The Challenges Ahead: Cost of Living, Going Green and Telling the Wider Story of the Housing Sector with Residents

Fayann Simpson OBE, Group Board Member, Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Resident Service Board, highlights three challenges facing the sector which will have a major impact on residents over the next 12 months and beyond. She explores how the sector can support residents through changing times.

1. The Cost of Living Crisis

Residents must be front and centre of everything we do. The cost of living crisis is undoubtedly the greatest issue facing them this year and beyond, which is why I’ve already started engaging with our industry colleagues on the approach we should take as a sector.

As an L&Q resident myself for over 20 years, I know first-hand that a good quality, affordable and secure home can change your life. Therefore, first and foremost, it is our responsibility to make sure our homes and services are good. Homes must be warm, safe, and efficient.

L&Q has already committed into investing ￡1.9bn into our existing homes, which will go a long way in ensuring residents’ homes are as good as they can be.

Part of this investment is the work we are doing around fire safety – ￡250m has been committed to implement the government’s new building safety advice, and L&Q are part of the Early Adopters Group, developing the changes recommended in Dame Judith Hackitt’s review of building safety following the Grenfell tragedy. While this is very much an ongoing process and we – as an organisation and as an industry – have a long way to go, sitting on the industry steering group I work to ensure the issue is always at the forefront.

We want to be an organisation that gives every resident a good experience. However, it’s important that we hold our hands up when we get it wrong– making things right as quickly as possible and we need to work hand-in-hand with residents to do this. Only by working with residents can we ensure that we get our priorities right in meeting the challenges and identifying future opportunities.

The cost of living crisis reaches across a wide range of residents, whether you are a tenant, homeowner, leaseholder or shared owner. The impacts are felt and the sector has to be sensitive to this.

A crucial factor in the cost of living crisis is unemployment and fair pay. A high proportion of residents work in sectors that are particularly exposed to redundancies and lower wages. It’s important that we think about how we can help people into secure work with a decent wage. This could be through L&Q’s apprenticeship schemes, and encouraging our partners, contractors, and consultants, to create opportunities for residents. We can also support residents through the work of the brilliant L&Q Foundation, which runs programmes around employment and money management.??

Additionally, helping residents maximise their incomes is a big focus for L&Q – our Pound Advice Service helps thousands of residents maximise income and minimise debt. A completely free service that offers practical advice and support, a huge ￡10.2m of additional income was secured for over 3,500 residents in the last financial year.

2. Going Green

To help support the levelling up agenda, we have a responsibility to ensure homes are energy efficient, keeping bills down for residents. The entire construction industry faces challenges around ensuring energy efficiency, and L&Q are putting significant investment into this over the coming years.

For me, going green goes beyond the just the fabric of the buildings themselves. The pandemic really highlighted how much we all need to engage with nature for our mental and physical wellbeing. Personally, I am passionate about horticulture – and I know first-hand the positive impact it can have on individuals and whole communities. Getting the balance right between landscaping and housing is something I hope the sector will collaborate with other sectors, such as horticulture and health. This could be anything from setting up community garden initiatives, to working with the development team, to help shape landscaping for future developments. There is such a passion and interest amongst residents about the environment and how it impacts their homes and communities.

In fact, residents are already taking a lead on this and doing amazing things. The Green Flag Award is the benchmark standard for publicly accessible parks and green spaces in the United Kingdom and around the world – and L&Q have so far been awarded three thanks to the fantastic work of residents. One project in particular, Milkwood Park in Lambeth, is the work of the Milkwood Residents’ Association (MRA) and its founder, L&Q resident, Maude Estwick. The MRA applied for grants and were awarded over ￡500k from twenty organisations, including L&Q itself, and two decades later the garden is still a thriving community asset. Projects such as these can really help bring neighbourhoods together, and can be instrumental to the success of communities.

3. Shifting Perceptions of the Housing Sector

It’s no secret that there is widespread misunderstanding amongst the public as to what we do as a sector. I think 2022 is the time to start shouting more about the work we do, and, even more importantly, the amazing achievements of residents.

During the pandemic, our teams made 16,000 calls to residents to find out what matters to them. Further, we have now established the Resident Services Board, which sits on a par with other board committees within L&Q, such as the audit and risk committee and the development committee. I chair the group of eight brilliant resident colleagues, which puts residents at the heart of governance. Whilst the Resident Service Board cannot speak for all of L&Q’s over 250,000 residents, we challenge the organisation to reach out to the wider resident base in everything it does and seek to involve and engage more residents in shaping services, as well as looking at how we recruit through to values and behaviours.

There are many residents involved in our regional committees and resident associations, the LGBT forum, leaseholder forum, as neighbourhood champions, both online and at grass roots level. All of these are so important, because the interactions that residents have with L&Q really do help to shape services for the better.

We have seen the reports of poor housing conditions and the terrible impact on residents, including some L&Q residents. We have to be open and honest about these problems and act with a sense of urgency to put things right for residents and work with residents to do so. Everyone should have a good quality home they can afford, be listened to and be treated with respect. The Resident Services Board has been at the forefront of challenging L&Q to improve and learn from residents.

This means we have even more of a shared voice with residents than ever – something we should harness as we grow awareness of what we do as a sector.