National Housing Summit 2023

Here are my notes on the National Housing Summit 2023 that I recently attended organised by the National Housing Federation . In my role, I am fortunate to be able to attend conferences and have found them to be very valuable.

I was there exhibiting in my capacity as Co-Chair of HouseProud-LGBT , a network for LGBTQ+ staff working in social housing, and managed to catch some of the discussions. I’ve included my notes below of things that I found useful and would be of value.

Let me know if you find it useful!

Overall Reflections

• Excellent event. Great venue, facilities, and staff. Thank you to National Housing Federation's ongoing support of HouseProud and the Pledge Scheme this year. It means a lot for NHF to support the work we do.
• More info - HouseProud Pledge Scheme - https://stonewallhousing.org/houseproudpledge/
• First Bricks & University of Derby participatory research to better understand the housing needs of the LGBTQ+ community. https://firstbrickhousing.co.uk/whats-on/
• This conference is best suited to senior decision-makers, policy & and central government. Good networking opportunity. Senior executives have fewer peers day-to-day, (because there are fewer roles the higher you go), so opportunities to network with peers are necessary whilst getting input from central government and other regulatory bodies.
• Pleased to see the NHF talk about working more closely with local authorities. The Better Social Housing Review Action Plan reflected that with a commitment to working with local authorities. Cross-sector collaboration is key to better outcomes.
• The thread that ran through the Summit was “The Rise of the Resident”; the importance of the resident voice, knowing the diverse needs of your residents and the cultural changes needed to embed best practice. Underpinning all of this is the quality of the data that landlords hold.
• Given that, I would have liked to have seen more resident representation built into the conference – maybe there is a way to facilitate this going forward.

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Opening Address - National Housing Federation (NHF or the “Fed”) – Kate Henderson Chief Executive

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• Moving video tribute to the late and well-loved Lord Bob Kerslake, former head of the civil service and prominent figure in local government. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kerslake)
• Reiterated the position that housing is a public policy crisis that affects many other areas – “all roads lead to the lack of housing”.
• Discussed the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR) published in December 2022, and the joint response from the NHF and Chartered Institute of Housing - BSHR Action Plan issued this summer. https://www.housing.org.uk/resources/BSHR-action-plan/ .
• Said one of the key findings for BSHR is equality of outcomes – “The BSHR encourages us to focus on making sure that racial inequality lessens in social housing, and that ultimately a person’s race is not a contributing factor in whether they experience poor quality housing.”? This translates into knowing and meeting the diverse needs of our residents, disabilities, caring responsibilities, ethnicity, etc.
• Seeing the continued focus from policy and lawmakers on equality of outcomes for all tenants is heartening. Recent culture wars have made it seem as though continuing to focus on this is reminiscent of “political correctness gone mad”. Social housing has always placed importance on meeting the needs of our residents. By focusing on the evidence and?
• Showcased the findings from the latest EDI national data report published September 2023 - https://www.housing.org.uk/resources/how-diverse-is-englands-housing-association-workforce-in-2023/ Report called – How diverse is England’s housing association workforce in 2023?
• While the BSHR was focused on recommendations to housing associations, acknowledged that local authority landlords are equally committed to delivering the best quality homes and services for their residents and would be working more closely with relevant local government bodies to implement the Action Plan. In my opinion, this is long overdue and welcome.

Housing Ombudsman – Richard Blakeway (RB) Chief Executive Housing Ombudsman

• The Housing Ombudsman will shortly issue a consultation on the Complaint Handling Code which will strengthen the Ombudsman’s role in developing its good practice guidance and challenging landlords to improve services in line with this, such as the time taken to respond to repairs. The new code will become statutory in 2024. There will be a legal duty to meet the code
• RB discussed the recently issued complaint handling failure report and the general quality of complaint handling – link https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/2023/09/19/highest-level-of-non-compliance-in-complaint-handling-failure-orders/.
• Excerpts from the report - The Housing Ombudsman Scheme and Complaint Handling Code set out clear expectations for landlords on handling housing complaints and includes the power to issue a Complaint Handling Failure Order.? 19 September 2023. The Ombudsman’s latest Complaint Handling Failure Order report shows the highest number of non-compliant landlords with the orders since the data was first recorded.
• RB noted that sometimes landlords could be defensive when responding to their investigations. He encouraged landlords to prioritise the quality of service delivery over the complaint handling, i.e. whether the letter/correspondence was responded to in a particular number of days. Ensure that the focus of complaint handling is learning, using it as an opportunity to improve service delivery.
• Described the evolving role of the Ombudsman as a centre for learning - supporting the sector through insight reports such as the latest Knowledge & Information Spotlight (links here? https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/about-hos/corporate-information/publications/spotlight-on-reports/
• RB announced that the next spotlight report would be on ‘communications and engagement’.
• RB's general observation about areas where they are seeing the most failings – where residents are vulnerable and have complex needs. Landlords that don’t have joined-up information end up failing the most vulnerable residents – and need to make reasonable adjustments.
• Discussed two case studies with comparable delays in carrying out important repairs but only one landlord maladministration – the other demonstrated best practice – having clear up-to-date information about the residents and their needs. Being proactive in using this information to make reasonable adjustments. Also where appropriate investigating whether issues might affect other properties in the block, e.g. an infestation.
• Knowledge and information management will be key. Data must be comprehensive to allow boards to do their jobs.

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Ministerial Address – The Minister of State for Housing and Planning Rachel Maclean

• Rachel Maclean was named new housing minister in February 2023, the sixth to hold the post in the past 18 months.
• When questioned, said that although housing has not been named as one of the government’s 5 immediate priorities, (which for reference are, halving inflation, economic growth, debt falling, waiting lists cut (NHS), stop small boats), that from the governments perspective, housing is integral to levelling up the country and pointed to the role of the government is playing driving up standards in the sector with the Social Housing Regulation Bill.

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Breakout Session – Culture Shift: building a dialogue with the Regulator.

Panel with Fiona MacGregor – Chief Executive of Regulator of Social Housing , Fiona Fletcher-Smith CEO of L&Q & Chair The G15 and Jesse Fajemisin Mount Green Housing Association , Chair g320 - London's Smaller Housing Associations Group & NHF Small Provider Panel Member, chaired by Simon Nunn NHF.

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• Excellent session. I enjoyed hearing perspectives from large and smaller associations (more of that please)
• Main theme - Culture shift is the starting point for improvements in performance – “Culture beats strategy for breakfast”.
• Regulator – the new regulatory regime is not designed to be ‘paint by numbers’ – i.e., not overly prescriptive. Focus on outcomes not telling people what to do – build a mature sector that understands our core mission. Regulation will be risk-based and proportionate.
• Focus on co-regulation. That means there is a role for the entire ecosystem – landlords, residents, and regulatory bodies. Landlords are expected to be proactive and self-refer to the Regulator when appropriate.
• Reminded everyone about the ongoing consultation on the new consumer standards which ends on 17th October 2023 and encouraged the audience to participate and have their say in what they will look like as well as encourage their tenants to participate. There are accessible, (summaries, easy-read, video) versions of the consultation (link https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-consumer-standards)
• Resident voice will play a much greater role in the way housing providers are assessed and graded. The new In-Depth Assessment, (IDA), process will include consumer regulation and the Regulator will be speaking to residents as part of this assessment. They will expect to see that residents’ voices are being heard.
• There is an expectation that landlords ask tenants what they want, -and provide different things/services according to their needs.
• Panel – need for cultural change at a leadership level. Sharing learning, understanding diverse needs of residents – data, data, data!!!
• L&Q – the sector should adopt the ‘Black Box Thinking’ approach from a book by Matthew Syed – an attitude to learning, that is frank and honest about what went wrong – leading to cultural change.
• 'Black Box Thinking' by Matthew Syed argues that failure is not something to hide but a chance to learn and improve. The book says that when mistakes happen, we should dig deep to find out why, just like how black boxes are used in planes to figure out what went wrong in a crash.
• For social housing landlords, this idea is really relevant. If something goes wrong, like a repair issue or a complaint, instead of just fixing it quickly, (or brushing it under the carpet as sometimes happens), and moving on, landlords can study the problem openly to make sure it doesn't happen again. This way, they can offer better homes and services, especially for vulnerable residents. It's about building a culture where everyone's aiming to get better, not just avoiding blame.
• It was good to see an organisation such as L&Q take a leading role in this.

Final Thoughts

?To tackle the challenges in our sector, we need collaboration, a fresh approach to regulation, and an understanding of the diverse needs of our residents. It’s not just about ticking boxes; it’s about meaningful change.