally, we’re starting to move the debate on from effective complaint handling, which is obviously very important, into looking at what’s given rise to the complaint, what’s the cause of the complaint and substantive issues. “Some of those things were known. Whether they were prioritised enough or not, they were known. I think they’re particularly around disabilities, mental health and vulnerabilities.” But could it also be linked with the ombudsman more proactively reaching out to tenants to make their voices heard, urging them to make complaints if they have them, letting them know the service is here to help, whereas previously

the service was perhaps a little bit hidden? “Yeah, potentially. Clearly, we’ve seen an increase in casework, but I also think we’ve seen a change in the type of casework – it’s becoming more complex. “We’re seeing people who may be vulnerable, who may have struggled to just make it through the process, reaching out through the internal complaints procedure, reaching us. I think we’re seeing more people because there’s a greater awareness and improved access; they have more confidence in making complaints and they see the value in making complaints. “And, actually, some of that’s really positive – that people can see the difference it will make and that we’re overcoming some of the concerns that were very well articulated by residents during the production of the green paper following the Grenfell Tower fire, where people were saying, ‘I’ll be seen as a troublemaker, and it’ll have some negative impact on my relationship with the landlord’. So, overcoming that is a positive thing. Furthermore, through the Complaint Handling Code we’re seeing more rigour, discipline and consistency around the complaints procedure. “I recall one landlord saying to me that their adoption of that complaint definition in the code led to a 150% increase in formal complaints. That was stuff that was just below the radar. It’s not just the volume, but the type of complaint coming to us.” I ask Richard to expand on this: would he say that many of the issues the service is seeing now are nothing new? “Yes, I think that’s right, roughly. Broadly speaking, you’re seeing two out of three complaints involve property condition in some form. So, whilst that’s always been the lion’s share of what we did, it was usually less than half of what we did, so that’s a change. And we consider that over half of our complaints are complex – and by complex that typically means involving more than one issue as part of the complaint definition. “A really good indicator of the kind of complexity of stuff coming to us is the trend in terms of remedies. And by remedies, I don’t just mean compensation. I mean in the orders and

“I think we’re seeing more people because there’s a greater awareness and improved access; they have more confidence in making complaints and they see the value in making complaints”

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recommendations in the round when I started. I don’t think we reported our remedies publicly when we started, but I think it was probably around 2,000 a year. Two years ago, it was about 4,500. Last year it was 6,500. By current trends it’ll be more than 10,000 this year. “And with the caseload, particularly between this year and last year, you will see a noticeable increase in determinations. Prior to that there was an increase in determinations, but the increase in remedies were proportionally much greater. I think that’s an indicator in terms of the nature of the cases as well as, of course, our development. And we’re seeing cases sometimes that have been around a decade – where we could clearly evidence someone had been complaining about or raising something, and then the rigour of the code and the formal complaints procedure meant they suddenly got out the other end and landed with us. But this was a decade’s worth, and quite consistently we’re seeing those cases come through.”

Good relations How are his relationships with landlords? Are the majority on board with the current approach? Is there much resistance, and are lessons being learned? “Well, it’s easy to be very subjective about this. And that’s three questions in one! To try and take each in turn, on the resistance bit, the data around reviews and reviews requests suggest that review requests have gone down slightly. “So, on that kind of measurement, you say there’s less resistance to the decisions, albeit I always think I encourage landlords to review a decision. It’s done by a separate team, it’s robust. I probably shouldn’t say this, actually, but they are very independently minded, the reviews team, which is really brilliant. But it would appear that landlords are requesting less reviews, and I think that probably reflects the quality and robustness of our decisions, but also the spirit in which they’re being considered by landlords and residents. Reviews can obviously be requested by residents as well.

“On learning, I think it’s a word that’s easily said and really hard to do. We’re trying to provide more information and tools to support learning. We’re trying to encourage the role of the member responsible for complaints as part of the Complaint Handling Code to give some senior kind of leadership or board level leadership around learning – thinking about how the Centre for Learning develops and how that can provide structural learning. “There’s a lot of work to do, and I think there’s probably been a lot more focus on learning around complaint handling and perhaps less around the substantive issues that are giving rise to complaints.” “Learning is an area where we’ll do even more. The direction of travel for the ombudsman will be to do even more in that space, including extracting learning from decisions which we didn’t uphold. And I think there can be learning from all of our decisions, all types of decisions. “As for our relationships with landlords: firstly, and most notably, there’s a dialogue that never really existed to a great extent before. I don’t think there were relationships at a senior level between landlords and the HOS. I just don’t think there were the conversations happening between chairs or chief executives and the HOS. That’s a really positive thing – that there’s a dialogue now, and I do a lot of talking to boards and I’m really impressed at how many senior leaders really kind of come in and talk to our organisation and talk to our staff and are really open and candid.”

“I think there’s probably been a lot more focus on learning around complaint handling and perhaps less around the substantive issues that are giving rise to complaints”

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Ancient history Richard inherited a vast backlog of issues when he came to the helm, with fresh complaints coming through constantly. It’s clearly tricky to clear it all but we’re aware of individuals getting letters from Michael Gove who weren’t in charge when the original sin was committed. Can things be speeded up? “Yeah, absolutely. There’s been a lot of volatility around casework volumes, but there’s been a 69% increase in determinations in the last quarter compared to the same quarter last year. “That’s clearly the trajectory we’re on, which is good, and helpful because our Dispute Support Service, which is the real time internal complaints procedure work, which is handling tens of thousands of cases each year, and the Complaint Handling Failure Order Report which comes out of that is real-time intelligence for landlords that they really need to focus on. With the determinations, sometimes it’s the kind of underlying reasons which are worth looking at. I

Richard addresses delegates

“Always sounds so terribly close to hubris to say you’re proud of anything, doesn’t it, but I’m genuinely really proud of the people, because when I started there was about 50 in the organisation and a lot of them have been so instrumental in that change programme that we’ve been going through” think we’re issuing a determination roughly every 30 minutes now.” One of the highly contentious matters of the day is the issue of leasehold – a problem Michael Gove has been trying to untangle. What does Richard think is the answer? “It’s interesting because this is an area where we’re thinking of doing some work, including what our role is as an ombudsman, compared, say, to the tribunal’s. “I do think there’s an issue for leaseholders in that there can be a lack of clarity because of the complexity of the system, because often the different parties involved (managing agents, freeholders…who is the freeholder if it’s not a member of our scheme?) combined with probably just not a proper examination of the roles and responsibilities under the Tenant Landlord Act…I think people can end up as a leaseholder and find that their issues aren’t being addressed properly and adequately. “I think whether or not it’s the right system, the right system design and all the stuff about commonhold within the system we have, we’re not doing the things and we’re not seeing the things done that should be done.” The ombudsman has been releasing its Spotlight reports about areas of concern – are anymore investigations lined up for the coming months? “Yeah. So, our next Spotlight report will be on communications and relationships and will touch on issues around vulnerabilities and disability. (I don’t like the word ‘vulnerable’. I need to come up with a better, alternative word.)” On these annual reports on landlords, is there going to be a report on each landlord or is it going to be a compilation? “Yeah, so this is probably the third time we’ve done it, but it evolves significantly each time. This is for landlords where we’ve had more HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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than five findings in a year, we publish a report which contains the outcomes aswell. It’s got lots in the report, including the findings, level of compensation, compliance levels, complaint categories and so on. It’s a kind of MOT, in terms of the complaints handled and investigated by us over that 12-month period. “What these reports will have, which the previous ones didn’t, is more comparators both for sector and similar landlords, but also for the previous year, because we went through an exercise about two years ago of changing some of the ways we record things on our system. We’re now able to do an apples with apples comparison in the annual reports. We’ll publish those, I’m hoping in October. That’s the plan.” The ombudsman is expanding – and so is the regulator. I ask Richard about his relationship with the RSH: do they work in collaboration with each other and share notes, or do they try and plough their own furrow as much as possible? And can he see a situation where the two could merge? “Contentious question! We have really good relationships with the regulator, and I think we found a form of words together which hopefully explains our roles in a way which is understood. I certainly hope so. And this is very much how I

Meeting the Ombudsman

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would describe the relationship: the regulator by design is kind of top down – it’s looking at systems and it’s looking at governance – whereas we’re kind of bottom up. And what I seek to do, certainly through our systemic work, is join the dots between thousands of individual cases to identify what the themes are on an individual provider basis or on a sectoral basis. And that kind of touches in the middle, and I call them ‘touch points’ rather than ‘handover points’. “I think the evolution of what we’ve seen on damp and mould is a demonstration of that. We produce our Spotlight report; some landlords respond to it and assess themselves against the recommendations. A year later, in light of the Awaab Ishak inquest, the regulator seeks assurance from providers on what they’re doing on damp and mould. “The regulator is quite open about saying those providers who are able to offer the best assurance were able to point to the actions they’d taken since the Spotlight report was published. I think that’s a good example of how complaints can be elevated and how the learning from complaints can be structured in a way which then supports the kind of wider regulatory environment. “But we should note, both organisations

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“With the determinations, sometimes it’s the kind of underlying reasons which are worth looking at. I think we’re issuing a determination roughly every 30 minutes now”

are independent, obviously, and we have very separate roles, so both could exist without the other. I don’t think you would want to combine them. Nor can I think of an example where that’s the case. “You need that independence of decisionmaking by an ombudsman. Otherwise it doesn’t have the integrity, it doesn’t have the impartiality. Also, our jurisdictions are slightly different, particularly around, say, things like leaseholders. And I see our service evolving more in terms of providing redress in housing, across housing tenures, because I’m very keen to see what we can do through our voluntary membership as well.”

Further mergers? The ombudsman has been critical of some merged organisations. Does he think that the service’s findings on these large organisations should have any bearing on whether the RSH waves the mergers through, sets them criteria or rejects them? “Well, that’s probably more of a question for the regulator. But I’ll give you an answer. The first thing is, I think it’s a very compelling evidence base that we have around merger or any significant organisational change. It might be an almo coming back inhouse at a council, for example. But stock transfer, merger, almos being folded…there’s now consistent, clear and compelling evidence that that can lead to a deterioration in complaint handling and to an increase in service failure and problems in service delivery for residents. We’re consistently seeing that. “And whether it’s in individual cases or the special reports that we’ve done on providers, the merger or the stock transfer in some form is in there. This is just a thought that perhaps merger has been driven, if you like, by growth and ambition and noble ambitions around wanting to build more homes and address the housing crisis – and in the past there’s also been merger through financial necessity. Therefore, it’s how do you – with that known risk and given the evidence that we’ve established over several years in different places – address it, spark the process rather than it somehow being conceived as a veto? “And I don’t think it should be conceived

as a sort of veto. I don’t think that’s our role. I don’t think that would be appropriate. People should look hard at how we ensure there isn’t a deterioration, because it can be so hard to recover the position. And, again, one of the issues here isn’t just systems, teams, cultures – it’s about records and data. And I’ve seen cases where the property has changed hands twice and then someone’s said, ‘Oh, well, no one’s got a record of this, and we didn’t know’. I mean, it pops up quite a lot in things like preserved right to buy, for example – people being offered the right to buy and at the last moment someone spots they’re not entitled to it.” The sector is facing a range of organisational issues: financial, cultural, the professionalisation agenda and high staff turnover. How much of an impediment does Richard think those factors are to delivering a good service? And what would his suggestions be for sorting that out? What would he be saying to government, for example, about these issues? “Well, the government has made a statement around professionalism and wanting to see more of it. How does that come to life? I think talent is clearly a significant issue and can be a real challenge in terms of effective service delivery, and obviously it depends on the role and type of organisation, location, etc – there are lots of caveats around it. “No surprises saying that, I suppose. One of the things I’ve tried to stress through some of our casework is the need to invest and develop colleagues. And I’ve talked about how sometimes that might be investing in the systems that make their job easier or it might be the training and all the rest of it. But it’s essential if you look at complaint handling. For example, there’s a lot of resilience sometimes needed in complaint handling, so sometimes there can be quite a lot of turnover. And sometimes you need to avoid fatigue or case blindness: ‘Oh, it’s another thing. It sounds like the last one.’ “There’s a risk of that, for all the good intentions. There’s something about how you keep people in that role energised. You can see how those teams have been under-resourced, though, in terms of people. We published a recent decision, where in its learning statement the landlord was quite open about how it had reduced the size of the team and had now increased the size of the team as part of its learning. I think there’s something there about what is the appropriate HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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level of resource – as well as can I actually get that resource? “And then how do I ensure that there’s a degree of stability whilst also avoiding staleness, poor behaviours or practises developing and increasing the housing crisis? Our work, I’ve said, is a reflection of the elements of the housing crisis. You see that particularly in the context of local authorities and the wider statutory housing powers they have. I really strongly feel that we must be at a kind of touch crossroads now where this just needs to be gripped.”

Teaming up In the recent Nottingham report on ASB, the ombudsman combined with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Maybe the Housing Ombudsman might have to do things in conjunction in relation to housing associations, where there’s a split of responsibility and always the possibility of homelessness and allocations? “So, working closely with the Local Government Social Care Ombudsman is absolutely part of our plan. One of the things which we’ve done is the Complaint Handling Code. Our intention is that it becomes a joint code and that it applies across their jurisdiction as well as ours.”

that was heading in the right direction? “Well, that’s a really interesting question and I need longer to think about it! I’m not going to do justice to it in my answer. Well, doesn’t it start with what is social housing and what does the word ‘social’ mean? And ‘social’ isn’t just about cost, it’s also about community. It’s about people, about humans. In my personal view, embracing the word ‘social’ holistically, rather than focusing purely on the rent bit, is really essential. “For many social landlords, they’ll be working in communities, perhaps areas where they are for many residents the kind of last touchpoint that they’ve got with institutions, with services. I don’t think that’s something that landlords should shy away from and feel they’ve been left exposed or that they’re picking up slack from others. I get the pressure that it brings on them.

“There’s now consistent, clear and compelling evidence that that [mergers] can lead to a deterioration in complaint handling and to an increase in service failure and problems in service delivery for residents”

Evolving roles Richard’s been in the role for four years: does he feel the service is still evolving, and what’s he most proud off? “Yes, it’s still evolving. We’re continuing to recruit. I’ve done some of the interviews for a whole range of different roles, not necessarily senior roles. “And I remember being asked by one candidate, about where we were on our journey. And I described it as: we’ve got our coat on, but we haven’t opened the front door or something, was my phrase. So, I think, yeah, we’re absolutely still evolving and developing the way that the service operates. “What am I most proud of? Always sounds so terribly close to hubris to say you’re proud of anything, doesn’t it, but I’m genuinely really proud of the people, because when I started there was about 50 in the organisation and a lot of them have been so instrumental in that change programme that we’ve been going through. And that’s been a change of pace: their resilience, their energy, their creativity. And I hope I’ve been able to unlock some talent in there.” Based on his work, can he pick out a couple of characteristics that would identify a landlord

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Housing talk

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“But I’d encourage them to embrace that role because it’s a reality. And that, actually, for many communities, they are one of the few services that people can get in touch with in the way in which many people who have joined us, who have worked in other ombudsman areas or service areas, they’ve said there’s something really very distinct about the casework that they do on housing compared to what they did elsewhere. “And that’s, again, a reflection of that kind of role. And they’re engaging with customers, which is more than just about the home, it’s more than about bricks and mortar, more than that transactional stuff. So, something beyond transactional…sorry, danger of getting waffly now…the values that drive the sector, the sense of tackling social injustice, the leadership that that requires, and then the openness and the transparency about how they engage, how they work, I think those are all essential to making that model of success. “And that’s the kind of leadership I’d really strongly encourage in the sector. I’ve seen it displayed really effectively and it’s inspirational. I’ve also seen the opposite, of course, but I think that there’s something about the culture of it, of what is a social landlord and that leadership that unlocks that culture. And then there’s something

about that word ‘social’ and what it means to them.”

Housing passion Richard is clearly devoted to his role – where does his passion for social housing come from? “Well, my father was a local authority cabinet member and a city council cabinet member, responsible for housing a long time ago, but in the post-war era. And, so, I remember talking to him about that distinctly. And then, yeah, I think obviously it’s a few years now that I’ve been working in housing in different roles and in different areas. But I suppose if you were to try and find that start point, there’s something there.” And does he see social housing as a force for good? “Oh, absolutely. Unquestionably. Yeah. I probably have quite a Bevanite view of kind of the role that social housing should perform in society and the economy.” Richard has a very succinct answer for my final question – does he have any political ambitions outside of housing and would he ever consider running for parliament? “No.”

Housing Ombudsman annual complaints review 2022-23 – key findings

• During the 12 months, the Housing Ombudsman Service received over 5,000 complaints – a 27% increase on the previous year • The number of severe maladministration findings rose sharply from 31 to 131 – a 323% increase. 112 of these 131 findings were for landlords with over 10,000 homes • The maladministration rate for local authorities was slightly higher than housing associations, 62% compared to 50%. The ombudsman says this is due to local authorities having fewer resources, making it harder to offer reasonable redress • The main complaint type was property condition, accounting for 37% of all the ombudsman findings made during the 12 months • Complaints handling was the second largest category of complaint with a 76% maladministration rate • The ombudsman reported a 52% maladministration rate for health and safety complaints, which includes building safety • 146 Complaint Handling Failure Orders (CHFOs) were issued in 2022-23, of which 73% were for landlords with 10,000 or more homes • 91 landlords had a maladministration rate of over 50%, with 25 of these having a maladministration rate of over 75% • The ombudsman ordered more than £1.1 million be paid in compensation by landlords during the 12 months.

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TALKING HEADS THE WINDRUSH SCANDAL AND SOCIAL HOUSING The Windrush scandal shamed the British government, particularly the Home Office, and damaged the lives of thousands. “The hostilities experienced by Caribbean people and those from other Commonwealth nations began much earlier than 2018, when the scandal was first publicly uncovered within the mainstream media,” Roland Houslin, the co-founder of Justice for Windrush Generations, told HQN. Through the prism of two interviews with some of those affected by the scandal, Danielle Aumord exposes the desperate housing situation many were left in. Angela and Gillian Whitelock “We’re the British-born twin sisters of Edmond Graham, who was made homeless by Hackney Council and died as a result of the Windrush scandal. “Our brother was born in Jamaica and came here in 1968 when he was two. He went to boarding school here, married here and had kids here. He was a Rastafarian. He was very intelligent and well read, and trained in painting, craft work, decorating, plumbing and tailoring. “He had a black belt in martial arts. He was well dressed and took care of himself. “He was more than just a brother to us – he was like a dad to us. Most weekends, we’d go to stay at his council house. He used to cook for everyone – friends and family. It was always a nice vibe. “He even used to volunteer to take local elderly people to their medical appointments. But the problems started in 2012 when he went to Jamaica with his Britishborn children. Upon his return, the immigration staff at the airport asked for his paperwork. It was confusing. It was only because his kids were crying that they let him return. “He hadn’t been naturalised, but before the Windrush scandal a lot of Angela and Gillian

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people coming from the Caribbean didn’t realise that they needed to do this. We were invited here by the British government but with one stroke of the pen, they began to fling us, the West Indian people, out. It was like everyone who had a slight accent was classified as illegals. “Initially, when the problems first started, he didn’t tell us what was going on. But because he didn’t understand the government letters asking him about his status, he showed them to us and we started to write to the Home Office on his behalf. “The Home Office investigated his case but they exhausted their timeline. They kept stonewalling us. For years they messed us around despite us sending them

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all the paperwork and records that they requested. They weren’t listening to our MP or to us. “They even threatened to put Edmond into a detention centre. “We remember going to the immigration office in Croydon and hearing someone from Afghanistan say that they would throw themselves underneath the bus if a decision was made to deport them. “The consequences of the situation were that he couldn’t leave the country. He missed our brother’s funeral, which was devastating for him. He then had no papers to work because he had a Jamaican passport, and his benefits were stopped.

“We can’t remain silent. We don’t want our brother’s death to be in vain. We’ll never forget him. We need there to be some type of legacy such as changes to the Immigration Act” “The council gave him a hard time to keep the house. They served him an eviction notice and eventually he lost the house in 2000. But it was more than a house: it was his art work, his sound system, his music, his family pictures, all of the memories, all gone just like that. “His children and their mother had to go into a mother and children’s hostel but he wasn’t allowed to go with them. “He had four children in that house. We also lived on that road for 14 years. This divided up the family. Hackney Council gave him another flat – only to evict him again – whilst we were waiting for the Home Office to confirm his status. “He started to drink problematically. He became a different person. He cut off his locks, he didn’t brush his teeth. He started to talk to himself and suffered from mental psychosis. He became a shell of who he was. It was only in front of our mum that he didn’t drink, that he tried to hold it together. “The council put him in a hostel. It was a complete dump. The washing machine there was broken. The hostel had cockroaches, mice and water ingress, damp and black mold. We tried to clean it to make it better for him. He used to come to stay with one of us, on our sofas, from time to time. “By this time, he had cancer of the throat. It was so painful for him but he still used to volunteer to look after children for families also staying at the hostel. “By this stage the NHS were threatening to take away his healthcare. It was like they were saying: ‘You’re sick, you can die’. He felt uncared for and eventually they refused to treat him. “He’d also been admitted to residential rehab because of his drinking but because of the problems with his immigration paperwork, that treatment was also stopped. “Our mum, aged-80, was even denied medication by the NHS. They said she was illegal, despite having worked

in an old person’s home for 40 years. She used to bring the neglected residents who didn’t receive family visits to our home every Sunday for a good dinner. “It was only when the scandal came out in the media in 2012, that we realised that we were going through the same thing as everyone else and were able to access some peer support. We went on a march, and it was then that we heard people talking about the Windrush scandal and we realised that this was what it was. “We’d also never seen our brother cry before the Windrush scandal. It took away his manhood. He was never the same. We’ve been completely traumatised – and despite our own health issues, we did everything we could do to help him. “Our brother was finally naturalised on 25 May 2019, which was four years before he passed away. He had pneumonia. He died, aged 63, in the same hostel he’d been placed in after being evicted by Hackney Council. Despite this, we’re so relieved that he didn’t die on the street. By this point, he was skin and bone. “Our mum saw his body. He had cleaned his bed and lay down. It was like he knew that he was going to die. He looked peaceful, which is a comfort to us and a lot of people came to show love to him, to us, at the funeral. “Many of the Windrush generation died from heart attacks, from stress-related cancer. Many died before receiving financial compensation for their traumas at the hands of the British government. But to be fair, it’s blood money. It can’t redeem the time. “Every year, we celebrate the achievements of Windrush but have to remember what happened to our brother. “Our mother, aged 85, used to be proud to be a part of the Windrush generation but now she’s crying. Before the Windrush scandal, we’d never seen our mum cry before. She even had a stroke as a result of the stress from the immigration case. We can’t remain silent. We don’t want our brother’s death to be in vain. We’ll never forget him. We need there to be some type of legacy such as changes to the Immigration Act. We also want the repatriation of everyone that’s been wrongly deported.”

Harold Gerber “It’s not only Caribbeans that are being impacted by Home Office immigration discrepancies. I was born in Sierra Leone in 1964. I’ll be 60 next year and I’ve been impacted as well. “I came here when I was nearly five-years of age and grew up in Croydon. I was actually naturalised in 1978 with my mother and two brothers. “I remember when I first came here. There weren’t very many other black people, and we were often targeted through the sus law by the police. “The sus (‘suspected person’) law was a stop and search law created in the 1824 Vagrancy Act, giving officers powers to arrest anyone they suspected of loitering with the intent to commit an arrestable offence. “It was hard times. We had to look out for both the police and National Front. I was often physically attacked, so even before the issues with my immigration paperwork, this HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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was already a hostile environment for me. They’ve been troubling Black peoples for a long time. “I had my last British passport in 1999 and I even flew out to Barbados five years prior. But when I came to renew my passport, I was asked for my birth certificate from Sierra Leone. But there’s been a civil war over there so there was no way that I could find my paperwork. Our family home had been burnt down, so it was impossible. “As a part of my new passport application, I had to send in my old passport. I photocopied it, just in case, as proof of my citizenship. And I was right to do that because each time I tried to apply for a new passport, they kept losing my paperwork, and on top of that they didn’t refund me the monies I paid for the application. “I was denied benefits and the right to work because of all of this. I used to have a good job, teaching, plastering and building in the old Acton and West London college. “I went from that to having to blag jobs because, through no fault of my own, I didn’t a new passport to prove that I could work legally. I even had to steal to survive and ended up in prison as a result. “It really hurt me that I had to prove that I’m British. We paid for naturalisation, stood in front of the Queen, hand on the Bible and pledged allegiance to this country. “As a consequence of my immigration case, I had trouble accessing legal aid to get representation. I couldn’t rent anywhere. I had to beg to sleep on people’s sofas. “I was on the waiting list to be housed by Croydon Council for 16 years but at one point they said they that they couldn’t house me because I didn’t have a passport. “The council placed me in a YMCA hostel. It was drugsridden and that added to my trauma. I couldn’t sleep at night. Sometimes I still even sleep with the light on.

Harold

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“It was a studio flat, and it was a s***hole. It was dirty, it was damp, it had an old seventies kitchen unit. I had to decorate the place myself” “I now have a mental health diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and I’m taking medication for this. “My case was going on for 15 years. I think that that’s enough to take its toll on anyone. My physical health has also been impacted because I took on a lot of work for cash that involved heavy lifting because I couldn’t get a legal job. I was very vulnerable, and I was taken advantage of. As a result, I’ve now got a hernia. “Then one day I saw a poster for a Windrush meeting. I was so desperate that I went along to see if anyone could help me. The people there wrote a letter for me to the Home Office to advise them that I’d been naturalised and things started to straighten out from there. “Eventually I got housed but only after the council sent letters to a friend’s house where I wasn’t staying. The letter said that if you don’t sign it, you’ll go down on the list. They messed up by sending that paperwork somewhere I wasn’t living and once this was uncovered, they offered me a council flat immediately. “It was a studio flat, and it was a s***hole. It was dirty, it was damp, it had an old seventies kitchen unit. I had to decorate the place myself. “But at least my grandchildren can visit me there. I feel calmer because of this. They couldn’t visit me at the hostel because there were too many Class A drug users there. I’ve even got a trampoline outside of my flat, as it’s on the ground floor of a tower block. “I’ve been living there for five years now but I’d still want somewhere more suitable for me. It’s actually against the law for someone my age to be housed by a local authority in a studio flat. “Overall, my housing situation has just been an extension of all the other racism I’ve experienced since living on British soil. “The Home Office have all of my information within their computers. You know, it’s like the book 1984 by George Orwell, so they should have just been able to find me in their system. I’ve been made compensation as a result of my troubles but it doesn’t equate to all of the stress that I’ve experienced and the tablets that I now have to take for my mental health.”

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RESEARCH

Welcome Ideas about community can take us into a wealth of history, place and people. In this issue we consider three aspects of community from different parts of the world but with some common themes of local action running through them. First, what do people feel about the reputation of their own neighbourhood? Researchers from Chile, where communities are segregated economically, asked residents from both stigmatised and popular areas about their views on the reputation of the place they live. They found that people in places with poor reputations were less attached to their area and didn’t relate strongly to it. But that didn’t stop them forming strong bonds with other residents – often to try to overcome the area’s reputation. Conversely, people in ‘good’ areas formed stronger attachments to place.

You couldn’t get much stronger commitment to place than to build your own home. That’s what co-operatives in Nicaragua are doing, thanks to a government scheme to promote construction. Winnie Narváez Herrera reports for us on the initiative’s progress. Back here in the UK, a form of community action could help boost social housing supply, says thinktank the New Economics Foundation. It believes using community right to buy could allow local not-for-profit organisations to take up dilapidated and empty stock for renovation and letting. Some organisations already exist but they need first refusal and a renovation fund. Can they find support to improve the neighbourhoods where they operate?

Janis Bright Editor, Evidence

How residential reputations affect neighbourhood attachment: New longitudinal insights from Chile By Quentin Ramond and Gabriel Otero

Why examine the consequences of residential reputations on neighbourhood attachment? In October 2019, Chile experienced a massive insurrection as thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the neoliberal system established during the military dictatorship (1973-1990) that’s perpetuated vast socioeconomic inequalities. The capital city, Santiago, as well as other major Chilean urban areas emerged as the hot spots of this social unrest, where public spaces became arenas of intense confrontation with the police. The 2019 uprising is crucially linked to persistent high levels of socioeconomic residential segregation within Chilean

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cities, only comparable to those of ethnic-racial segregation in US cities. Residential segregation has created stark disparities in access to essential resources (eg, education, healthcare, culture) and economic opportunities between affluent and marginalised neighbourhoods, igniting the protests. Spatial divides also crucially contribute to shaping contrasting images and representations of places, of which residents have become increasingly aware through their interactions with non-residents, the media, real-estate agents or other institutions. Neighbourhood negative reputations, also referred to as stigma, have significant negative consequences for mental health, labour market opportunities, access to social capital, and residential mobility, among other things. Residents often develop complex reactions to the spatial denigration of their neighbourhood, ranging from strategies of resistance and contestation to attitudes of submission, isolation and even dissimulation. Moreover, the reputational structure of neighbourhoods

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extends beyond negativity, encompassing both highly esteemed neighbourhoods and relatively neutral images. Prestigious reputations are particularly interesting because they often signal wealth and exclusiveness that highlight the relevance of specific areas for the privileged. Territorial prestige also facilitates the provision of high-quality services and opportunities, thereby reinforcing class disparities in the urban landscape. In this study, we argue that residential reputations may also have a significant influence on neighbourhood attachment – the degree to which a resident engages with their neighbourhood. Neighbourhood attachment encompasses several ingredients such as sense of belonging and identification with the neighbourhood, shared norms and values among residents, trust in neighbours, neighbourhood social relationships, local civic membership and solidarity among residents. Specifically, we ask whether and to what extent do both positive and negative residential reputations affect neighbourhood attachment? Our research was guided by the idea that territorial stigma may erode neighbourhood attachment by fostering feelings of exclusion, frustration, injustice, and even shame and humiliation. Conversely, we would expect that positive reputation may enhance neighbourhood attachment by place of residence becoming a source of pride and a symbolic asset for claiming upper-class status. The present study We study this question in the context of Santiago Metropolitan Area, the capital city of Chile. Santiago has nearly seven million residents and has long been characterised by intense segregation and neighbourhood inequalities. We use data from four waves of the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey (ELSOC, 20162019) carried out by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES). It’s a representative survey of the Chilean urban population aged 18–75. We merge this individual-level data with administrative information on neighbourhoods. Our sample includes 489 individuals who are distributed across 200 neighbourhoods within the Santiago Metropolitan Area. We use regression analyses which seek to assess the impact of neighbourhood

Aguante means to show admiration for someone, and demonstrate support

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reputation (negative, neutral, and positive) on neighbourhood attachment, including four key dimensions: sense of belonging; neighbourhood relationships; commitment to the common good; and compliance with social rules and norms. To ensure that our analyses properly measure the influence of residential reputations, we control for neighbourhood objective characteristics (eg, social composition, ethnic-racial groups, quality of the built environment, crime) and several individual characteristics such as gender, age and education. What we found: The damage of stigma, the benefits of prestige The results indicate that, in general, residential reputations – both negative and positive – significantly affect neighbourhood attachment. Residential stigma hurts the level of attachment to neighbourhoods, while perceived residential prestige improves it. These results are stable after accounting for the influence of neighbourhood objective conditions and individual characteristics. Yet, it’s crucial to note that residential reputations do not evenly affect every component of neighbourhood attachment. Residential reputations clearly affect the emotional dimension of place attachment and local social relationships. Stigma reduces residents’ sense of identification with the neighbourhood, physical rootedness as well as trust in neighbours and daily sociability, whereas the reverse is true for positive residential reputations. Moreover, people living in a notorious place more frequently declare experiencing norm-violating behaviour in the neighbourhood. However, residential reputations seem not to enhance or to restrict the emergence of strong ties with neighbours (close relationships) or participation in neighbourhood organisations. One potential reason for these trends is that residents of stigmatised areas may maintain strong connections with neighbours to bring and receive care and support. They may also get involved in local organisations precisely to reverse the negative image attached to their

place of residence. Conversely, mutual support and local participation could be less relevant – and less necessary – dimensions of neighbourhood attachment for people living in areas of prestige. Lessons for research and public policy Taken together, this study indicates that the longstanding neoliberal urban policies implemented in Santiago de Chile have promoted residential segregation and territorial inequalities that have shaped contrasting residential reputations which, in turn, significantly affect neighbourhood attachment, especially sense of belonging, local sociability and compliance with local social norms. We believe that these results bear relevance for academic research and public policy. On the one hand, more research is needed to understand the ambivalences and complexities of residents’ experiences when dealing with territorial stigma or created by residential prestige. On the other hand, it becomes clear that positive experiences of resistance to residential stigma cannot be generalised to all deprived areas where residential reputations indeed produce negative effects on place attachment. As such, this study confirms that it’s urgent to reduce residential segregation and territorial inequalities, by implementing inclusive place-based policies that improve the resources and opportunities available in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Gabriel Otero is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Government and Communications, Universidad Central de Chile. Quentin Ramond is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Economics and Social Policy (CEAS), Universidad Mayor. Both are affiliated researchers to the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES). The complete article has been published in Urban Studies and it is available here: https://tinyurl.com/4nud6nn7

Mission accomplished! Members of a cooperative in Nicaragua build their own homes Access to adequate housing continues to be an unfulfilled right in many parts of the world, writes Winnie Narváez Herrera, Facilitator ÁBACOenRed /FUPECG. In Latin America, the problem of housing quality is even more serious than the problem of not having a home, and this is made worse by the increasing effects of climate change, violence in some parts of the region and migration. However, in many ways the small country of Nicaragua, with only 6.5 million inhabitants, is showing a way forward. It’s building on a long cooperative tradition, promoted strongly since its revolution in 1979. Housing programmes focus not only on construction: in many cases they depend

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on local participation and actively promote community development. The example in this article, from the north of Nicaragua, shows genuine cooperation between public institutions and local people. In the northern district of La Dalia, the MULTIPRO cooperative of multidisciplinary professionals together with the Matagalpa housing cooperative centre, CECOVI, have collaborated in a housing project by the small cooperative, Victorias de Noviembre. With their support, the cooperative has built its first 10 houses, after two years of planning and building work.

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In August 2021 they started manually removing earth and rocks to prepare the site; in February 2022 they built retaining walls and by the end of 2022 they had already finished seven homes. It’s all based on participation: there is shared responsibility between women and men and the co-op also ensures that children take part in the less difficult parts of the work. Obviously, some people benefit in the early stages while others are simply contributing their labour. But as one member said: “In the construction phase we all have to be patient, my house isn’t ready yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop working.” Margini Martínez, president of the cooperative, explains how each stage of construction was carried out: “We organised ourselves in groups of three, working from Monday to Saturday,” she said, although in the case of heavier tasks the groups join together. “Right now we’re a group of 10 because there are 20 bags of cement to be shifted.” In addition to the groups working during the day, they have organised themselves into three committees: the warehouse committee to control materials; the work committee to organise the day’s work; and the site committee to monitor the quality of the work. The small groups have arranged to have ‘days off’ to carry out paid work, such as coffee harvesting, cultivating basic grains and other jobs, as the construction day is a full one, from 7.00am to 5.00pm, with an hour for lunch. People have to get up much earlier than this though, to get the day’s food ready. Together with the commitment to the cooperative, this project required coordination with different agencies. For example, in order to meet the housing ministry’s criteria

for ‘social housing’, they needed a separate entity through which to channel the ministry’s subsidy. In this case, the local mayor’s office agreed to do it. In practice, it guaranteed the provision of some materials and the ministry made a cash contribution of US$ 25,000. The cooperatives also acquired a loan of $34,277 from a fund managed by MULTIPRO. To this amount was also added $14,000 raised as a donation by housing cooperatives in Zurich, Switzerland; $12,000 from a solidarity donation from international social housing networks, and $2,148 that each member of the Victorias de Noviembre cooperative saved by making a great effort, considering that most of them work only during the coffee harvesting season. The scheme is funded as part of a government programme to build social housing at a steady pace, via local authorities and now with added support from the People’s Republic of China. (While this last may be controversial in the UK, in Latin America many countries are seeking Chinese investment in housing and other infrastructure projects.) As a result, the homes have been built at a cost which is accessible to poor rural families, as the cooperative members will pay just $240 per family each year for 10 years to buy their houses, with each family also able to decide when in the year it will make their payments (for example, they may choose to do so after being paid following their coffee harvesting work). In addition to the financial aspect, the value of the mutual aid involved in the scheme is of vital importance, not only the work by the beneficiaries but also the technical support provided by MULTIPRO (which also supports four other cooperatives on a similar basis). During the construction,

Victorias de Noviembre co-op members hard at work on their homes

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the La Dalia mayor’s office and the housing ministry also made various technical visits to the site, before granting building permits and again on completion. Another feature of this process was ‘mutual aid days’. These are working days when friends of the cooperative, whether other cooperatives or brigades of university students, visit the building site and help in the construction work. René Ruiz, president of the MULTIPRO cooperative, tells us: “A day of mutual aid was held in commemoration of International Women’s Day. The work consisted of shifting materials, filling in trenches and making foundations. Materials for the day’s work were provided by the La Dalia mayor’s office.” Another group prepared food for all those taking part.

June 2023 saw the inauguration of the first 10 houses, in a celebration organised by MULTIPRO and the cooperative, together with friends who have been part of the process. The mayor’s office and the Ministry of Family Economy also took part. In the future, the cooperative plans to continue working together towards its wider aims, not just providing homes for its members. For example, it also wants to buy its own farmland. Although Victorias de Noviembre is just a small cooperative, in Latin America there are many like it. They are showing ways of tackling the inequalities of a global housing market that, as in other parts of the world, usually favours people who are already well-housed.

The completed housing

Can community right to buy offer decent homes? Alex Diner, from the New Economics Foundation, says locally-based initiatives can boost affordable housing supply and improve dilapidated neighbourhoods. Despite years of rhetoric around levelling up, England remains riven by geographical and regional inequality. Angela Rayner criticised the government’s levelling up agenda as “false promises”. Decades of centralised decision-making and underinvestment in our former industrial heartlands have produced a country in which access to jobs, wellbeing and opportunities continue to be driven by which part of the country you happen to live in. When areas of the country are held back by failed government policy, residents can see their neighbourhoods decline. This often shows up in the built environment, in the form of empty and dilapidated streets. These attract antisocial behaviour, depress property values and damage local communities’ pride in their local area. Governments over recent decades have attempted to

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tackle this problem. The last Labour government invested billions to regenerate deprived communities and tackle empty homes. Between 2012 and 2015, the Coalition Government’s Empty Homes Programme provided grant funding to social landlords and community-led housing groups to breathe new life into empty homes. But since the Empty Homes Programme was scrapped in 2015, the number of homes lying unoccupied has increased by 22%. How the model works An ecosystem of community-led housing organisations – like Giroscope in Hull, Latch in Leeds, Community Campus in Stockton – buy and renovate poor-quality and empty homes to let below market rents. These groups can transform previously dilapidated homes, provide truly affordable housing, revitalise empty streets, and provide local job and apprenticeship opportunities. By definition, these groups are locally focused, and are composed of people genuinely grounded in their communities.

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This model is how many of what became the UK’s largest housing associations began their existence. But many of this newer wave of community-led housing organisations prefer the flexibility that comes from not being registered social landlords. This means, however, they don’t have access to Affordable Homes Programme grant funding. There’s now no central grant support available to them, and rising interest rates pose a threat to their funding model. When community-led housing associations want to buy new properties, they are often in competition with buy-tolet landlords, often cash buyers with large portfolios, and are therefore less exposed to soaring interest rates. While some private landlords are selling up as a result of a curtailment of the favourable conditions they have enjoyed for a number of decades, deprived areas still provide opportunities for buyto-let, often absentee, landlords to speculate. Low house prices in deprived areas mean they continue to produce relatively high rental yields for landlords. Crucially, these landlords continue to extract rent from local economies while failing to invest in the homes, people or communities. Community-led housing groups – as well as other social landlords and indeed owner-occupiers – therefore often struggle to compete with these equity-rich, portfolio landlords. The sector needs support if it’s to be sustained, let alone flourish and play an important role in regenerating communities. Public investment in community-led housing is also good value for money, creating £3 in value for every £1 in public money spent.

period when properties become available for sale. With the Levelling Up Bill currently making its way through the House of Lords, this is the perfect opportunity to add community right-to-buy as an amendment. Community right-to-buy has support from the community-led housing sector, but will not be necessary in areas where market demand and prices are already high. However, in areas where there’s little demand from residential home buyers, but a greater number of empty homes and continued speculation from buy-to-let landlords, a community right-to-buy would help catalyse locally-led regeneration. This must be backed up by the introduction of a national housing conversion fund, previously called for by the Affordable Housing Commission, with a significant chunk of money dedicated to supporting community-led groups. The government failed to spend £600m of the Affordable Homes Programme in 2022/23 because developers don’t want to build in current market conditions. Why not use that money to allow social landlords and community groups to buy homes, tackle rising homelessness and regenerate communities which have been held back? Read the full report https://neweconomics.org/2023/09/ the-community-right-to-buy This article was first published in Inside Housing https:// tinyurl.com/2p8hpnbb

First refusal If we want these organisations to have a competitive advantage over wealth-extracting buy-to-let landlords, the government should introduce a ‘community right-to– buy’. This would give social landlords and communityled housing organisations the right of first refusal for a set

Evidence newsletter editor: Dr Janis Bright www.hqnetwork.co.uk email: evidence@hqnetwork.co.uk  follow us on twitter @hqn_news

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Housing in Practice A sense of purpose: How a garden supports independent living In the latest in our Housing in Practice series, Neil Merrick reports on a housing association that worked with residents at a home for people with learning disabilities to create a sensory garden.

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The resident’s story

How were residents involved in creating the garden?

Prior to a few months ago, ‘John’ (name changed) rarely Barnsbury Park contains flats for nine residents. In August stepped outside his ground floor flat at Barnsbury Park in 2022, managers brought residents together with their north London. families and a landscape gardener to discuss ways to Not only did he prefer to walk around in bare feet (which upgrade the garden. is usually more comfortable indoors), but there was, in “We made the residents aware of what was available,” truth, little reason to leave the property. says Sheppard. “The experts came in and gave people a Barnsbury Park provides independent living choice of what they could put in the garden.” accommodation for men aged 30 to 60 with autism Residents agreed to keep the basketball area and get rid and other learning disabilities. Owned by the housing of the swing, but then had the opportunity to choose what association Peabody and opened in 2010, it had a basic else should go in the garden. Once they had selected the garden with a small area for playing basketball and a swing xylophone, herb garden and other features, the designer that was rarely used. produced a 3D plan to show how It was desperately in need of their garden might look. refurbishment. But since May, the “It feels like an oasis in Iain Shaw, Peabody’s director garden has been transformed, of specialist housing with care the city, I’m so impressed and now boasts a football goal, and support, says it was vital to with the design; they’ve xylophone, BBQ area, herb garden give residents the opportunity and other facilities. to design the garden and select really thought about the John can now walk there from its main features. “We took a complex needs of every his flat on soft flooring that has psychologically informed approach been extended from the property that involved residents and staff,” resident” into the new-look garden. Most he says. “It has given the residents a days, he can be found playing space that they feel they own.” the xylophone or chatting with flatmates. How has the garden been received? “He has gone from living a secluded life to having more interaction with staff and other residents,” says Jeremy The garden is not just popular with residents, but their Sheppard, operations manager at Learning Disability relatives. During the summer, families were welcomed to Network London, which manages the home for Peabody Barnsbury Park for BBQs, where they ate burgers and other and Islington Council. food spiced with herbs grown in the garden. Niroo, a parent of one resident, is impressed by the Why are sensory gardens important for people with number of flowers and trees, as well as the wildlife. “It feels learning disabilities? like an oasis in the city,” she says. “I’m so impressed with the design; they’ve really thought about the complex needs of For people with autism and other learning disabilities, every resident.” sensory gardens constitute far more than just an area to Another resident, who previously waited for staff to assist relax. him inside and outside the home, now walks around the A range of landscaping, including trees and hedges, combines with areas for sport, music and other interests to provide a space that stimulates people’s senses and helps them deal with and overcome emotional issues. According to the charity Thrive, sensory gardens aim to create a valuable distraction for people with a variety of sensory or therapeutic needs. They may help people to feel calmer, happier or just feel ‘more present in a moment’. People with learning disabilities are often sensitive to excessive noise. A sensory garden there becomes a psychologically informed environment – an extension of the indoor areas where they otherwise spend much of their daily lives. Creating spaces: The sensory garden HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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garden with limited support. “You can see the joy in his face,” adds Jeremy Sheppard. Why is the project successful? People with learning difficulties are not always given a choice over how their lives pan out. Not only is the garden at Barnsbury Park popular, but it demonstrates the value and importance of independent living. Not only do residents spend more time outside, but they interact more, appreciating one another’s conversation, sharing interests such as sport, music or gardening, and watching one another learn new skills. People with learning disabilities often have an aversion to uneven surfaces. Except for a few steps, most of the garden is even, offering reassurance to residents. Staff are also delighted with how the project turned out. “The garden provides staff with another space to support residents and help them with their physical wellbeing,” says Sheppard. “It’s something that staff are extremely proud of.” What does the scheme at Barnsbury Park demonstrate?

residents. But the world has moved on. “With a focus on co-designing spaces with residents, as part of a psychologically informed approach, Peabody has created a safe and engaging space that enables residents to build their confidence and independence,” he adds. Peabody will not reveal how much it spent on the sensory garden at Barnsbury Park for commercial reasons, but describes it as a long-term investment that will serve residents for 20 years. It is also extending the inclusive approach taken at Barnsbury Park to other homes and properties for people with care and support needs, including three refuges. Here and elsewhere, residents work with staff to co-design communal lounges, gardens and other facilities. “It’s about taking a psychologically informed approach and working with residents and staff to design spaces that work for them,” says Iain Shaw. “That way, you’re not just encouraging independence, but jointly creating spaces that people own and that feel like home, which can make a huge difference to people’s lives.”

All photos by Paul Upward Photography

About 6,500 Peabody residents live in homes where they receive care and support. While the properties are maintained by the housing association, support services are paid for by local authorities. Previously, says Iain Shaw, the design of the outdoor space at Barnsbury Park was deemed to meet the requirements of

“You’re not just encouraging independence, but jointly creating spaces that people own and that feel like home, which can make a huge difference to people’s lives”

Getting outside: A place to relax

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What older private renters need from the government By Morgan Vine, Head of Policy and Influencing, Independent Age

Rajia is 70. She’s forced to do all her cooking in the front room because the kitchen – with a leaking roof, holes in the floor, rats running at night and walls full of mould – is unusable. Her landlord refuses to make repairs. But finding somewhere else that she and her husband can afford has proven impossible. Rajia tells us that all she wants is “to live somewhere clean and die in peace”. Rajia’s story is a stark example of the hidden struggles many older private renters face, some of whom are living in dangerous situations and unsuitable homes, or are forced to skip meals to afford their rent. This month at Independent Age we released our new report ‘Hidden Renters: the unseen faces of the rising older rental wave’, an in-depth look at the experience of the increasing number of private renters aged 65 and above in England, over one third of whom are in poverty. We’re calling on the UK government to take urgent action to protect them from the spiralling cost of rent, the fear of a no-fault eviction and discrimination against older people on low income in receipt of benefits. Cost of renting Older private renters on a low income across England told us about the cuts they’ve had to make to their budget to afford their rent. 45% of all older private renters said they have experienced a rent rise in the past 12 months, and almost three in five said that this increase was between £50 and £200. But many older private renters living on a low income don’t have any spare money to cover these increases; almost one in six (15%) have less than £100 of disposable income to spend each month, leaving little to cover food and bills. The rate of Housing Benefit that supports people to pay their rent to private landlords has been frozen since 2020, despite a 10% rise in rents nationwide in the last year alone. This is significantly adding to the distress many older renters are feeling, with almost half of all older private renters in England relying on Housing Benefit. Independent Age is calling on the government to ensure Housing Benefit covers at least the cost of the cheapest 30% of rented homes in the area and commit to increase it annually in line with changes in the local private market.

Security of tenure Older private renters also shared with us their intense anxiety at the thought of being evicted with just two months to find alternative accommodation, which is currently legal even if they’ve done nothing wrong. In polling we commissioned from YouGov, almost one in four older private renters (23%) were evicted from their last home, so these fears are not unfounded. 70% of older private renters said it would be difficult to find a new property if they had to move house, and over one in five felt uncomfortable raising concerns with their landlord if the property needed repair, often due to the fear of being subject to a ‘revenge eviction’ in retaliation. Looking for a home is a challenge for renters of all ages, but those aged 65 and over living on a low income can have particular difficulty with the physical demands of packing their possessions and attending house viewings, or may have additional requirements for a home such as needing a ground floor flat due to reduced mobility. All of this can limit their options when looking for somewhere new. Discrimination Many older renters also told us that they faced ageism or discrimination from letting agents or landlords because they received benefits. Current loopholes in the law mean landlords and estate agents can refuse to rent to people who receive Pension Credit and/or Housing Benefit. When looking at all of this together, you start to get a picture of how desperate searching for a new home can be. Renters urgently need greater protections. It felt like there was some light at the end of this very dark tunnel in the form of the Renters (Reform) Bill. The bill proposes an end to the Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’, and if amended could outlaw blanket bans on benefit recipients by landlords and lengthen the amount of notice someone has if they need to move out of their rented home for a legitimate reason. We also want the bill to ensure that private rented homes meet the Decent Homes Standard, as social housing already must. However, this bill has now been delayed for many months, keeping renters of all ages in insecurity and uncertainty. It’s vital that the UK government moves the bill forward as soon as possible. The challenges of our private rented sector affect people of all ages; those in power must not look away. Everyone deserves somewhere affordable and safe where they can stay long term. Surely as a country we can do better to ensure people like Rajia can enjoy their later life in a place they’re proud to call home? HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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Why I’m still shamed by the lack of board diversity in social housing By Lara Oyedele, former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing and CEO of Black on Board

It’s not easy challenging the status quo. There’s a well-known quote that insists power is never voluntarily relinquished. Or words to that effect. History is awash with revolutions, skirmishes, campaigns, demonstrations, slogans, songs and even artwork, designed to have one group of people give up their power so another can participate in decisionmaking. My presidential campaign focused on highlighting the stubbornly persistent lack of ethnic and racial representation in the boardrooms of housing organisations. I was fortunate to have spoken at over 200 events during the year. However, I felt that I was more often than not spending time with people and organisations who were already sensitive to this inequity in boardrooms and leadership teams. The people who I really needed to convince didn’t invite me to speak or simply ignored me. Which is a real shame. The reports, commissions and reviews analysing the financial, organisational and reputational loss that stems from homogenous boardrooms are almost too numerous to mention (McPherson, McGregor Smith, Hills, and so on). I would contend that, if asked, everyone will say that they agree it’s the right thing to do. But for reasons I’ll cover another time, it’s not the top of most boards’ agendas. So, it occurred to me that the scientific, statistical, evidence-based argument isn’t enough to garner sectorwide action. The data has been available for years. Hence the focus on my campaign being about experience based

“I was fortunate to have spoken at over 200 events during the year. However…the people who I really needed to convince didn’t invite me to speak or simply ignored me”

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on a real-life case study – me! I thought I’d appeal to people’s emotions and beliefs: bring them along with me to see the sector through my eyes and my lived experience. The lack of access to the boardroom and leadership positions isn’t just about profit margins, KPIs or regulatory gradings. It’s about individuals who don’t feel they have been treated equally. It’s about experience and expertise leaving the sector. It’s about young people thinking twice before they apply for a job with a housing association because the board doesn’t reflect their vision of the world. It’s about the media asking why black and brown tenants predominate in research about poor housing conditions. It’s about whether social housing has lost its soul and is more about keeping lenders happy and less about positive social change. It’s about whether staff members feel their leadership team cares about them. It’s about whether we’re a sector to be proud of. I’m very conscious of the fact that despite my best and most passionate efforts, boardroom demographics won’t have changed significantly during the 12 months of my presidency. Therefore, I propose to continue to hold the sector to account on this matter by: 1. Setting up the Steve Douglas Award. This will be coowned by key housing sector organisations and will be presented annually to the board or local authority that has done the most to improve boardroom diversity 2. Presenting a petition to the government requesting that boardroom and diversity in leadership teams becomes a regulatory requirement. If boardroom diversity is a necessity for FTSE100 companies, then why not social housing? 3. Undertaking and circulating the board diversity research, ‘Breaking the Mould’, every two years. The current research shows that just 9% of board members across England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales are from an ethnic minority background. I’d love to think that by 2025 boardrooms will have become more representative of both the communities they serve and their workforce. I hope I’m starting a ‘thing’ – a movement or maybe even a revolution. I’m just asking that the housing sector does the right thing. The top 10 tech companies all have boards that are very diverse, both in terms of gender and ethnicity. In contrast, there remains a number of boardrooms in social housing that are 100% white and predominantly male. We should be thoroughly ashamed.

SPOTLIGHT

A life in 15 questions Victoria Slade Chief Executive, Guernsey Housing Association

1. What do you do for fun? When I’m not busy overthinking things, like the definition of fun, then it’s all about being in a quiet space, absorbed in a good book, or being outdoors, admiring nature. The coast here has a massive tidal range, so beachcombing is great. Last week I found three fishing boats and a dead crab. 2. You have the power to change one thing about the social housing sector: what would it be? I would like to see us consistently supporting our values even if it’s not politically popular. Especially, even. Politicians come and go. Some not as quickly as perhaps we would like. But our values shouldn’t waver, and I worry as a sector they’ve become diluted. 3. What advice would you give to someone starting out in housing? That the beauty of housing is that it’s a people business. People are wildly diverse, don’t fit into neat processes, and do things that surprise you. There will be days when that confounds you, or delights you, maybe even on the same day. No two days are the same. Enjoy the ride. 4. If you had to work in housing in another country, which would it be, and why? I’ve only just started in this one! 5. Who’s your favourite author and why? How can you only have one? I suppose if it’s an author that’s never let me down it would have to be Will Self. But then there’s Joseph Heller. And Martin Amis. All clever with words and thoughts, slightly unhinged, darkly

residential courses in Sussex. I realise now L Ron Hubbard was not a sci-fi author.

hilarious. How could you not love characters like Major Major Major Major whose office is only open when he’s not in? 6. What are your three favourite albums? For some reason I really like listening to the eponymous Rage Against the Machine while I’m cooking. It made me laugh when Trump fans were playing Killing in the Name at one of their rallies. I haven’t answered the question, and I’m not going to. (Fans will get it) 7. Sat snugly at home or travelling around the world? I feel travelling really does help you grow as a person. I’ve visited some amazing places in my life – Madagascar, India, Ponty – but I’m worried about my carbon footprint. So sat snugly at home listening to my second and third favourite albums is just fine. 8. A world without music or a world without literature? No. Just no. This is preposterous. I’m not doing it. 9. Strangest thing you’ve ever experienced? So many things it’s hard to pick. But there was the time I nearly joined a cult by accident at a book fayre in Camden. Long story short, I’m still getting invitations, 31 years later, for

10. Favourite food? I go through a series of miniobsessions. Ex-colleagues will remember the Toblerone years. Current obsession is lemon meringue cheesecake at a lovely café called The Kiln. If you’re ever in Guernsey, look it up. 11. Pessimistic, optimistic or unsure about the future? It’s hard to be optimistic with the endless coverage of the damage we do as a species to each other and the planet – but you have to hope, and have some faith, that there are more people trying to do good in the world than you might believe. 12. You can resurrect anyone from history and talk to them for an hour: who, and why? Richard Nixon. Good stuff, bad stuff and why he chose cottage cheese as a treat before he resigned. A complex individual. An hour is probably not enough. 13. Favourite film? Got loads, can’t pick just one. Hot Fuzz, Life of Brian and Withnail and I make me laugh. Watership Down is sad and beautiful and has made me cry since 1978. 14. If you didn’t work in housing, what would you do? I’d work in a library. Or run a bookshop if I could. Not quite Black Books but possibly red wine would feature. 15. What makes for a good life? Trying to make it count in some way.

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SPOTLIGHT

In the frame  Taste of the Caribbean Housing 21 Resident Rose cooked a Caribbean curry for her neighbours at Claremont House, to celebrate Black History Month. Supported by Local Housing Manager Asha, Asda in Derby donated the ingredients.

 Speak to me ForHousing Having fled the Democratic Republic of Congo as a young person, Frenchspeaking Bibicha learnt English and became a qualified social worker. After she was forced out of work due to illness and faced losing her home, ForHousing stepped in with a support plan – culminating in Bibicha becoming a Neighbourhood Advisor that sees her serving as the primary contact for those seeking homes with the landlord.

 Playtime Stonewater The social landlord unveiled a play area and public art installation at a development of 36 affordable homes in Northampton.

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SPOTLIGHT

 Mayor’s mission West Yorkshire Combined Authority It’s hoped a £3.2 million fund will speed up delivery of up to 2,405 new, sustainable and high-quality homes, as part of Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin’s mission to turbocharge regeneration.

 Happy Hackney Peabody Residents from the social landlord’s mental health services gathered at Pembury Community Centre in Hackney for a day of relaxation and fun.

 Let’s do lunch CDS On 10 October CDS held a Black History Month celebration that featured talks, quizzes, and a catered lunch of African and Caribbean food.

Got a feature for in the frame? Please email your pictures to hqm@hqnetwork.co.uk

HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

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SPOTLIGHT

Secret diary of an ex-housing CEO After apparently being mangled by an angry badger and then dispersed by the breezes, the shredded pages of an unknown former housing association CEO’s personal diary found their way to the HQM offices. Now read on…

the sector and look me a fantastic chance to step back from n give has or sect the of out g Bein Sept 10: And the things fresh eyes at the sector from outside it. with ide, outs the from or, sect the at back I don’t know pensions are too generous. It’s so obvious. I’ve seen! CEOs get paid too much and the why I didn’t see it before! ival in Clacton. A perfect t speaker at the Big Social Housing Fest gh diversity, Sept 15: Have been invited as a gues ledge of the sector’s key issues: not enou opportunity to unveil my new outsider know sorry, tenants – and way too much pay not listening to abode-user entities – ld the great epiphany social housing so for executives. I feel my speech will hera desperately needs. h lives in the ton Conference Centre this morning, whic Sept 22: Outrageous! I arrived at Clac and was told that, far from being expected town’s former roller-skate repair building, lems, they wanted me to talk about to expound on the sector’s structural prob tever it’s g to sign up for universally credited, or wha what it’s like being unemployed and tryin titioner with a highly experienced housing expert prac called! I was incandescent with rage. I’m ust clear, disg and n sitio oppo However, after I made my years of expert practitioner experience. promise com a as l Pane rrow’s Big Debate Discussion it was agreed that I could speak on tomo ld be provided). (plus, turned out lunch and a free bar wou torium, my surely ned the industry’s woes to the packed audi outli ly ulate artic I h! muc too is This 23: Sept e sector, and what did I get for it? Spite! Spit invaluable lived-in experience of living in the only rsity dive with lem al housing has a prob driven no doubt by envy. I declared that soci my association had the worst record for CEO for the chair to demur that while I was in former PA Barry’s mother’s brother lives ethnic representation! Simply not true. My iled deta I n ttish! I could go on. And then, whe Canada! My finance director’s dad was Sco my leaving so-called journalist on the panel claimed that my concerns about executive pay, a snide of which is in ssive”! You try running three properties, one salary of £850,000 was “perhaps exce ce. If it wasn’t tered, which stunned him into a stony silen St Tropez, on that amount I expertly coun . Someone how I would actually survive, I reminded them for my £110,000 p.a. pension, I don’t know e. plac his in t’ nalis ‘jour idiot” which I felt put the in the audience shouted out “stupid, clueless ival Conference expert speech from the Big Housing Fest Sept 25: I’ve gone virulent! A clip of my and millions are now learning the truth! And found its way onto the computer internet, call from a prestigious TV station (Channel already the world is reaching out. Had a ming show, which sounds like EXACTLY the 62) – they want me to appear on an upco t to bring the real truth to the masses. It’s sort of vehicle I need to continue my ques Well, quite! called How Do they Get Away With It? three-week run. But nil into administration. To be fair, they had a good Oct 1: Sadly, Channel 62 has gone board! Funny, prestigious aqua-supplier Thames Water’s desperandum! I’ve been offered a seat on what they ly say I should be water-boarded. Now I know former colleagues always used to cryptical meant.

HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

SPOTLIGHT

Congratulations to Black Country Housing Group for achieving HQN DLO/Contractor accreditation in July 2023 Kevin Bentley was extremely pleased to visit Black Country Housing Group a few weeks ago to present their repairs and maintenance team, Homeforce, with the HQN: Accredit DLO/Contractor trophy. Following a rigorous assessment of the full repairs and maintenance service, including in-depth discussions with tenants and customers, frontline staff and other key members of the repairs and maintenance team, the accreditation panel unanimously agreed to award BCHG with the accreditation.

“I was particularly impressed with the good value for money the organisation is providing to its tenants, and the extensive investment in IT undertaken as part of a decision to in-source the service.” Kevin Bentley, Lead Assessor The panel highlighted that, following a rigorous business planning exercise, much of the work to in-source the service was undertaken and delivered during the pandemic, while maintaining a high-quality service for customers through this difficult period. Exemplary voids management, cost control, quality control and productivity monitoring systems were also identified as being particularly impressive, when compared with similar organisations visited by HQN.

“Providing a service that delivers great value for money to our customers is vital to Black Country Housing Group, and we are delighted that our Homeforce team have achieved the high standards expected for this prestigious accreditation. I would like to thank all of our colleagues and customers who have contributed towards achieving the HQN Accredit: DLO accreditation.” Phill Heales, Head of Assets and Investment

ACCR

DLO / C EDIT: ONTRA CTOR

From left to right: Darren Dunphy (Homeforce Operations Manager), Phill Heales (Head of Assets and Investment) and Simon Rathband (Commercial Manager)

HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

To find out how to get an HQN accreditation visit www.hqnetwork.co.uk/accreditation or email natasha.thompson@hqnetwork.co.uk

SPOTLIGHT

The last word A crisis of supply

By Hannah Fearn, freelance journalist specialising in social affairs

“In a crisis as deep as ours, finding ways to encourage private development will not be enough to create the capacity we need”

The housing crisis we’re in is a complicated beast that isn’t only one of supply. But it is a crisis of supply, to which there’s only one solution: build more houses, more quickly. Given the rate of progress in recent years, that’s not a difficult goal to achieve. The Conservatives once promised that they would build 300,000 new homes every year, but between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 there were 36,4478 new homes started on site and just 32,990 completions. Prime minister Rishi Suank has now admitted that his original target is an “ambition” rather than a deliverable plan. Labour promises to do better – it says it can meet 300,000 new properties a year, aiming for 70% homeownership and a new generation of social housing to restore social rent to the second largest tenure. There are reasons to be sceptical about both parties’ ability to actually deliver on their promises. Both parties also consistently over-estimate the role that the private sector will be willing to play in meeting national needs. Their position was bolstered by a Swedish academic study published this summer. Researchers at Uppsala University looked at what impact the construction of new homes had on the population, accounting in particular for the movement of people in different income bands. The data analysed showed that while most new homes built are occupied by households with above-average incomes, the properties that those families freed up by moving into a new build were most moved into by households with an income below the average. Ergo private sector development benefits all income groups. This analysis is a warm bath for public-minded policymakers. Meanwhile, private developers are deep in the icy plunge pool. They’re facing falling house prices, rising material costs, difficulties securing experienced labour post-Brexit and rising costs to pay for those in-demand skills – and on top of that a planning and development policy system that generally operates to frustrate building rather than smooth the way. It doesn’t make much economic sense for developers to be speculating on new sites right now. In a crisis as deep as ours, finding ways to encourage private development won’t be enough to create the capacity we need. The Swedish model can only tell us so much; it can’t be fully replicated back home. Here in the UK, below average incomes still don’t meet house prices and mortgages are harder than ever to obtain. In this environment, those positive chains may be impossible to build in the property market. The result is that housing associations are going to play a critical, even the primary, role in meeting any development targets. After years of finding their budgets shrinking and government support ebbing away, the reverse is likely to be true. Government will be leaning on you. And in return you can make significant demands of the incoming government. That must include full investment in social housing and a rethink of ‘affordable’ housing models which offer little respite from the broken private rented sector. Serious financial help to address repairs and maintenance issues ought to be forthcoming too. It will be a sensitive negotiation, but handled well it could also provide a neat solution to the sector’s reputation crisis.

HOUSING QUALITY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023

EVENTS

Save the date for HQN’s annual conferences 2024 Please find our 2024 annual conference dates below. To book, please visit our website at www.hqnetwork.co.uk or contact events@hqnetwork.co.uk Housing Management Network Tuesday 27 February 2024

Estate Services Hub

Wednesday 24 April 2024

Complaints Hub

Thursday 9 May 2024

Health and Safety Network Tuesday 14 May 2024

Leasehold Network Tuesday 18 June 2024

Housing Quality Network Tuesday 16 July 2024 Thursday 18 July 2024

Rent Compliance Hub

Tuesday 24 September 2024

Asset Management Network Thursday 10 October 2024

Rent Income Excellence Network Wednesday 13 November 2024

Residents’ Network

Thursday 12 December 2024 To see the full list of upcoming events and to book your place visit hqnetwork.co.uk/hqnevents