The truth about waste (in housing associations)

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 my stance. So it’s no surprise that I am alert to, and bothered about, waste in housing associations.

Nevertheless, I cannot stand the glibness of the know-it-alls who just want to sack managers, or replace people with technology, or privatise the lot. As my old colleague Rajiv Peter said last week “If there was a silver bullet we would have done it by now, notwithstanding the implication that we are not very bright”.

The case for examining waste – in processes, in systems, in spending – is obvious. Throwing away things that we are short of is just wrong. And wasting people’s time and skills is criminal. All economy is ultimately the economy of time (according to Marx). As humans, with a sell-by date, this is important. I don’t want residents to have to wait for improvements because we have wasted millions on badly planned repairs. And I don’t want staff doing tedious and repetitive jobs that should be automated.

The issue of waste is not new, and indeed “efficiency” has fascinated capitalists and commentators since the industrial revolution with Taylorism, mass production (Ford etc), to Lean, TQM and digital and automation today. And waste is not specific to housing associations or the state sector in general. But today there is added urgency.

The reason why I am a waste warrior right now is because the sector is short of resources and there does not seem to be much hope of a windfall or lottery win any time soon. While I am as happy to beg for financial support from the government as anyone, I would not bank on it. So here I am, thinking how do we do more with less? How do we use what we already have more productively? How do we get better outcomes for residents without bankrupting ourselves?

Unfortunately many of the answers proffered by “solution vendors” are too simplistic or de minimus.

Instead we need to go back to first principles and decide on our primary task. Is it to “care for the vulnerable” as the Ombudsman suggests?. Is it to maintain our independence at all costs? Is it to provide jobs or board opportunities for people who want to move into paid NED roles? No – our primary task is to provide good quality affordable homes for people who cannot afford to buy or rent privately. Or something like that.

Once we clarify why we exist it does get easier. But of course, it is not easy. Housing associations are creatures of Government and we have to do what the Government says (through the regulators and Ombudsman).  Let’s support the call for a Royal Commission on Housing so we can sort this out, deciding why we exist – and anything else we choose to do beyond the core task is voluntary and unregulated. Simplification and elimination would be a huge step forward in the war on waste.

If you are keen to see what a modern housing association could look like please download my White Paper https://www.goldenmarzipan.co.uk/insights/white-paper-kate-davies/