Six major housing trends to look out for in 2023
2022 was an intense year for housing, and it doesn't seem things will slow down in 2023. New reforms and measures and a switch in focus are underway. Are you preparing yourself for the changes? Are you looking to reinforce your commitment to putting tenants at the heart of your services in the new year? The six areas listed below are a starting point:
1. It will be all about the tenants
- Gather information about tenants' satisfaction
- Keep properties in good repair and safety;
- Effectively handle complaints and promote respectful and helpful engagement
- Manage neighbourhood responsibly
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) will collate the measures to produce an overall satisfaction score. How effectively do you collect data to understand your customers and the support they need?
2. Housing quality under the magnifying glass
With the Housing Ombudsman saying that the damp and mould cases are dominating its casework, the attention will continue to be focused on social housing quality and how we can fix issues of damp, mould, leaks and cold housing.
The Housing Ombudsman asked for a zero-tolerance approach and for landlords to adopt a dedicated damp and mould policy.
The pressure to ensure social housing properties meet the high standards that residents deserve is not going away.
The Welsh Government, for example, has written to all social landlords asking for urgent assurance and details about how they have responded to the lessons learnt after the tragic death of Awaab Ishak.
3. Maximising board representation
Racism, ethnic diversity and representation sparked debate last year and will continue to be a big area of discussion in 2023.
The new Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)'s presidential campaign, In My Shoes, led by the new CIH president, Lara Oyedele, will be around racial diversity in the housing sector. The goal is to challenge the sector's complacency regarding ethnic diversity. Read her interview for Inside Housing here.
Recruiting the right people will be fundamental as much as ensuring the community you serve is represented at the senior level in terms of ethnicity and background. Is the leadership in your organisation proactively taking the necessary steps to become more in tune with its customers' wants and needs?
4. Data ownership - ensuring data quality and integrity
In line with points 1 and 2, a key priority for housing providers this year will likely be assessing the quality and integrity of their data. Is your data trustworthy and clear enough to make well-informed decisions?
In light of the new Social Housing regulation, housing providers need to assume that there's room for improvement in their procedures, especially in complaints handling. How robust and accurate is your data in tracking your performance against set targets?
Poor quality data in government (and in business) leads to failings in services provided, poor decision-making and an inability to understand how to improve. Here is a great resource to follow if your goal is to improve your data quality.
A Business Intelligence tool can help you make data-driven decisions to improve your tenants’ lives, by building a clearer picture of your data. Create customisable reports across all areas of your housing system and set them to run regularly, so your team can operate at maximum efficiency. Request a demonstration today.
5. Rent cap on social housing
Social rents in England are set to be capped at 7% from April next year in an attempt to protect social housing tenants from the impact of the cost of living crisis. Sector leaders, however, raised concerns about how the cap will impact housing providers' capacity to invest in homes and services for tenants.
In Scotland, a rent-freeze and an eviction ban were implemented until at least the end of March 2023. However, the Scottish government is not planning to impose any rent restrictions on social landlords for the next financial year.
6. Are we on track to end homelessness by 2024?
2023 will need to see urgent and immediate action if the government intends to meet its commitment to end rough sleeping in England by 2024.
The latest report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ending Homelessness (APPGEH) has outlined five top recommendations the Government should take forward to end all forms of homelessness in England up to 2024 and beyond. View the full report.
How accurate are your rough sleeping figures?
Our Homelessness Reduction Act software, hope, can help you improve your data collection, management and reporting on rough sleeping through the Rough Sleeper module. You can also extract data quickly and in real time through a built-in report builder tool.
Join us in January for our next Connections Forum Scotland event!
Join us to review options for supporting your customers in these financially challenging times
What more can you do to support tenants, housing applicants and domestic abuse survivors as we brace ourselves for the impact of the cost-of-living crisis?
If you are exploring more options, join us for our next Connections Forum Scotland, held on the 23rd of January. This hybrid event will explore welfare support, available tech tools and other options available to best support your customers.
Additionally, find out more about the Revive Scotland project, launched in collaboration between Homefinder UK and Wheatley Group to rehouse women experiencing or at risk of homelessness due to domestic abuse. Revive Scotland recently won the 'Excellence in housing innovation' award at the Scotland Housing Awards 2022.
Attend this webinar to hear from:
- Nicola McQuiston, Letting and Homelessness Lead at Wheatley Group, on Improving the customer journey with a seamless housing integration system
- Scott McKinven, Client Support at Entitledto, on Simplifying the UK’s complicated benefits system to help individuals on the road to financial recovery
- Robby Ogilvie, UX/UI Designer at Lightning Reach, on Connecting individuals to the support they need, seamlessly, quickly, and securely
- Andrea Williams, Project Coordinator at Revive Scotland (Homefinder UK/Wheatley Group), on Delivering a fresh start for domestic abuse survivors
Join this event in-person or online
We are happy to be holding the Connections Forum Scotland as a hybrid event. Online, you can join the event via Zoom. In-person*, the event will be held at the following address: 25 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, G1 1HL. We will also hold a 30min complimentary lunch break at the end of the event for those who attend the in-person session.
Please select your preference for in-person or online on the sign-up page.
*Please note: In-person reservations are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis
Join us on Thursday 26th January 2022,10:00 – 12:00. Register for free, either in-person or online using the this link.
Home Connections and Revive Scotland will be exhibiting at CIH Scotland's Housing Festival 2022: Come and see us at Stand 80!
We are excited to announce, Home Connections will be exhibiting once again, alongside Revive Scotland, at this year's CIH Scotland's Housing Festival!
Scotland's biggest housing event is back for a live event in Glasgow this year. This is your opportunity to come together with fellow housing professionals from across Scotland for thought-provoking, inspiring sessions and face-to-face networking. See the full programme here.
This year’s conference will focus on:
- Housing to 2040
- Our housing system
- Housing futures
- Housing management
CIH Scotland's Housing Festival 2022
Date: 19-20th May 2022
Location: Exhibition Way Glasgow G3 8YW
Time: 09:00 - 17:00
Join as a member to attend the event
Already a CIH member? Secure your free place now: https://www.cih.org/events/shf-2022
Where can you find Home Connections and Revive Scotland?
You’ll find us at Stand 80. Come and visit Home Connections and Revive Scotland to discuss the current housing challenges facing the sector, including changes to national legislation. Talk to us about how we can collaborate to ensure your housing system is able to meet these challenges head-on, through flexibility and high functionality. All whilst providing choice for those in low-income households to find accommodation that suits them.
A new housing option for women experiencing homelessness due to domestic abuse
Do you have any applicants in desperate need of housing due to domestic abuse?
Launched in partnership between Homefinder UK and Wheatley Group, Revive Scotland is a free service that offers additional relocation options for women experiencing or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse. It aims to provide the best pathway to securing safe housing for these women. Here’s what two Revive Scotland movers had to say:
“I am so happy since moving to Glasgow. I have noticed a big difference in my kids. They are happy and sleeping well. They’re not waking up during the night scared. Now we have our own home, I feel we have lots to look forward to.”
“Thanks for making a difference in my life by giving me the support that I needed. This service should be put into place for all people experiencing domestic abuse as it gives them the opportunity to move on quickly, whilst knowing someone is at the other end!”
At stand 80, you will have the chance to discuss how you can make use of Revive Scotland's holistic approach to empowering women with an experience of domestic abuse. Secure your place at the Scottish Housing Festival today!
New social housing report: Minding the Gap
Our new report brings in-depth analysis of property demand data for 50,000 social housing properties advertised through Home Connections' choice-based lettings systems for the past three years. Produced in collaboration with Campbell Tickell and the Policy Institute at King's College London, the report explores the emerging trends and patterns in social housing as we move on from Covid-19.
Social housing supply and demand - the big picture
As one of the very few studies into social housing, the report offers a unique insight into the magnitude of the housing emergency. It offers evidence that a national and robust investment in social housing building is needed now more than ever.
"The most important use for this report is the fresh evidence of the ongoing extent to which the demand exceeds supply" - Jon Slade, Director at Campbell Tickell
In this report, you will find:
- Information about where the social housing supply in England fails to meet demand
- The changed levels of demand and supply year on year
- The types of properties receiving the highest bids and where they are located
- Recommendations to address the mismatch between the supply of and demand for social housing
Emerging trends
This current report expands on the findings from our previous report by investigating whether trends that were established during the pandemic have persisted or changed, as well as any new trends that may have emerged in the last year, including:
- Increased demand for social housing in the South-West
- Significant increase in demand for studio properties
- Reduction in demand for higher price properties year on year
“The cocktail of current crises – war in Ukraine, rising energy costs, steep inflation – may lead to increased demand on social housing in the coming years. A worrying prospect as housing teams across the UK already face immense pressure. This research report is intended to form part of the debate on how these improvements can be identified and implemented” - Ninesh Muthiah, Founder & CEO of Home Connections
How can I access the report?
How can local authorities prepare for proactive consumer regulation?
The Social Housing Regulation Bill is now in Parliament and it will change the way we at Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) regulate all registered providers – including local authorities with retained council housing.
The vision in the Bill is to recalibrate the relationship between tenants and landlords, with a focus on the safety and quality of homes as well as fairness and respect for tenants.
For us, this will mean a shift to proactive consumer regulation. At the moment we regulate consumer standards on a reactive basis. This means we can only investigate issues when they are referred to us. In the future all large registered providers, including local authorities, will need to provide evidence that they comply with our standards. And if registered providers don’t comply, we’ll take action. We’re in the process of updating our standards to align with the Bill and we will consult on the draft standards next year.
We’re already building constructive relationships with local authorities – not least through our current rent regulation which came into effect in 2020, and our ongoing reactive consumer regulation work. And it’s clear from our conversations with council executive teams across the country that there’s growing awareness of the Bill and the positive and important changes it will entail. We’re really grateful for all the useful insights, feedback and questions that local authority colleagues are giving us.
So how can local authorities prepare?
Here are some of the key questions to ask of your organisation now:
- As leaders, do you facilitate a culture where issues can be surfaced and solved rather than buried? Transparency and openness are central to the way we regulate, and they should permeate your culture too. We expect providers, including local authorities, to refer themselves to us when they find a potential breach of the standards. And we expect providers to put things right for their tenants promptly and effectively.
- Do you comply with our current consumer standards? Our 2022 Consumer Regulation Review sets out all the breaches to our consumer standards over the past year. It’s important reading for all providers, and reinforces the point that problems can occur in any organisation. Can you be certain your organisation is free of these issues?
- Do you have good, accurate data to evidence your compliance? We’ll want to see high-quality data on stock condition and health and safety compliance. We’ll also want to know how your organisation responds to tenants’ diverse needs. This means having data to know whether, for example, different groups are less satisfied than others, and the reasons for that. And, if so, having an action plan for improvement. Could you provide this if we asked tomorrow?
- Are you giving your councillors the right information to enable them to make strategic decisions and hold you to account? This comes back to culture and data – without transparency and accurate data management, how can council leaders and portfolio holders ensure good performance?
Proactive consumer regulation is coming and you have the opportunity to help us shape it. But it’s important that, where change is needed, you act now before running out of time.
Angela Holden
Assistant Director of Consumer Regulation at the Regulator of Social Housing
Angela will be joining us for our Connected Housing Webinar for her section "Social Housing Regulation Bill: Meeting demands, reshaping consumer legislation and delivering a positive complaints culture". The webinar will be held virtually on the 27th October 2022. Reserve your spot for free here.
Social housing supply: where we are and where we need to be
At a time when the country mourns the passing of a much-loved Queen and begins to sing ‘God save the King’, we are reminded that the only constant is change.
We have a new Government, a new Prime Minister and an entirely new Cabinet. Unsurprisingly, for the informed observer, we also have our twelfth Housing Minister in just 10 years and a substantial backlog of housing legislation to get through in short order, on planning, social housing regulation, decarbonisation, safety and ‘levelling up’, to name but a few.
Added to this, we have spiralling inflation, a deepening ‘cost of living crisis’ and a shortage of labour, materials and fuel. In many regions, there’s recognition that we have walked, open-eyed, over several generations into a national housing crisis. In some council areas, they’ve formalised this reality by declaring a housing emergency.
At today’s new build completion rates, it would take 126 years to build the housing needed for local people in some parts of the South West. House prices are now 10 times the average income across the entire region and Airbnb has all but destroyed the private rented sector in many coastal towns and villages.
How can we eradicate homelessness?
Given all of this, how can we eradicate street homelessness? How can we support keyworkers to live near their place of work? How do we fundamentally tackle the growing use of temporary accommodation and deal, once and for all, with the relentless build-up of people now waiting on Council lists?
Normally in an unpredictable economic environment, housebuilders will tend to stop building new homes and the Government might turn to Housing Associations to step up with their counter-cyclical model which allows them to continue to build even in a recession.
However, the environment is very different this time and Housing Associations aren’t as counter-cyclical as they once were. Four years of rent reductions are now being followed by a rent cap that is way below inflation. Years of Government policy on development and post-Grenfell costs have changed all that.
So, what does Government need to do to support housing building in this unpredictable and changing world?
Even under these tougher conditions there are answers, but we all need to be prepared to change too.
Join us!
I am keen to discuss, alongside Aileen Evans (Grand Union Housing) and David Bogle (Hightown Housing Association), what it takes to unlock social housing supply at Home Connections’ Connected Housing webinar. The webinar will be held virtually on the 27th October 2022. Book your tickets here. I hope to see you there!
Victor da Cunha
Chief Executive Officer at Curo Group
Do we need a Housing Minister?
Politics, right? You blink - a Housing Minister is out. You blink again - it's the Prime Minister's turn. The political turmoil that overtook Westminster in the past weeks has put the housing sector into a state of near-paralysis after the Housing and Levelling Up department was cleaned out following sackings and resignations. Will the new leadership truly commit to measures that will resolve the housing crisis?
20 Housing Ministers in 25 years
Stuart Andrew's resignation granted him the title of the shortest-serving housing minister since the role was created in 1997. At the Manchester Housing Conference, he committed to the 300,000 homes a year target. He also mentioned plans to encourage councils to build more homes, with an announcement to happen "very soon". Well, "very soon" never happened.
It's now up to the new 'new' Housing Minister, Marcus Jones, to take on the challenge. He will work alongside Greg Clark, who replaced Michael Gove as secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Greg promised the "stability the housing sector needs to support and deliver the government's ambitions housing agenda".
But the housing sector is not so convinced and fears a huge step back in housing policies, including:
-
Abolishing Section 21 and improving the Private Rented Sector
-
Improving housing mobility for social housing tenants
-
Introduction of rent controls as cost of living crisis worsens
-
Building enough affordable homes
In the meantime, 30,000+ people in England have been on a social housing waiting list for 10 years or more
While new housing policies and reforms are put on hold until the Government sort its own mess, the housing crisis continues to spiral. After collecting freedom of information requests from 10 councils with the highest demands for council homes in England, The Big Issue revealed that at least 30,000 people across England are waiting 10 years or more for a social housing property.
Our national mobility scheme, Homefinder UK, offers a valuable move-on alternative for households and providers alike. Over 50 local authorities and housing associations engage with the service to prevent and relieve homelessness. So far, the scheme has rehoused over 1000 homeless households, including domestic abuse survivors.
Social activism is here to stay
The pressure on social housing providers is also increasing as social tenant activism is picking up. The name Kwajo Tweneboa now sounds familiar to a lot of housing professionals out there. The 23-year-old activist has become a voice for social housing tenants after exposing the poor living conditions of some social housing tenants across the UK using video recordings and social media platforms. His actions led the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing to launch an independent panel to help tackle poor-quality homes.
New departments, new processes?
And in the midst of it all, with the political changes and new agendas coming to the forefront, housing providers should expect processes to change. That's when flexibility and configurability can be a game-changer. We are proud to offer bespoke and integrated housing needs software that helps local authorities to keep up with all the changes. Just recently, our Homelessness Reduction Act software (hope) has launched a new integration service to allow housing professionals to submit HCLIC returns directly through our platform, replacing a manual upload to DLUHC's system.
What the housing sector needs is stability and a real commitment from the national Government to turn promises into reality - to solve the housing issues and to help communities across the UK to cope with the cost of living crisis. With or without a Housing Minister.
HCLIC DELTA API – An easier way to stay compliant with the Homelessness Reduction Act
For housing options officers, transitioning to the new HCLIC reporting requirements has not been an easy process since the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) was implemented in 2018.
According to the March 2020 evaluation of the implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act, local authorities faced several challenges in staying compliant with the new legislation, including finding a suitable system that helps them meet the new requirements, including submitting the new HCLIC data reporting.
As the legislation approaches its 5th anniversary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is implementing a new method to automate the HCLIC data upload. Through a brand new HCLIC API, DLUHC will enable housing options officers to submit data directly to DELTA through their homelessness systems with minimal manual input. Some of the benefits include:
- Reduced burden and reliability on key staff who may not be available.
- Single point of data entry and amendments for local authorities.
- More frequent and timely data submissions to DELTA, hence any validation error reports can be more up-to-date, more manageable in size and easier to resolve.
- Earlier and higher quality data published, benefitting local authorities and central government to better highlight issues and monitor performance.
- Better data security.
Home Connections is proud to lead the way in integrating our Homelessness Reduction Act software, hope, with HCLIC API, taking user input on board and feedbacking them to DLUHC to ensure a smoother transition of submission methods. The integration is already live for our hope customers.
We are exploring the new HCLIC API integration in our upcoming hope webinar, to be held on 21st July, from 10-12pm. Details below:
Join our upcoming hope webinar:
How the new DLUHC API will automate HCLIC data submissions – making life easier for you
Thursday 21st July | 10am - 12pm | Zoom
At this webinar, you will:
- Hear from Cait Marlow, Homelessness Analyst for the DLUHC, on how this new approach will benefit local authorities, saving time and effort and reducing validation errors.
- See first-hand how Home Connections has led this implementation working in partnership with hope users and DLUHC, with an exclusive view of how the integration will work in practice.
- Share learnings and discuss solutions for current challenges experienced by local authorities across England.
This event has ended.
Home Connections statement on the Ukraine crisis
Dear Colleagues & Partners,
Home Connections is deeply concerned with the recent tragic developments in Ukraine. We stand with the Ukrainian nation against the aggression and growing humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion.
We write to reassure you that we have no connections to, or relationships with, the Russian government or any significant Russian individuals.
We are a non-profit company registered in the UK with Companies House. We are wholly-owned and controlled by UK local authorities and housing associations, with no private owners.
We pay our taxes in the UK, and we are not registered in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands or any other tax haven.
We also want to reassure you that we are ready to support you deal with any challenges that may arise as repercussions of the Ukraine crisis.
Kind Regards,
Ninesh Muthiah
CEO & Founder, Home Connections
Upcoming webinar: Connections Forum England
Our first Connections Forum of the year will take place on 13th April 2022. Focused on England, this free webinar is exclusive for housing professionals and representatives from local authorities. The event will explore best practice against homelessness and provide useful advice from housing experts, including Jo Beck from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to help you reshape your homelessness prevention services.
Jo will cover the importance of leadership in implementing the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) and highlight financial support available for local authorities.
Gain insights, network with peers and explore:
-
The importance of leadership in embedding the HRA
-
Funding available to support local authorities to end homelessness
-
Overcoming HRA challenges through adopting a bespoke homelessness case management software, hope
-
How to save thousands of pounds on Temporary Accommodation costs by using alternative move-on options
Learn from housing experts
Join our panelists for a discussion and Q&A about winning strategies against homelessness:
-
Jo Beck, Homelessness Advice and Support Team Manager, Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUCH)
-
Justin Haywood, Service Manager (Housing Solutions & Partnerships), Leicester City Council
-
Hamid Khan, Interim Transformation Lead for Homelessness, Brighton & Hove City Council
-
Mark Meehan, Chief Housing Officer at Hammersmith & Fulham
-
Ninesh Muthiah, Founder & CEO of Home Connections
Connections Forum England: Sharing best practice against homelessness
Wednesday 13th April | 10am - 12pm | Zoom
This event has now ended