Memorandum submitted by the Housing Corporation
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. This submission sets out:
— the role of the Housing Corporation
in registering, supervising and investing in social housing providers;
— why we are concerned with their dealing
with financial inclusion, as they house many of the most vulnerable
in society, including 60% of those who are financially excluded;
— the key roles that social housing
providers can play in providing access to the those at risk of
financial exclusion, in providing services directly to their residents
and communities, and in working in partnerships with other organisations
to support financial inclusion initiatives;
— our support for a range of financial
inclusion initiatives over the last few years;
— our current Money Access Programme
to promote more activity by housing organisations, including further
publications; and
— what we intend to do to ensure that
momentum is continued for housing organisations to promote the
financial inclusion of their residents.
INTRODUCTION
2. The Housing Corporation is a non-departmental
public body sponsored by the ODPM. The Corporation supports communities
across England by investing in the supply and regulating the quality
of affordable homes and associated services for people whose circumstances
make it difficult for them to meet their housing needs in the
open market. These include homeless people, low income families,
key workers and those in need of supported accommodation. We also
have the statutory duty to register social landlords and to supervise
them, with the aim of ensuring that they are viable organisations,
properly governed and managed, and providing effective services
to their residents.
3. We welcome the opportunity to provide
information to this inquiry. Our response does not try to respond
to the questions, but rather sets out our aim of getting more
housing organisations involved in promoting financial inclusion
amongst residents and their wider communities.
WHY WE
ARE CONCERNED
WITH FINANCIAL
INCLUSION
4. Housing associations provide 2 million
homes for some 5 million people including some of the most vulnerable
in society in some of our most disadvantaged communities. The
Treasury report of December 2004 estimated that 60% of the people
who are financially excluded live in social housing. Lack of access
to mainstream financial services can also encourage doorstep money
lending, which can exacerbate poverty and has been associated
with criminality and anti-social behaviour. We believe that social
housing providers have significant potential to act as key intermediaries
in accessing and providing support to those at most risk of financial
exclusion.
5. Housing associations have a direct interest
in maintaining the wellbeing of their communities. They have an
interest in ensuring that the residents are able to pay for their
homes easily. They also want to meet their organisations' social
objectives by helping to tackle poverty and deprivation, and by
providing services that enable residents to be fully part of an
inclusive society.
6. Housing associations are well placed
to meet this challenge. As well as providing homes, associations
often deliver a range of services to residents, from help with
childcare to skills training. A significant number have contributed
to the promotion of better access to financial services for some
of the most financially excluded including supporting local credit
unions and Moneylines—a number of these are highlighted
in the recent report for the Housing Corporation by the University
of Salford Community Access to Money referred to in paragraph
10.
7. Over recent years, we have supported
a range of initiatives and publications on financial inclusion
for housing organisations, including presenting the business cases
for active involvement, their potential roles in working with
other organisation in signposting residents to sources of advice
and financial literacy, supporting such bodies as credit unions
and Community Development Finance Initiatives, and developing
affordable repair and improvement loans for owner-occupiers. A
further initiative that we supported was carried out by the Places
for People Group of housing associations and other organisations
that developed a strategic approach to meet the needs of their
different communities across many parts of the country, primarily
by utilising the facilities and services already available.
OUR CURRENT
INITIATIVE
8. The Housing Corporation recently launched
a six month communications initiative under the umbrella title
"Money Access Programme". This initiative focuses on
the promoting and developing the role that social housing providers
are playing—and can play in the future—in tackling
financial exclusion.
OUR AIMS
9. We have set our aims as:
— To highlight the problem of financial
exclusion for individuals, communities and society;
— To demonstrate the opportunities
that housing organisations can have in creating new, innovative
and effective ways of delivering financial inclusion;
— To publicise the work that housing
associations have already undertaken in this key area of neighbourhood
sustainability to external audiences such as Central Government,
people who influence thinking and policy, consumers, and to the
sector itself;
— To encourage the development of further
initiatives to promote financial inclusion;
— To disseminate good practice;
— To stress the business case of financial
inclusion work;
— To promote the availability of additional
funding for housing organisation initiatives, whether from the
Treasury's Financial Inclusion Task Force or from the banking
and finance sectors.
WHAT WE
HAVE DONE
SO FAR
10. In order to achieve these aims:
— We commissioned original consumer
research through household survey questions, getting the key information
that 70% of the general public believe that banking services are
now more important than in the past; that 22% know someone who
has been financially excluded; and that one in twelve people have
themselves been financially excluded at some time;
— In November 2005, we published a
booklet of case studies of good practice brought together by University
of Salford "Community Access to Money: housing associations
leading on financial inclusion" by Bob Paterson, Karl
Dayson and Bill Randall, a copy is included with this submission;
— We have sent a copy of this case
studies booklet with a promotional letter to the largest 500 housing
associations to remind them of the opportunities for their residents
to access financial services.
— In November 2005 we launched the
"Money Access Programme" with press releases and we
were able to get significant national and local media coverage.
This was followed by a further press release in late December
2005 which got further coverage.
FORTHCOMING ACTIVITY
11. To continue to promote housing organisations'
involvement:
— We have commissioned the Chartered
Institute of Housing to update their 2003 publication "Breaking
Free: financial awareness and the role of social landlords";
the aim is to have it published early in 2006. It will contain
some further survey information on the level of involvement in
financial inclusion initiatives by responding associations, including
that some are involved in four or more initiatives, and that some
have been active on the issue for nearly ten years;
— We have commissioned Community Finance
Solutions of the University of Salford to develop a financial
inclusion toolkit aimed initially at housing organisations, but
also to be adaptable for other organisations. The toolkit will
both enable the management in organisations to decide what their
roles should be in the area, and also to enable front line staff
to implement initiatives effectively. We are aiming to have the
toolkit available by May 2006;
— We will be leading a workshop at
the Local Government Association's Delivering Sustainable Communities
conference in February 2006.
— We will be commissioning a series
of events aimed at housing organisations to continue to promote
their roles and to develop further initiatives.
MEDIUM TERM
AIM
12. Our intention is that significantly
more housing associations contribute to financial inclusion initiatives
and that they establish them as a key component of their work
with and for communities. The promotion of financial inclusion
is a significant aspect of the National Housing Federation's `In
Business for Neighbourhoods' agenda which focuses on housing associations'
contributions to communities and neighbourhoods. We will work
with the National Housing Federation to ensure that the aims of
our Money Access Programme are taken forward as part of their
agenda.
13. CONCLUSION
We trust that this information will complement
other submissions to demonstrate the solutions that housing organisations,
in partnerships with other bodies, can bring to promoting financial
inclusion thereby empowering people to have more control of their
individual lives and be more involved in their communities.
January 2006
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