June news roundup

Hi everyone,

As we all continue to either melt or bask in the glorious sunshine depending on your preference, here’s another update on some of our exciting work and a roundup of the big news stories that are important to our clients.

These continue to be challenging times, but the innovative and compassionate ways in which our clients respond inspire us every day. It’s a huge privilege to be working with the good guys, and one that we never take for granted.

Take care and speak soon,

Ben, Bobbie, Nicola and the Hough Bellis team.

Political chaos day #209821372

Just as it looked like we might finally have something approaching normality in politics and certainty over some vital bits of legislation, everything is up in the air again.

All of this seems trivial and stupid - because it is - but it also really matters because from energy regulation and social housing to public procurement, Bills are currently before Parliament that have major implications for the organisations that we work with. ?

There’s a war, a cost-of-living crisis, rising inflation, climate change, a slowly collapsing NHS, a housing crisis, a social care crisis, the existential threat from AI and 73 other massive issues to deal with. Instead, the system has once again been paralysed by arguments about the social life of a man who combs his hair with a balloon.

What happened?

In a turn of events that nobody could have predicted, Boris Johnson, who was sacked as a journalist for lying and sacked as a shadow minister for lying, has astonishingly been rebuked by a parliamentary committee for lying.

The privileges committee recommended a 90-day ban from parliament, which would have given his constituents the right to call for a by-election. But rather than risk subjecting himself to the judgement of his electorate, he instead immediately resigned.

Although he has still, amazingly, been allowed to honour a bunch of his mates with gongs and peerages, some of his suggestions were blocked because they are currently MPs and that’s never been a thing that’s allowed. Two of them - Nigel Adams and Nadine Dorries have thrown a strop and also resigned as MPs (although Dorries hasn’t yet managed to fill in the right form).

Separately, because we don’t already have enough scandals, former Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon was also arrested this week.

Why does it matter to you?

Because planning is important. If the government is a bag of spanners then it’s hard to look to the future with confidence.

With political turmoil already having led to the Animal Welfare Bill being scrapped, it is hard to be as confident that the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill, Energy Bill and Public Procurement Bill will all survive the next few months. Whether they do or not isn’t the point – the uncertainty is a huge issue.

And with at least three challenging by-elections for the government and a looming tsunami of mortgage hikes as fixed-rate deals end, there’s every chance that Rishi might feel that this is as good as it gets and call for an early election.

Don’t mind us, we’re just trying to keep the show on the road.

Social housing vs welfare reform

We were pleased to support a really important webinar this week on the need to deliver a fairer welfare system following Grand Union’s recent report.

Hosted by our friends at the Chartered Institute for Housing, it was addressed by Grand Union’s Aileen Evans, Sam Lister from CIH and Helen Barnard from the Trussell Trust. More than fifty attendees from across the country joined the discussion, which focussed on the critical need to link the rates of benefits to the cost of essentials.

I left the meeting feeling both angry about the situation facing so many of the most vulnerable people in our country, but also inspired by the growing coalition calling for change. CIH members can watch a recording of the webinar here.

We want to carry on this work and make sure that this becomes a key issue in the next general election. Get in touch if you or your organisation can help.

Six years on from Grenfell

The tragic scenes at Grenfell where 72 people lost their lives will forever live in our memory, but it’s not enough to offer thoughts and prayers. New research by Inside Housing found that only a fraction of social housing blocks have been retrofitted with sprinklers or fire alarms.

It is clear that much more needs to be done, and that the government are going to have to provide not just scrutiny, but also the finances needed to ensure that everyone can go to bed at night feeling safe.

WISH leads the way on empowering women’s voices

Speaking of CIH, our friends at Women in Social Housing (WISH) have developed a top tips guide on how to encourage more female voices that will be circulated to speakers, chairs and facilitators at this year’s conference.

This blog from their new president, Tracey McEachran, sets out why she is making the issue the focus of her presidency over the next two years.?

Communications and trust – how do we rebuild housing’s relationship with tenants?

In his latest blog, Bobbie reflects on the learnings from our Comms Fest event earlier this year and explores the breakdown in trust between tenants and landlords.

What is trust? How did we lose it? How do we get it back? And how do we need to change our approach to communications?

We start to unpack all of these questions here.

Ombudsman announces spotlight on communications

The Housing Ombudsman has issued its latest call for evidence for its upcoming Spotlight report into communications and relationships in the housing sector.

It is looking for both residents, advice agencies and landlords to take part in the surveys (links below), to build a complete picture of what the social housing sector is grappling with.

The investigation will explore three key areas:

1. What it means to be vulnerable in social housing and what is an appropriate response by landlords
2. What effective communication looks like and how this could help service better outcomes
3. Whether there are areas (either service or demographic) where there are repeated patterns of poor service response.

You can find out more here.