Come on, let’s work together

It’s difficult to read anything about the housing sector these days without the subject of efficiency rearing its head. The government, the Housing Corporation and downward pressure on rent levels have all made this a topic of increasing strategic importance.

Economies of scale in stock management are one way to address the subject, most commonly through stock transfer or lease agreements. But do they work and could more be done by the ODPM and the regulators to help make these processes work in reality?

Having just concluded a unitary management exercise with Asra Greater London Housing Association, two realities make themselves apparent to me. Firstly, for transfers and lease agreements to work well, it takes time (and possibly more of it than the deputy prime minister would like). Secondly, associations must seize the opportunity unitary management offers, not wait to be encouraged by the ODPM.

Asra, Ujima Housing Group and Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association recently signed a lease with consortium partner, Mosaic Housing Association. Mosaic will assume landlord and service management responsibilities for 155 homes, which had been separately managed, in and around Quill Street, north London, for the next decade.

It’s taken two years to achieve this result. Why? Housing association and sectoral bureaucracy has played a part in delaying proceedings, but the main reason for this timescale has been the vital need for partners to agree a common vision and gain tenants’ confidence. At the Quill Street estate in Islington this included:

• senior management – including chief executives – attending consultation sessions with tenants
• addressing variable service for tenants of different landlords and rebuilding trust
• regular communication with community activists or opinion formers
• providing £10,000 (£2500 per housing association), to fund an independent tenant advisor, chosen by tenants
• getting feedback from residents through door-to-door visits, tenant surgeries and newsletters (and using translations and interpreters as needed).

On a 75% turnout, 90% of tenants backed the transfer proposal.

Agreeing a long lease was crucial. A decade enables the lead association to invest time and money in the properties and good service provision. Of course lease agreements are not without their problems. To avoid these, tenants must be involved from the start, and there needs to be clear agreement on provision of services and robust business planning for the term of the lease. A tenant ballot is not strictly necessary, but in our case, it helped focus everyone’s minds.

But unitary management improves efficiency and makes practical sense. From a tenant’s point of view, it provides a single point of contact, improved resolution of resident conflicts and consistent service delivery. All this is achieved by housing associations while still maintaining ownership of their stock. It’s a win-win situation for associations and residents.

Would we repeat the experience? We already are and it puzzles me that more landlords do not follow this route.

The government needs to recognise that in moving to unitary management associations are responding to the call to become more efficient, and must understand that this takes time. But ultimately it’s up to us to grasp the nettle. We must act to make working together a reality, not just a conversation topic.