A man for all reasons

Norman Perry has a pretty good idea why he got the job of Housing Corporation chief executive. First there's his experience of change management - vital when the corporation is going through its biggest shake-up for quarter of a century.

Then there's his contact book. He's well known in local government circles, thanks to his time as chief executive at Wolverhampton and Solihull councils. And he also has good links with senior figures at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Not to mention public sector heavyweights like Andrew Foster, Chris Woodhead and Wendy Thompson.

He's also got a strong track record in regeneration. He is, he claims, probably the only person still working who had a hand in the 1977 inner cities White Paper.

What Perry doesn't mention - but which surely must have played its part with the selection panel - is that he's very different from his predecessor Anthony Mayer.

It was said when he departed earlier this year that the charismatic and often controversial Mayer would be a hard act to follow. Perry though is his own man. He's never met his predecessor, he says, but he feels he will be bringing quite a different style to the corporation.

"I'm not a great socialiser," he says. "I'm perhaps more managerial. That means I will be taking an interest in management issues within RSLs."

He describes his style as pretty informal and believes in what he calls a "tight-loose" pattern of management, with front-line staff given the opportunity to get on with their job - but held accountable for it.

He's also happy to take a back seat to a strong board with a high-profile chair.

"Having come from a local authority background I'm used to being member driven," he says. "I'm very clear that I run the organisation and the board sets the policies."

His first priority in running the corporation will be to oversee the "culture change" which has just been set in train. Deputy chief executive Simon Dow has been charged with steering through the changes in the regions, creating what Perry calls a new field structure. Perry will concentrate on restructuring the team at headquarters.

"Clearly what the corporation's got to be is a highly effective modern regulator of what's becoming a very complex sector," he says.

That may mean a bit of pain along the way. But Perry is not daunted by the task. His CV, after all, includes a period presiding over restructuring at Wolverhampton which saw 2,000 jobs shed.

"Managing change is something you have to do. I don't get a sadistic pleasure out of it," he says.

What's important, he believes, is to persuade people that just as those in the private sector have to respond to changing customer expectations, so too must the public sector adapt.

"The fact that this is the biggest change [at the corporation] for 25 years says to me why has it taken 25 years? Maybe in the future there will be big changes every two years - not for the sake of it but in response to the demands of government," he says.

The first few weeks then are to be spent getting to know the corporation. After that, Perry will be getting to know housing associations. He admits that will be a bit of a learning curve for someone who has spent the past 11 years in local government. Housing associations may be well known to housing directors, but Perry says they are "relatively invisible" to those in economic development and strategic planning - and to chief executives.

"In Solihull I only discovered by accident how many RSLs were operating in the area - and it was almost too late as I was leaving by then," he says.

Part of the fault for the lack of contact between the sectors lies with local authorities, who have sometimes been slow to recognise the contribution associations are making to regeneration in their areas. But he adds: "RSLs may have been too modest. They thought they could only speak to the housing director."

Those housing association chief executives he has had a chance to meet have impressed him with their eagerness to work with the corporation, he says. But what of the criticism the agency has come in for, from associations, particularly over the quality of its regulation? Some of it may be fair comment, Perry concedes.

"But it's not as if the corporation hasn't been quick to recognise it," he adds. "The reason that this (restructuring) is happening is because there's been a recognition of the pace of change in RSLs."

Some of the criticism is not so fair, Perry suggests. "I know it's fashionable to call it bureaucratic but some people don't know what a bureaucratic organisation is really like," he says.

He sees the corporation's regulatory and investment functions as equally important, but admits the focus is likely to be on the regulatory side, given the changing environment for housing providers.

And there are likely to be plenty more associations to regulate, thanks to the government's continued encouragement of stock transfer. In his last job at Solihull, Perry was involved in the council's initial investigations into the future of its housing stock. Unlike many other authorities, Solihull hasn't had a major problem with the upkeep of its homes, so according to Perry there has never been a "driving need" for transfer. Now he's at the corporation, he's likely to see many more of his former local authority colleagues go down the transfer route.

The growth in the sector is "potentially destabilising", Perry says. But it also makes for a challenging few years ahead. "What is interesting for the future is maybe in five years time when the 20 biggest RSLs are all stock transfer organisations."

So what will be the challenges for this new-look housing association sector? Perry reckons one of the biggest will be how to reconcile the conflicting pressures of low demand in some areas and an acute shortage of affordable housing in others.

The corporation will have to be "nippier on its feet" to cope, he reckons.

"We've got to be much smarter with our investment strategy," he says. "In future as we become more formally associated with regeneration work we need to get a bit more selective about how we invest in support of regeneration projects. But it's a dilemma. If you refuse to fund work on a poor quality estate, what will people say? Will they say you have left that estate to die?"

Another challenge of course centres on Best Value. The focus for associations, says Perry, will be firmly on tenants" experiences, rather than on the systems and structures which are already subject to regulation. And he intends the Best Value process to be a happy one for associations.

"I'm very concerned that it should be non-threatening," he insists. "It will definitely not be naming and shaming, but a contribution to the continuous improvement of RSLs."

Here, as with work on regeneration and community planning, he intends to work in collaboration with the local government sector.

"If we can get diagnostic tools and methodology in common [with the housing inspectorate] then so much the better. I don't want us to have completely different approaches just because we haven't talked."

One of Perry's own priorities is to work closely with black-led housing associations. He is particularly keen on the idea of secondments and fast-tracking to help black staff advance their housing careers, and is planning to look at the corporation's own record on the issue.

"I do think it's something where the Housing Corporation is particularly capable of acting as a spearhead for the whole public sector," he says. "There is some understandable scepticism in the BME sector, but I think they recognise we want to go in the same direction."

In his first week in his new job, Perry is clearly optimistic about the future of the sector. He doesn't accept social housing is stigmatised - "I think it's the badly designed, rotten places to live that have got stigmatised, rather than the housing types."

And he thinks those in social housing have plenty to smile about.

"I'm proud to have spent my life in areas of social policy. The purpose of RSLs to help people. That can get lost when you are doing big deals and talking about securitisation. But that should cheer us all up."