Report Calls For All Housing Associations To Examine Stock

Widely dispersed housing stock, remoteness of housing managers from tenants and multi-landlord estates can all lead to poor service to residents, lack of involvement in neighbourhoods and higher costs to housing providers, says a report from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) commissioned by the Housing Corporation.

The report calls on all housing associations to examine their patterns of property ownership and management to ensure they meet key policy objectives. CIH was commissioned by the Housing Corporation to research the extent to which stock rationalisation within the housing association sector would produce improvements in operational efficiency, service delivery, community engagement and neighbourhood regeneration.

The report  includes the findings of the two independent Commissions on Rationalisation set up by the Housing Corporation under a steering group which included the Communities and Local Government department, the Audit Commission, the National Housing Federation, the Local Government Association, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

The findings have been welcomed by the Housing Corporation, who is also publishing the Rationalisation Guide and Toolkit  – developed by the CIH –  today to support housing associations planning to engage in this area.

Housing Corporation Chairman Peter Dixon said, “We recognise that stock rationalisation is not easy to achieve.  However this research demonstrates just how important it is to tackle this issue to ensure that residents receive the best possible quality of service.  We encourage all housing associations to be actively engaged in those areas where they own and manage housing, and are pleased to launch our practical Toolkit today to support the sector in taking on this challenge.”

Deputy Chief Executive of the CIH Sarah Webb, said: “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to rationalisation, but all housing organisations should explore the scope to transfer ownership or management of some of their properties where it will ensure that tenants are served better, that they work closer with local authorities and that they engage more fully with communities.

“It seems right that housing associations should ask themselves whether they can properly engage with all the communities they serve when they have properties in a large number of local authority areas, and whether remote landlords can provide the same level of service at the same price as a local housing organisation.”

The main recommendations from the report are:

• All housing associations should examine whether they can rationalise their stock as part of their asset management strategy;
• The Housing Corporation should articulate its expectation that associations will not retain stock when it cannot be justified from an efficiency, neighbourhood management or customer service point of view;
• Local authorities should identify areas that are priorities for rationalisation as part of their strategic housing role, and develop a strategy with the Housing Corporation and relevant housing associations;
• Communities and Local Government (CLG) should promote and support the strategic enabling role of local authorities in relation to rationalisation;
• All stakeholders should encourage the Treasury to remove the VAT payable on management agreements