Gareth Young, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fellow, UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence, looks at the changing role of social landlords.
Kickstarting economic growth and breaking down the barriers to education and employment opportunities form a key part of the Labour government’s core missions, alongside the drive to build more new housing and improve the condition of existing stock.
Late last year we saw the publication of the ‘Get Britain Working’ White Paper, which set out the government’s position on employment and skills, with a target for an 80% employment rate in the UK. The Employment Rights Bill is currently working its way through parliament, which provides the framework for the government’s Plan for Change. This aims to “increase productivity and create the right conditions for long-term sustainable, inclusive and secure economic growth”.
Currently, the labour market in England is quite a complex picture, with steady employment rates, continued wage growth and a cohort of approximately 1.9 million economically inactive individuals who want to work. At the same time we’re also seeing rising redundancies and a slowing economy, which could impact the labour market’s stability in the near future (see IES and L&W).
In July 2024, a new JobsPlus pilot was announced. This initiative is being funded by the Department for Work and Pensions through the Treasury’s Labour Market Evaluation and Pilots fund, and is being managed by the Learning and Work Institute. This model draws on existing work from the US, which shifts the way in which employment support is delivered. It opens it up to an entire community (of working age people) in a tightly defined geographical area where many community-based actors can come together to deliver services and support.
This is timely, as research recently conducted has started to see some housing providers withdrawing from non-statutory activities, such as employment support. This article draws on a small-scale primer study conducted for Unity Homes and Enterprise.
Historically, social housing has been about providing people with safe, secure housing. Debates have rumbled on for decades about other roles that social housing providers should play in the lives of their tenants. However, over recent years there’s been a shift in the way in which social housing providers are regulated, and the roles they must fulfil. It means we’re seeing more and more providers shift away from providing wider, non-statutory services to focus on the core components of their work, something that came through strongly from the Better Social Housing Review.
This is an entirely reasonable position to take, and when you consider all the pressures that are placed on housing providers in the current climate of financial pressures and without the financial long-term certainty many in the sector are calling for, it’s entirely understandable something must give. However, from the research we conducted, we highlighted some insights into just how valuable a role housing associations can play within their tenants’ lives, and the communities in which they are situated.
We also know that through the way in which social housing is allocated today there are trends of long-term poorer labour market outcomes associated with living in social housing for working age residents (see the Report to the APPG on Housing and Social Mobility). Some of these poor labour market outcomes for social housing tenants compared to the wider population highlight that social housing tenants are more likely to have lower incomes, they are more likely to be lone parents, more minoritised-ethnic and women-headed households, more single person households and higher rates of disability (ibid).
Whilst this study was modest in scope, the findings do provide some refreshed insights into the role of social housing providers in today’s context, and especially those at a more place-based level, embedded in communities. It shows that there’s still a vital role that anchor institutions, such as housing associations, can play in the lives of tenants, who might require additional support to overcome some of the barriers they face in returning to work.
Social housing providers, such as Unity, have a depth of power and knowledge. Unlike political parties that operate on short political cycles, housing associations are long-term anchor institutions embedded within place. They provide tenants with contracts, which means they know exactly who’s living in their homes and their communities. They also have strong links to their local authorities and other key service providers. They are employers in their own right, and through their position within a community are able to develop relationships with other employers.
What came through particularly strongly from this work was the psychological barriers that a lot of tenants can face when it comes to accessing employment support, thinking of a new career or starting their own business. There are many reasons why people may have stepped away from the labour market. These reasons range from childcare responsibilities and poor health conditions through to organisations making them redundant or reducing their weekly hours. Many people work on unreliable, fixed-term or zero-hour contracts.
We know that not everyone is starting from the same position. As participants explained during the research, initiatives and programmes, such as those which many HAs, including Unity, offer, don’t replace or replicate that national, mainstream offer. What more localised and targeted support can do is to recognise the structural inequalities some people face, and provide them with a ‘chance to fail’. It was said by tenants and staff at Unity as well as stakeholders, such as from the combined authority, that giving people a ‘cheerleader’ role model, someone who can provide non-judgemental support, can help people to overcome the barriers they face.
For some people, their familial relationships and networks can operate as another challenge, as it might not be in the interests of another family member for someone to go out and find work, or their social networks have the engrained belief that ‘people like us’ cannot do a certain thing. Housing providers’ tenancy health checks were cited as a way of helping people to talk about the challenges they face. For many people, being able to share their concerns, to then be signposted to services, can make them feel like they aren’t trying to face these challenges alone and can help to build back their sense of worth.
Since concluding this research, new consultations have been published – such as the Devolution White Paper, which is gearing up for further devolution deals and local government reorganisation. We’re learning more about new regulations – such as Awaab’s Law – which will impact housing providers and the resources they have.
From conversations with housing association chief executives since this project finished, we know it’s a challenging climate to operate in, and there’s a strong argument for why HAs, especially smaller HAs, need to focus on their core objective – providing housing. But what this research highlighted is the significant role a good landlord can play in a tenant’s life – and often through small actions, which need not be too costly or resource-intensive. Without genuinely collaborative, person-centred approaches to supporting social housing tenants with their future work and careers, it’s hard to imagine how inclusive growth will be achieved.
