Memorandum by YMCA England (THC 11)
INTRODUCTION
Seventy-eight YMCAs offer accommodation throughout
England with 7,294 bedspaces available every night. In 2003 the
number of YMCA residents was estimated at 22,338.
YMCA England works very closely with the Housing
Corporation, and we are pleased to see the ODPM Select Committee
inquiring into its effectiveness. Overall, we are pleased with
the development of the Corporation and have found them to be effective
in managing local Housing Associations.
1. The effectiveness of the Housing Corporation's
role in ensuring housing associations are:
(a)
Financially sound and responsible—no Housing
Associations have ever gone under, so the Housing Corporation
must be effective in managing this. Where YMCA housing associations
have got into financial trouble the Housing Corporation has acted
swiftly and helpfully to turn the situation around. More recently,
the Housing Corporation has begun to offer more help to YMCA Housing
Associations to manage financial risks and YMCA England was helped
in this regard with the modelling of the impact of rent restructuring.
Sometimes, in the past the Housing Corporation has appointed expensive
and unsuitable consultants to work with YMCA Housing Associations
in difficulty, when the work could have been more effectively
undertaken by YMCA England.
(b)
Accountable—the regulatory code is clear that
Housing Associations should be properly governed and guidance
is available for Housing Associations to use. Board member competence
is an issue on the sector, with more ALMOs and stock transfers
coming on track meaning less good board members to go around.
Where the Housing Corporation has appointed board members to YMCA
Housing Associations it has been a positive experience.
(c)
High quality housing— over the last 10 years
or so, YMCA England has had a development programme of some £45
million which has provided 30 new housing projects comprising
more than 1,000 units of accommodation in managed schemes. Our
current development programme is in the region of £12 million.
Some of the schemes developed have been small rural foyers such
as Craven and Ryedale, whilst we have also built larger YMCA supported
housing schemes with community facilities such as High Wycombe
and Basingstoke. More recently, we have been developing higher
needs schemes of around 20 units and we have done this at Northampton
and Mansfield to name two.
(d)
Diverse housing needs—as stated above, the
Corporation has helped the YMCA develop a great many projects
for young people with support high needs. There is a feeling that
moving to partnering and giving grant to private developers may
concentrate provision on general needs provision. The young people
that the YMCA provides housing to have a place in the community
and Housing Corporation investment priorities should reflect that
and the role that small specialist developing associations can
have.
2. Investment Priority—government
priorities on housing shortages in the south, but there are still
a great many unmet needs for supported housing. Recent moves to
a two year bidding round together with problems over supporting
people funding for new schemes have led to a moratorium on new
supported housing development. The possible time lag before new
development recommences will have organisation consequences for
YMCA England.
3. Relationship with other organisations—our
biggest concern is over regulation for the YMCA, who are subject
to Housing Corporation regulation as well as Supporting People,
Charity Commission and now the Audit Commission. We appreciate
that much has been done to identify the crossover, there is still
a worry about the amount of work regulation will create in small
YMCA organisations.
4. Investment integration—Our experience
from bidding this year is that there is good regional integration
in investment between the Housing Corporation and other bodies.
5. Future role—we are looking forward
to continuing our good relationship with the Housing Corporation
and are at present developing tools for YMCAs to business plan
more effectively. Without a doubt the separating of capital and
revenue funding for supported housing under the Supporting People
regime has had a major effect of the supply of new supported housing
projects. We would seek to see this resolved as soon as possible.
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