The only thing that can lead a debate is success in the battle of ideas that social housing has been losing consistently. This rebranding will make no difference. The sector has had more visions than a prophet, more strategies than the Second World War and enough frameworks to build an entire conurbation.
The proposals have just the right mixture to appeal to a sector currently in thrall to marketing gurus. The strapline "a culture of continuous improvement focused on the customer and the wider neighbourhood" could, like all mission statements, mean almost anything.
The strapline comes with a "diagnostic toolkit" – readers can decide for themselves whether it accurately describes objective social conditions or contains 32 pages of concentrated and speculative tosh.
The argument that the exercise is "better than nothing" is unconvincing and will be viewed with indifference by most tenants.
The rebranding is a disappointment to many and will not alter the future appeal of social housing, which is presumably why not a single professional at the launch actually lives in it.
I will seek to persuade colleagues to shun this expensive strapline to nowhere.
Source
Housing Today
Postscript
Angela Pinter, London E2
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