WRITTEN EVIDENCE
SUBMITTED BY
THE NATIONAL
HOUSING FEDERATION
(LOCO 12)
The National Housing Federation is pleased to provide
evidence to the Committee's enquiry into the Government's plans
for localism and decentralisation of public services.
The National Housing Federation represents 1,200
independent, not-for-profit housing associations in England, and
is the voice of affordable housing. Our members work with communities
to provide better homes and neighbourhoods, at present providing
two and a half million homes for more than five million people.
SUMMARY OF
THE FEDERATION'S
EVIDENCE TO
THE COMMITTEE
¾ Housing
associations are a locally responsive model of public service
delivery.
¾ Housing
associations could be more responsive to local needs if the regulatory
system removed bureaucracy and top-down direction by the state.
¾ Citizens
must be empowered to hold local authorities accountable for their
spending decisions, particularly around services for the vulnerable.
HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS
AND LOCAL
PUBLIC SERVICE
DELIVERY
Affordable housing is a unique public service. It
is the only public service where the greater part of provision
is outside the hands of the state, with independent, not-for-profit
housing associations now providing the majority of social housing
in England.[4]
Successive governments have supported the expanding
role of housing associations because they have recognised that
the sector is:
¾ Well-run,
with strong governance and resident involvement.
¾ Able
to borrow from lenders to lever in private investment, more than
doubling the value of any public investment.
¾ Responsive
to the residents and communities it serves.
The new government is committed to building a "Big
Society". The Prime Minister has spoken of building "a
culture of voluntarism, philanthropy, social action".[5]
Housing associations' are outstanding examples of these principles
in action, as independent not-for-profit charitable organisations
which exist to meet local housing need.
The Federation also notes the Governments' commitment
to new models of service delivery such as academy/free schools
and GP commissioning. Housing associations have always operated
on the basis of a local self-governance model, and over the last
20 years the sector has taken on responsibility for over 1 million
homes from local authorities, through the stock transfer programme.
Academic research shows that following transfer,
housing associations have been able to focus single-mindedly on
improving housing conditions and housing services, and stimulating
tenant involvement through the widespread establishment of tenant
working groups, resident panels, area committees and the like.[6]
This resident involvement builds on the strong history of resident
involvement in traditional housing associations.
Many of the issues residents wish to see addressed
extend beyond the provision of "bricks and mortar".
These are often extremely localised and occur at neighbourhood
or street level. Working with residents, housing associations
have taken locally responsive decisions to address these specific
local needs. The cumulative impact of this work has grown to the
extent that it benefits more than 1 in 10 of the population.
Taken together, housing associations now invest £435 million
each year in neighbourhood services.[7]
The relationship between provider and recipient in
affordable housing is underpinned by a very clear contract, in
the form of the tenancy agreement, which clearly sets out the
rights and responsibilities of both parties. The housing association
sector recognises that our residents are consumers, and their
expectations of us as service providers are continually rising.
Housing associations stand ready to meet that challenge.
It is clear that housing associations offer a locally
responsive model of service delivery. The sector has been delivering
on the principles of local self-governance and the Big Society
for some years and will continue to build on this.
HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS
AND REGULATION
The regulatory regime which housing associations
are subject to has supported them to deliver more and better housing,
but too often it has also imposed bureaucratic barriers and needless
administrative burdens as successive Governments have sought to
impose their ideas on an independent sector.
Our views on the future regulatory arrangements for
the sector are set out in detail in our response to the Government's
review of the Tenant Services Authority[8]
but can be summarised as:
¾ Robust
economic regulation to help maintain the financial viability and
reputation of the sector, as well as protecting the interests
of taxpayers, lenders and tenants.
¾ A leaner,
better focused regulator dealing with economic issues and governance,
potentially funded by fees from the sector and thus without cost
to the taxpayer.
¾ Reinforcement
of the "non-public" status of independent social housing
providers.
The Federation believes that given suitable regulatory
arrangements, the sector will be able to fulfil its potential
in addressing pressing social needs, and will be still more responsive
to local needs.
THE NEED
FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
ON SPENDING
DECISIONS
The Government has announced radical changes to the
oversight of local government and other agencies. It has also
proposed changes to existing funding streams to increase flexibility
at local level.
These changes place a responsibility upon all citizens
to hold local government to account through the local electoral
process. This in turn means it will be increasingly important
that the electorate are provided with sufficient information to
enable it to make informed judgements about the priorities and
performance of local administrations.
The Federation believes that it should be clear to
citizens, civil society organisations and elected councillors
which funds are being allocated to local authorities by government,
and how they are being spent.
In particular, this should include clear information
on funds provided through the area based grant, broken down into
the grant areas which make up this pot; plus details of outturn
expenditure. This will allow citizens to scrutinise decisions
and accurately determine which level of government is responsible.
We therefore support the enhancement of the Local
Spending Reports, legislated for by the 2007 Sustainable Communities
Act, to provide clear and practical information to the public.
September 2010
4 Communities & Local Government housing statistics
shows that in 2008-09 there were 2,195,195 homes owned by housing
associations, compared to 1,819,696 owned by local authorities.
See
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/table100.xls Back
5
Prime Ministers speech on the Big Society, Liverpool, 19 July
2010. Back
6
See "Maturing Assets : The Evolution of Stock Transfer
Housing Associations", Hal Pawson and Cathie Fancy, 2008. Back
7
Neighbourhood Audit, National Housing Federation
http://www.housing.org.uk/Uploads/File/About%20us/audit07/090721%20N'hood%20Audit%20-%20main%20report.pdf Back
8
http://www.housing.org.uk/Uploads/File/Policy%20briefings/Neighbourhoods/TSA%20Review%20-%20nsre2010sb01.pdf Back
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