2024 promises to be a very big year for social housing. With the RSH’s new consumer standards due to come in in April, the ongoing struggles with damp and mould, and the very real chance of a new government by the end of the year, we asked professionals from across housing to outline their top three priorities for the sector.
Nicholas Harris, Chief Executive, Stonewater
In 2024 our key priorities are aligned with our commitment to our vision of everyone having somewhere they can call home. Housing providers should reaffirm their dedication to our customers by personalising their experiences and delivering on our promises. At Stonewater, our goal is to maintain a customer-centric approach, ensuring customer needs remain at the forefront of our projects, plans and development opportunities.
We also know that fostering a great workplace culture is paramount across the housing sector. Stonewater will continue to invest in and support our colleagues, recognising that a motivated and skilled workforce is essential for success. Our aim is to continue to position Stonewater as an excellent place to work, being at the forefront of driving inclusion, quality and innovation in the housing sector.
Finally, we need to acknowledge the growing and pressing challenges in the housing landscape. As we anticipate a 2024 general election, housing providers need to advocate for government support. We should seek certainty and understanding from policymakers regarding the complex challenges faced by housing providers, and we need to position organisations like Stonewater as vital delivery mechanisms for addressing the national housing crisis. This should include delivery of funding for new homes and retrofitting existing ones.
Julie Layton, Chief Executive, Advance
With the need for affordable housing increasing across the UK, it’s important that this is matched with recruitment into the sector to ensure organisations are adequately supported in delivering exceptional services to residents by skilled and passionate individuals.
Raising awareness of the need for high-quality supported housing must be prioritised in 2024. At Advance, we specialise in providing housing and tailored support to people living with learning disabilities and mental health conditions, allowing them to live independently. Improving access to specialised support that considers the diverse needs of all individuals, especially those with learning disabilities and mental health conditions, will be paramount.
We’re also calling for an increased focus on the sector’s core purpose – to deliver social value. Housing providers were established to deliver quality homes for individuals, while remaining affordable. People living in these homes should feel they’re part of a safe and inclusive neighbourhood, where their wellbeing is prioritised by their landlord. For housing associations to thrive in 2024, it’s crucial for them to recognise the importance of continually providing social value while delivering on new developments, innovative projects and core initiatives.
Aisha Akhtar, Housing lawyer and HQN legal trainer
2023 has been a difficult year for the sector, the next government must place the delivery of affordable and sustainable housing at the heart of its long-term plans for the UK. The problem is likely to get worse; and younger people are being hit the hardest. Resolving the housing crisis will require some radical reforms and policy reforms to the planning system.
The sector will be looking to improve on emergency efficiency. Energy efficiency can help to improve the comfort and quality of life for residents. By reducing energy usage, housing providers can improve the indoor environment of properties, reducing the risk of damp, mould, and other issues that can affect the health and well-being of residents, as the sector still grapples with the impact of Awaab’s Law, which will be brought in this year under the Social Housing Regulation Act.
Social housing landlords will need to be ready for the new consumer standards under the law, which takes effect from 1 April 2024. It’s been a difficult year with the Housing Ombudsman issuing severe maladministration on a number of landlords. The sector needs to be prepared for the ombudsman’s statutory Complaint Handling Code to take effect from 1 April. It’ll have extra tools to clamp down on landlords’ repeated service failures.
Nick Atkin, CEO, Yorkshire Housing
Customer: In April the Social Housing Regulation Act comes into force and sees a multitude of reforms for the sector. Our focus will remain on the relationship with our customers. This is part of a sustained focus to spend time understanding what they really want, using this as a basis for how we then deliver enhancements to our service offer.
Economy: The cost-of-living crisis has hit everyone hard – and housebuilding is no exception. The cost of building new homes has dramatically increased, and new completions have dropped to their lowest levels since the pandemic. The economic outlook remains uncertain. Recent figures show the UK is at risk of recession. That’s why every decision we make needs to represent value for money for our customers as well as maintaining our business viability.
Politics: Housing is expected to feature heavily in the general election. All three main parties have committed to building more homes. However, there remains uncertainty on what can be delivered in the context of a tight fiscal position. We must continue to make the case for a long-term plan for housing, highlighting the difference we make to people’s lives, whilst at the same time being realistic about the challenges we’re facing.
Roger Jarman, Regulation Associate, HQN
The Leader of the Opposition wakes up having won a landslide victory in the general election. He then decides that he’s more Clement Attlee than, well, Kier Starmer. He immediately suspends the Right to Buy. He then announces a public housebuilding programme of 500,000 homes a year. He funds this through a wealth tax levied at a rate of 1% for households with assets of over £10m. He also introduces a progressive property tax that at last sees an owner of a £30m mansion in Westminster paying (substantially) more property/council tax than the owner of a four-bedroom house in Hartlepool.
Land is amassed through the compulsory purchase of brownfield and greenfield sites at existing use value. Special visas are issued to construction workers based abroad to help with Starmer’s ambitious housebuilding programme.
Homelessness falls significantly and house prices and rents start to return to more affordable levels. Starmer begins to see the realisation of his post-election objective to reduce the ratio of house prices to average wages from 9:1 to the long-term average of 3:1.
And then again, pigs might fly…
Bruce Moore, Chief Executive, Housing 21
2024 is Housing 21’s 60th anniversary. We’ll continue focusing on our core purpose of providing high-quality housing with care and support for older people of modest means, enabling them to live with autonomy and dignity. To achieve this, we hold true to our guiding principles of ‘21’, ‘Better’ and ‘Experience’.
21 is in our name and refers to the 21st century, but we take it to mean we must remain a contemporary, innovative and forward-looking organisation, challenging ageist assumptions. We need to listen to current residents, but also consider what future generations may want and expect in later life.
Better recognises there’s always room to improve. Although we always try to do the right thing, we recognise sometimes we fall short of the service and standards we aim to deliver. When this occurs we should apologise and provide redress, ensuring we learn from mistakes to be better in future.
Experience is the most important principle, underpinning everything. We exist to provide great service and satisfaction for residents. If this isn’t their experience, we’ve failed. We must ensure residents have a strong voice and we remain committed to listening and responding to their priorities for 2024 and beyond.
Gavin Cansfield, Chief Executive, settle
At settle our top three priorities for 2024 are residents, residents and residents.
We continue actively engaging with residents so that decisions are made with them, not to them, to provide them with safe, comfortable homes and to ensure we are delivering great services and investment in homes.
We’ll continue to work with the ‘Voice of the Resident’ panel and to carry out our ‘Big Door Knock’, now in its sixth year, where colleagues, including the executive team and board members, go out into the community every few months to gather feedback on what we’re doing well and where improvements can be made.
We started early surveys on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures last year, ahead of their mandatory implementation this year and have a comprehensive resident dashboard that drives service delivery.
Our relentless focus continues to be the quality and timeliness of our service delivery, especially emergency and routine repair work.
Despite the continued challenges faced by all housing associations, we continue to put residents first. We know that everyone is different, so we ensure that we provide a service that’s as individual as residents.
Charles Pitt, Corporate Affairs Director, Sovereign Network Group
1 – We need to deliver many more homes, especially affordable homes. There are nearly 140,000 children living in temporary accommodation and subsidising housing bills is costing the taxpayer c.£30bn a year. Government should see housing as national infrastructure and develop a long-term housing strategy which unlocks investment and reduces the knock-on costs of the housing crisis; this must include a rent settlement linked to future costs so that the sector can plan for the long term too.
2 – Housing associations, with government support, need to invest in improving their stock, retrofitting their homes to reduce their carbon footprint and energy bills. The sector also needs to embrace consumer standards, improving the customer experience by investing in digital and harnessing data.
3 – We are still in a cost-of-living crisis. Government and the sector can best support social housing tenants through economic growth – development of new housing, retrofit and investment in local infrastructure all have their part to play. Alongside this, targeted support to create new and better jobs is the foundation for sustainable and thriving communities.
