I’m so impressed by all the work I see going on as HQN’s members get ready for inspection. They’re putting together a blueprint for social housing. Will it make a difference to tenants’ lives? We know what to do, but will we get the cash to deliver. Could our plans to improve housing wind up in the sidings alongside HS2?

Let’s start off by looking at district councils. I’ve spoken to lots of them in the last couple of weeks. Now, they’re certainly taking inspection seriously. The chief executive turns up to the meeting along with senior councillors. And they’re backing their housing staff to the hilt. Stock surveys are well underway, they’re poring over the tenant satisfaction measures and everyone I meet is going the extra mile to act on what tenants are saying. The districts are doing all they can to stretch their funds to fix the homes. As you would expect, they’re having to make tough choices about when they replace kitchens and bathrooms. But they know they can’t afford to get to net zero without a big chunk of government funding. Rishi Sunak is talking about slowing down on green targets. That may make him the patron saint of housing business plans. Every hue of social landlord is struggling to meet these costs. But I can assure you very few in housing are thanking the PM for his intervention. We want to make the homes energy efficient and we agree with the science on decarbonisation. Let’s not go backwards here – it’s a bit like the PM’s madcap idea to replace modern trains with the Mini Metro. Our friends in the North will point out that this change of mind came about just seconds after the Elizabeth Line was complete.

Moving on to the London boroughs and other cities, it’s a similar picture. The effort is certainly going in. But those with many towers were set up to fail by the self-financing deal. There simply wasn’t enough cash in the business plan from day one. It’s a real struggle to replace lifts and heating systems. So, it’ll be another winter of misery for many tenants. Ministers knew this would happen.

Ditching the arm’s length management organisation wasn’t always a great idea. It can be a struggle to get housing back on the right footing. The first question housing inspectors will ask is: who does what? And that isn’t always clear right now when the landlord role is all over the shop. To be fair our members are taking the right steps to bring back clarity.

The main problem is that there just aren’t enough council homes. That’s why so many people are in temporary accommodation (TA). According to the Municipal Journal, the costs to councils for this have soared by 71% up to more than one billion pounds a year, which explains why so many councils are now to all intents and purposes bankrupt.

This is where housing associations are supposed to ride to the rescue. Some pull their weight but others refuse to do their duty.

That may be why the RSH’s new standards insist that associations must help councils meet their homeless obligations. I’m coming across far too many cases where associations use every excuse under the sun to reject homeless people thus forcing them into TA. The inspectors have got to crack down on this cruelty. Often the fact that the homeless will struggle to pay the rent charged by the association bars them from getting a home. That raises the question: what’s the point of you?

Since 2010, there’s been no policing of standards at councils or associations. Everyone knew this would end badly and it did. Out of control leaders did a lot of damage.

Now we have a somewhat different problem. Thanks to inspection and the work of the ombudsman we’ll soon have a perfect specification of the problems that need solving in social housing. But there’s no masterplan to fix these. Read those Gove letters to recalcitrant landlords again. They’re strong on condemnation but offer no solutions. Blair and Prescott did improve housing because they had a plan to use the carrot and the stick. Will Starmer open up the coffers?

We’re in a long queue of neglected public services needing a cash injection. It’s a long shot but we have one card and one card only. We must use inspection to prove that we’re worthy of the trust of government. If we don’t grasp that opportunity, someone else will.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN