The “Housing’s Better Future” campaign will encourage associations to provide services “beyond bricks and mortar”, such as leisure, education, health and security services. It represents the federation’s drive to change the public perception of housing association social renting as the tenure of last resort.
There will be a standards campaign to increase the quality of homes and services, backed up by a kitemark system similar to Investors in People.
The changes, outlined today at the NHF annual conference in Birmingham, will be promoted in a communications campaign.
The rebrand, devised by Olins’ firm Saffron and the NHF along with tenants, politicians and housing associations, should launch in late 2003.
Philip Gibson, associate at Saffron, said: “In the last 10 or 15 years housing organisations have focused on housing as bricks and mortar. We feel there is a real opportunity to go back to what these organisations started out by doing: improving people’s lives. Housing is a means to an end, it’s not an end in itself.”
Tom Murtha, chief executive of Keynote Housing Group, said the changes would mean that associations would have to pay greater regard to market forces, choice and quality of service.
He anticipated that there would be more partnerships with other associations, regeneration agencies, community groups and local authorities. But he warned some RSLs might not have the resources or experience to expand into neighbourhood services and some might believe that such work clashed with their original values.
Pavilion HA chief executive Mervyn Jones praised the idea of a common standard but added room must be left for innovation.
In the same week a survey by the New Homes Marketing Board and lender Halifax found social housing tenants were associated with crime and not looking after their homes properly.
A MORI poll, commissioned by the NHF in August 2001, found that only 17% of people polled would want to live in social housing if it were available.
Source
Housing Today
No comments yet