By Suzanne Muna and Lindsay Bush
There is a golden web at the top of the housing association sector. A club whose members are former colleagues and friends from other parts of the sector. The connections they share provide the pathways through which housing associations influence the institutions that fund, scrutinise, and regulate them.
Parts of this web have been mapped by SHAC for the first time.
Powerful Influences
SHAC’s research collated information from the online biographies of board members and executives of the 20 largest housing associations judged by the number of homes. This has been cross-referenced with six housing institutions either partially or wholly concerned with social housing.
A sample of actual connections are mapped in the illustration. For the full database, see here.
Many powerful lines of influence undoubtedly remain invisible because the information relies on self-reporting by the individuals concerned. Also hidden are connections through close friends, family, and partners who work in the sector for example. Thus, what has been exposed is the tip of a very deep iceberg. Nonetheless it shows that the sector is devoid of independent scrutiny.
Our research captures some of the complex networks currently in play. For example, we found that 16 of the senior executives and board members currently employed within 13 of the top 20 housing associations have previously worked for the government’s regulatory and investment agencies. This should give pause for thought.
Regulation
The role of the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is to act as the primary sector regulator. It began life within the Housing Corporation, which carried out both regulatory and investment functions on behalf of government.
The history of housing association regulation and investment does not make for the most gripping reading, but it remains a puzzle that politicians have been unable to solve – should the two functions sit together in a single organisation, or act independently of each other?
The Housing Corporation which funded, regulated, and at one time inspected housing associations was split some time ago, with regulation becoming the Tenant Services Authority, and the investment role merged with a number of smaller housing agencies to create the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). Not long afterwards, the two organisations regrouped and rebranded as Homes England. More recently, the functions were separated once again with the RSH becoming a standalone organisation.
Both the Regulator and Homes England (the housing association investment agency) currently report to Michael Gove at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
These fluctuations are the visible manifestations of government’s internal battle to find the best structure. There will probably never be a satisfactory answer to this question, but the process of splitting, merging, and reconfiguring key agencies is in itself a driving factor in dispersing personnel across the sector.
Poachers and Gamekeepers
The professionalism and conduct of individuals isn’t being questioned here. Instead, we shine a light on the network of connections that create an unfair institutional bias towards landlords.
In all of the board and executive biographies explored, few individuals claim to possess a lived experience of social housing. The law of averages tells us that some of the sector’s senior leadership may have started life in social housing, but this is either not considered worthy of a mention or is at a very low level among the executive layer.
The sector’s leadership is comprised of a reasonably small group of friends and former colleagues, and it stands to reason that these connections mean that the landlord’s interests are favoured while tenant and resident voices remain unheard.
When housing associations employ ex-regulatory or ex-investment staff, they gain a window into the system’s weaknesses and loopholes, as well as a sympathetic hearing in any direct interactions.
Movement in the opposite direction is also beneficial to the landlords. Having one of your former employees elevated to a government housing department or an arms length body doesn’t hurt when you’ve been exposed in the press for bad behaviour, or when new housing laws are being written.
National Housing Federation (NHF)
Of all the sector’s institutions, the NHF is seen in the most negative light by tenants and residents. The NHF claims to be “the voice of England’s housing associations”, although tenants and residents generally view the NHF as the sector’s main apologists, whitewashing and justifying the bad behaviour of its members. The NHF says that the associations it represents are:
“driven by a social purpose: providing good quality housing that people can afford. We support our members to deliver that social purpose, with ambitious work that leads to positive change”.
Assertions which are strenuously disputed by those at the sharp end of high rents, extortionate and inaccurate service charges, watered down service contracts, shoddy service provision, disability and race discrimination, stigmatisation, revenge evictions, censorship, poor complaints handling, unchallenged anti-social behaviour, and of course record levels of mould, damp and disrepair.
The NHF has a web of connections across the sector. The individuals serving on its board and executive are directly linked to 32 housing associations and seven regulatory and investment institutions.
Serial Executives
It is of course inevitable that people move around within any sector and between its regulatory, investment, and regulated elements. The social housing sector is not unique. The sheer number of connections however should be the subject of sharp and critical review by any incoming government.
Ruth Cooke is currently a board member of the National Housing Federation, as well as Chief Executive at GreenSquareAccord. She previously worked in senior roles at L&Q, Clarion, Midland Heart, Walsall Housing Group, Matrix Housing Partnership, and Gloucestershire Housing Association.
Tom Miskell holds chairmanships at both the Northern Housing Consortium and Accent Housing. He also has ties with the NHF, and previously with the Housing Corporation. Past employment includes senior posts at Together Housing Group, Johnnie Johnson Housing, Trans- Pennine Housing, Hambleton Housing Association, Calico Housing, and West Yorkshire Housing Partnerships.
David Orr has a long history and widespread tentacles in the sector. He currently chairs the boards of ReSI Housing and ReSI Homes, Clanmil Housing Group, and Clarion Housing. He was formerly the Chief Executive of the NHF, and worked for Housing Europe, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, Newlon Housing Group, housing charity Reall, plus the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Housing, Church and Community Commission.
Matt Foreman is Executive Group Director at L&Q and was recently Managing Director at Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership (Wheatley Group). He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing, and worked at Northern Tyneside Homes, North Star Housing Group, Durham Housing Group, Your Homes Newcastle, and Derwentside Homes.
The appointment of a serial executive into a new role is often accompanied by claims that their prior experience makes them a great catch for the new organisation. Our evidence shows the untruth of such statements.
The L&Q board and executive biographies boast of connections to six housing institutions and 14 housing associations. It should be a shining example of competence and skill. Yet recent damning statements by both Michael Gove and the Housing Ombudsman show that the extensive experience of L&Q’s leadership team has spectacularly failed to deliver a well-run, expertly governed organisation.
Some individuals may be over-reaching, having several concurrent roles each of which would be testing on its own.
Terrie Alafat is Group Chair for the Riverside Group and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, and is serving as a Trustee at Grosvenor Hart Homes. In previous roles, she was Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, and worked for the Department of Communities & Local Government (now Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities).
Angela Lockwood is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a Non-Executive Director at construction company Mears PLC, as well as being Chief Executive of both North Star Housing and Endeavour Housing Association. She is also a board member with Vivid Homes and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.
Angela’s role at North Star Housing alone commands a salary of £170,000.
Such multiplicity is common amongst the senior leadership of housing associations. While it undoubtedly generates a good income for those bagging a handful of titles, it probably doesn’t do much to provide effective leadership of the organisations they work for, or ensure that decent services are delivered to tenants and residents.
Added to this is the fact that mergers continue to shrink the pool of organisations within the sector. The original G15 group of ‘London’s leading housing associations’ for example has now reduced to 11 housing groups. And the mergers continue apace. In the middle of February 2024, Places for People, already high within the top 20 largest housing associations, announced two further mergers in the space of a fortnight. It is little wonder therefore that the same names crop up again and again.
Absent Voices
A few housing associations have retained tenant and resident board members, but no more than two on boards which typically total around 13, and they never form the majority of members.
This means that tenant and resident organisations aiming to influence the sector’s direction face a monumental challenge. To meet it, SHAC and other housing groups are facilitating the self-organisation of tenants and residents.
Our message to the new government is therefore simple: it is essential to break apart the closed ranks of the sector’s leadership. The homes currently held by housing associations must in future be collectively and democratically managed by those living in the properties. This means that democratic forms of ownership and control such as council housing must be the way forward.
28 May 2024
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