Up My Street - Working Together in Partnership Guest Comment by Rodney Dykes.
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In this piece, Rodney Dykes of Bee Housing Limited - former Managing Director of RDHS Limited and Deputy Chief Executive of the then North British Housing Association and Merseyside Improved Houses (now Places for People and Riverside Housing Group respectively) - reminds readers of the historic role played by local authorities in sponsoring housing association development prior to the creation of the Housing Corporation in 1964. Then he goes on to examine and endorse their role now with the advent of the Homes and Communities Agency and Tenants Services Authority.
Prior to the establishment of the Housing Corporation in 1964, the financial support to housing associations was dependent on their relationship with local authorities. By contrast to the controlled annual capital programmes of today, the financing regime of those days was very relaxed, indeed non-existent.
Those board members and senior executives holding high office in housing associations today have many pressures on them. So much so that the due process of change that is about to happen may well mean that both the lessons of history and the Government intentions on the role of the local authority are not fully understood. The Local Government Association asserts that their membership’s role in relation to housing is undergoing significant change. In their own words “local authorities must develop a vision for their communities and this involves delivery of homes and places where people choose to live and work”.
It is not just about new provision, important though that is, but increasingly in today’s difficult economic environment the partnership management of what has gone before, enhancing social, environmental and economic wellbeing. The need is demonstrated with waiting lists for rented housing from local authorities and housing associations predicted to rise, at over 90,000 applications each year, to over 5 million by 2010. With increasing re-possessions of homeowners, the pressure on local authorities is clear.
However, all that is against a background of what local authorities do now compared to that previously done. Local authority ownership of rented housing has declined dramatically from 3382m homes in 1961 to 2086m in 2006.
That contrasts with the growth in the strategic and wider operational areas. Local authority spending on housing and related activities remains big money. In 2008-2009 this was £15,987m, second only to education (£41,000m) and social care (£20,000m). Translated into strategic objectives the areas are wide ranging and include community cohesion, green issues, homelessness, decent homes standards, health and safety ratings, supporting people, and housing market issues, all of which taken together (and the list is not exhaustive) feed into a strategic role.
The government, through its emphasis on Local Area Agreements, expect local authorities to give a very positive lead and an increasing reliance on a partnership approach with all the various agencies involved in service delivery, not least of which is the supply of housing. Housing Associations, whether the traditional or those recently formed through the stock transfer process, have to be seen to be playing an important if not pivotal role in these areas of social infrastructure.
The cessation of the Housing Corporation after 44 years and its transformation into two agencies the Tenants Services Authority and the Homes and Communities Agency was at sometime inevitable. The separation of the funding and regulatory regimes was one of the drivers, but at the same time the work of the Homes and Communities Agency can now be seen as set out in ‘Transforming places – changing lives’ combining a range of existing agencies as well as the Housing Corporation.
Less than twelve months ago, at the Northern Regeneration Summit held in Manchester, Iain Wright MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State said of the new Homes and Communities Agency that ‘it will ensure that housing developments always go hand in handwith investment in facilities and infrastructure – the shops and schools businesses and public services which make a community tick’.
Amongst the key objectives for the Homes and Communities Agency is to support the delivery of the government’s aspiration for 180,000 new homes by 2011. This was described by the Minister of Housing and Planning as the agency having ‘a core strength to have a single conversation with local authorities .... to deliver’.
Unsurprising therefore that in its Chief Executive Sir Bob Kerslake we have someone with local government in his blood. With a £5 billion investment budget in its first year, the indications are clear.
For some time now, the world of housing associations has been driven, monitored by and largely been accountable to the Housing Corporation and the Audit Commission. There has been some recognition of stakeholder involvement, mostly to residents. Some housing associations have grasped this as an opportunity to work more closely with their customer base.
Local authority partnering has been on the agenda, but not necessarily up there at the top. Local authorities have been encouraged to transfer their stock to a not for profit model, and to concentrateon their strategic role and partnering.
2009 sees a new chapter in the work of housing associations, in a difficult economic climate, with more expected of them. There are those in local authorities who desire a closer working relationship; some will demand it as they jealously inspect the association’s profitability and balance sheets. A partnership of the local authority with its democratic base, and housing associations who have a can do, will do attitude under the new framework may well mean that the good work of yesterday when local authorities provided themselves as well as guidelines for others leads to a new, and frankly, healthier relationship.
There is a very positive role for Chairs and Board Members of housing associations. There is now much evidence in our various social, environmental and third sector bodies that those charged with accountability should play a greater role in partnering with local authorities.
The Primary Care Trusts and Acute Hospital Trusts, charitable providers of services to the health economy as in hospices, have led the way, with joint appointments and well publicised partnership agreements. Housing Associations should now prioritise engagement with the wide range of local authority initiatives including local strategic partnerships, overview and scrutiny committees and the day-to-day work of elected councillors.
Now is the time to press the refresh button on these local authority links and partnerships. Without a close understanding of the strategic approach the money chests and the benefits these bring to our communities will be locked.
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