Talk of mergers and efficiency may be dominating the housing association agenda, but is there any real evidence to suggest that one drives the other? Even if it does, will that be enough of a carrot to persuade more associations – who fiercely value their independence – up the aisle? Logic and business models across retailing and industry suggest that in theory greater rationalisation in housing would bring economies of scale, but the whole debate is muddied by a dearth of meaningful and rigorous data and a mass of contradictory evidence and policies.

The government wants to see fewer associations, for example, but because of the failure of large-scale transfer has had to promote a more piecemeal approach, creating a plethora of small organisations.

And while the Housing Corporation is thinking big in its approach to development by partnering with just 71 associations, it has also acknowledged that some of its most competitive bids in the last approved development programme round were from those bidding via the traditional route.

Consumer choice is not a factor – apart from the fact that many tenants don't have a choice – because being a tenant of a bigger landlord doesn't lower the rent or necessarily provide a better service.

And against this backdrop, associations have shunned collaboration under the mistaken view that doing anything together could undermine their ability to compete for grant.

There is an obvious gap in enforcement: the corporation has no carrots or sticks to offer associations that don’t develop

It is perfectly fair that if associations want more of the government's cash they should have to demonstrate value for money – and if that is not through mergers, it should be by making efficiencies elsewhere. But there is an obvious gap in enforcement: the corporation has no carrots or sticks to offer those associations that do not develop.

The driver here is more likely to be the need to meet rising costs on reduced income – and that might at least nurture a more collaborative culture.

The starting point, though, is for the Housing Corporation and the National Audit Office to devise a fair measurement framework that genuinely takes into consideration location as well as the association's wider contribution to the community and level of services to its tenants – a framework that can be readily accessed and understood without a PhD in housing policy.

Source

Housing Today