One of the great privileges of running a large company is that you meet people who are dying to show you something they have designed or invented to make your business better. The most memorable of these was being shown a robotic window cleaner. Although the founders could authoritatively tell us how much build-to-rent providers,…
Social Landlords – Who knows more about your homes? Last week I asked my LinkedIn followers to give their view, and about 3/4 said the tenants, 15% said the front line or call centre staff with just 8% thinking the maintenance contractors knew the most. No one felt the Board or senior team knew what…
Back in 1981, I was allocated a council flat in Wandsworth. At the time there was an oversupply of social homes in the capital, unwanted and empty. Homes that were impossible to let through the normal channels for one reason or another were advertised periodically. Our’s was on the 14th floor. With a couple of…
Apps – aren’t you sick of them already? Last week on the way to the gym I connected my Sony headphones and was forced to download their app. I guessed I could connect via bluetooth, which I subsequently did, and deleted the little parasite from my phone. I value and use daily: emails, WhatsApp, Google…
Within the next two years, everyone working in social housing will need housing qualifications. Years ago, job seekers had to be qualified to get a Local Authority housing job, but we abolished it. I, and many others, felt being “chartered” appeared to be exclusive, and having a good general education plus life skills was more…
The Regulator of Social Housing is now demanding much greater transparency from social landlords. Here is what they say (from the Requirement of Consumer Standards, the Safety and Quality Standard): Registered providers must This seems to require that social landlords must understand, in detail, their stock holdings, which must be shared, on demand, with the…
For Housing Associations everything starts with strategy and culture. First we need to know what our “primary task” is. That should be something like ” To provide good quality affordable homes for people who cannot afford to buy or rent privately”. The point of this exercise is to rule out mission creep or taking on…
In my White Paper, I laid out how we arrived at the situation where many of the homes we own and let out are in poor condition. I concluded that this is broadly the result of government housebuilding targets. Associations put their profits into building new social homes rather than investing in their existing portfolios….
I read an interesting article last week by Paul White of Bernica Living, focusing on the “retirement” housing sector, or what used to be called “sheltered housing”. Bernica was experiencing lots of voids due the stigmatised sheltered housing concept, and their outdated social offer (Bingo and knitting). So, they changed the language, they marketed better,…
In my life I dislike waste. I get cross about packaging; I scrape the yogurt from the pot and the avo from its skin; I love mending things and force myself to make the most of my day, every day. Politically too – the waste of lives, of human potential and of natural resources motivates…