They say a picture paints a thousand words. So, why are there no photos in RSH inspection reports? Back in the day the Audit Commission shamed poor landlords with images of disgusting voids. Kwajo exposed damp and mould in his videos. It’s the best way to get the message across.
When HQN was starting to help our members with consumer regulation, I pedalled relentlessly around estates taking snapshots. And it was well worth it.
We were highly critical of one landlord. You could see the leaders getting ready to make many sharp points to water down our findings. Then they saw the pictures and just gave up. Case closed.
In his book The Intelligence Trap, David Robson points to the scientific evidence showing how the sorts of clever people we put on boards are “…less likely to learn from their mistakes…and…are better able to build elaborate arguments to justify their reasoning…”. That strikes a chord, doesn’t it?
When this landlord saw our photos, their magic marker line-by-line commentary on the prose went by the wayside. Our findings were, as they put it, “unarguable”. That saved a lot of time.
Kwajo was astonished that the old-style regulator never visited his estate. It just didn’t occur to me that the new regime would carry on in the same vein. But that’s indeed the case. Already Kwajo is broadcasting images of poor standards at a home of a landlord that the RSH rates as C2. This will carry on.
It’s true that the RSH does ask leaders good questions and does indeed meet some residents. For me, it’s odd that they don’t visit estates, as that’s the end product after all. This is very risky. The boardroom isn’t always much of a guide to what’s happening on the ground. By way of example, the Fair Game Index covering governance and finance finds that Spurs are the best-run club in the Premier League. Try telling that to the long-suffering fans who actually watch the games.
I live next door to a hostel owned by one of our largest associations. The CQC knocks on the door and takes a good look about before giving a rating to that one hostel. Yet at the same time the RSH will give a single score for the rest of the 70,000 homes across 170 councils managed by this landlord. How can the inspectors be certain that their assessment is correct? Will tenants think that the national report rings true for them? I appreciate the logistical problems for the RSH. Personally, I never want to get on an Avanti train again as long as I live. But it’s high risk for a regulator to tell the public that a service meets the consumer standards off a tiny sample base. I fear that this is an accident waiting to happen.
On top of which it crushes the staff that are doing a good job on their patches. I can show you pictures of brilliant work at landlords that have been slated by the RSH. Overall, I do tend to agree with the RSH judgments. But this is a classic case of one size not fitting all.
Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
