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Housing 2018: Tuesday 26 June 2018

Opening address by Terrie Alafat CBE, chief executive of CIH

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Housing

2018.

We come together in Manchester after another

year of change and challenge for the housing

profession and after a significant period of

reflection.

Just over a year ago we met here shortly after one

of the most horrific human tragedies any of us will

ever witness.

Back then it was too early to make sense of what

exactly had happened at Grenfell Tower, or to

truly understand how we needed to respond.

The Grenfell tragedy was, first and foremost, a

human tragedy and we must always remember

that.

It was the very worst reminder that housing is all

about people.

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And the overwhelming sense at Housing 2017 was

one of shock, sadness and disbelief that so many

people had lost their lives, in such awful

circumstances.

But there was also a strong collective sense that

this must never happen again.

The implications of the Grenfell tragedy are wide-

ranging and stretch far beyond social housing.

They ask fundamental questions about our system

of building regulations and our building and

construction industry’s ability to deliver the

homes of the quality and safety we have a right to

expect.

But there’s no doubt that Grenfell also shone the

spotlight on our sector and posed important

questions about the work that we do.

It was against this backdrop that we felt the need

to act.

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We felt this was the time to take an honest and

critical look at what we are here to do and explore

a fundamental question:

What is the role of social housing?

That might seem like an obvious question, but the

truth is after decades of change and challenge, we

must now answer it.

We can continue to make the case for more

investment in new social housing.

And we can continue to push for more support for

our work to create great communities and help

people lead healthy, happy lives.

But unless as a sector, and as a nation, we really

understand what we want social housing to be,

and unless we are willing to take an honest look at

our own contribution, how can we make the case

for more support?

How can we argue compellingly that the answer

to the housing crisis lies with the professionals in

this room and across the UK?

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How can we claim that we are doing all that we

can in the midst of the housing crisis, to support

people to get a home they can afford and pursue

the life they want to lead?

With that in mind we joined forces with

organisations across the housing sector on a

project called Rethinking social housing. Many of

you are here this week.

Today, on the first day of Housing 2018, we

publish the results of that project along with our

recommendations to the government and the

housing sector.

So what did we do?

Well, first of all we felt it was vital that the sector

led this debate.

I was delighted to see more than 3,000 people

who live and work in social housing take part in

our workshops and have their say.

I was also particularly pleased to see 40% of the

people who took part were tenants and residents.

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As we had hoped, as well as providing crucial

insight, many of those who took part commented

on how this was an opportunity to come together

and reflect on the role and purpose of their own

organisations at a hugely important time.

We also asked the public what they thought;

working with Ipsos MORI on a survey to gauge

perceptions of social housing.

And, with the help of the project’s advisory group,

we conducted a thorough review of evidence to

explore what this could tell us about the role of

social housing.

The results were clear and your voice was

powerful and compelling.

There was a strong sense, both from the people

who live and work in social housing, and the

public, of the crucial role it plays, as well as a

sense that we desperately need to reclaim it.

Our respondents said that social housing has a

central role in providing decent, affordable,

quality housing and support to help people thrive.

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Crucially, they also said that this is needed now

more than ever.

It is clear, first and foremost, that we need more

homes.

We all know that the lack of genuinely affordable

housing is the biggest problem we face. And that

social housing can provide a big part of the

solution. And the public agrees.

Of the people we surveyed in our Ipsos MORI

polling, 80% agree social housing is important

because it helps people on lower incomes get a

home.

68% said social housing plays an important role in

tackling poverty and 63% support the building of

more social housing in their communities.

Yet despite that support, and despite open

recognition from the government that it needs to

do more, we are still way short of where we need

to be.

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We have not seen anywhere near the investment

in genuinely affordable housing that we

desperately need if we are going to tackle the

housing crisis.

That’s why today, in our Rethinking social housing

report, we call on the government to urgently

look at the balance of its overall housing

investment.

Of the £53 billion earmarked for housing until

2021, just 21% is directly allocated to affordable

housing.

That simply cannot be an equitable share of public

funding for housing.

And neither is it in any way reflective of the

balance of housing need in our nation.

Of course, for many people affordable housing

has become anything but affordable.

In fact, the only truly affordable homes for many

are those offered at social rent.

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It is extremely worrying then, that not only are we

not building enough of these properties, we are

losing them - haemorrhaging them in fact - at the

time we need them most.

As a result of the Right to Buy and other factors,

we have lost 150,000 social rented homes in the

last five years and our projections demonstrate

that we will lose another 80,000 by 2020.

So today we’re calling on the government to

definitively and significantly invest in homes

offered at social rents.

I can also reveal that we are calling on the

government to suspend the Right to Buy.

It’s true that the desire for people to own their

own home continues to be strong.

In our public poll, 86% said they would choose to

buy given a free choice.

And at CIH we have led the way in promoting

shared ownership and other means of helping

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people to achieve the aspiration of owning a

home.

But if we are supporting people to own their own

home, it cannot be at the expense of everyone

else.

In reality, the abiding legacy of the Right to Buy is

that we have lost hundreds of thousands of our

most affordable homes.

It’s simple - we need to find new ways to help

tenants into home ownership, because this is

clearly not the way to do it.

We are also today urging the government to

create a much stronger link between social

housing rents and local incomes. And we’re calling

on housing providers to do all they can to set

rents which are genuinely affordable to the

people in their communities.

And we are reinforcing our calls for the

government to address elements of welfare policy

which continue to prevent people being able to

get access to a decent, affordable home.

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The simple truth is that if we cannot turn this

situation around quickly, then future generations

will pay a heavy price.

Brexit continues to dominate the government’s

agenda, in large part because its ramifications for

our children and their children could be very

significant.

But while the long-term impact of Brexit remains

unclear, the impact of our housing crisis on future

generations is depressingly easy to predict.

We know that if the government does not commit

to building more of the right homes, in the right

places, at the right prices, our housing crisis will

continue to worsen and the prospect of our young

people getting access to a home they can afford

will be bleak.

We know too, that our ever-growing

homelessness problem will continue to deepen.

And on that let me say this.

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The fact there are so many people without a

home in 2018 is a national disgrace that we simply

have to act on, and act on now.

We have solved this before and we can do it

again.

We know what we need to do.

We need a cross-departmental strategy on

homelessness, and support and resource for the

organisations working to tackle this huge issue,

and we need it now.

Homelessness has to be a top government

priority.

Ensuring social housing takes its rightful place at

the heart of our society is not just about building

more.

It’s about taking an honest and critical look at

whether we are delivering the homes and services

that the people in our communities need and

deserve.

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One of the things which the Grenfell tragedy also

brought into question was the extent to which the

voice of tenants and residents was truly being

heard.

The message from the people who took part in

our workshops was very clear on this – we need

to do much, much better.

And this means placing tenants and residents

where they belong - at the heart of our work.

On this we make some strong recommendations

today.

We are calling on the government to review the

consumer regulation that is supposed to protect

social housing tenants and residents, in particular

the tenant involvement and empowerment

standard.

And we want tenants and residents to be given

more power to shape the direction of future

government policy at a national level.

There’s also a challenge to you here.

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We’re asking you all to review the way that you

involve tenants and residents in the services you

provide.

And to ask yourself if you are doing everything

you can to make sure your services reflect their

input and meet a level of quality you and they can

be proud of.

We all need to make sure that our tenants and

residents have a voice and receive quality

services.

It makes good business sense and it is simply the

right thing to do.

And there’s a broader point here too.

Though the recommendations in our report

suggest action on the part of the government, we

cannot wait.

We can and must start to make this happen.

We’ve got to challenge ourselves more than ever

and ask what more we can do?

We believe the answer is a lot more.

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It’s becoming more and more apparent, that the

question about the role of social housing is really

a wider question about the society that we want

to live in.

One of the people who took part in our

workshops captured that sense perfectly.

They said:

“Social housing was built on the basis that people had the right to dignity, stability and a chance to raise families and create secure communities and a good local economy. That is what it should continue to be.”

The real question we have to ask ourselves is this:

Do we continue to see social housing as a

necessary and desirable part of a civilised society,

or not?

It was clear that the vast majority of the people

we have consulted in the last 12 months agree

that we should.

And today we say this.

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It’s time to reclaim social housing and put it

where it belongs - as a central pillar of society

alongside free healthcare and education.

Despite the widespread support today’s report

demonstrates, it’s also clear we still have a long

way to go to eliminate some of the stigma that

exists about people who live in social housing.

The negative effects of this came across very

strongly from the workshops we conducted.

And our public poll showed there are numerous

misconceptions about the people who live in

social housing.

On average, people we surveyed thought 31% of

people living in social housing were immigrants,

when in reality just 8% are.

Meanwhile there’s a lack of understanding around

how many people live in social housing, with the

average person thinking 39% of adults live in

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social housing in England, compared to the actual

figure of just 17%.

And nearly half of the people we surveyed

believed there are more people living in social

housing today than there were five years ago,

when in reality the figure has remained static.

We can’t underestimate the significance of this.

There may be public support for social housing,

but while misunderstanding and stigma remain,

there will always be a need for us to do more to

tell positive stories about our work.

Today we make that plea to you, and I would ask

you all to consider if you can do more to portray

your work and your people in a positive light and

tell a more compelling story about the work you

do.

Another thing came across very clearly during this

project.

And that is that social housing is not inherently

about vulnerability or poverty, though we should

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be rightly proud of helping people in these

circumstances.

It is actually quite simply about providing a home

and support for people that need it.

Social housing tenants are not different to

everybody else.

We have to get away from the idea that they are.

People who live in social housing want a place to

live and to be able to pursue the lives they want

to lead.

Whatever stage in their life they are at and for

whatever reason they need social housing; they

want a place of security, safety, warmth and

comfort.

They want a place from which they can thrive.

Our role is to provide that.

When the earliest pioneers of social housing set

about their work the conditions were very

different, but their aims and objectives were the

same.

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I come back so many times to the quote from

Octavia Hill about the role of the housing

profession.

“To make lives noble, homes happy and family life

good.”

More than a century after Octavia said those

words, for me they still capture the essence of

what we should strive to achieve.

Is it time for us to refocus on that core purpose?

To provide a quality, affordable home for people

who need it and to give those people support so

that they can thrive?

It’s not rocket science is it? But it’s so important.

I’ve heard people suggest that we need a new

name for social housing, but I’m not sure I agree

with that, because those two words say it all

really.

They speak of community, of togetherness, of

working, of family and friends, of happiness.

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Doesn’t that describe exactly the sort of housing

we should aspire to create and the contribution

that our sector should strive to make?

We must restate our commitment to the social in

social housing.

And while there is no doubt we need more

support from the government to tackle the

housing crisis - as a sector we must all challenge

ourselves to keep that focus.

We must challenge ourselves to make the very

real social and economic value of our contribution

clear.

And to get across its huge contribution to the

health and wellbeing of the people who live in our

communities.

We must make our work about people.

That is why every single one of us is here.

Not buildings, not innovation, not operating

margin.

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We must pursue all of those things but they are

not WHY we are here.

We are here for people.

One of the main reasons we launched Rethinking

social housing was to make the case for our

sector.

And with your help we have done that.

We have, together, said strongly and clearly that

social housing has a crucial role to play in society.

And we have given the government and the

sector clear recommendations about what we

think needs to happen next.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our

sponsors and advisory group members and

everyone who took part in the project over the

last year.

I also want to tell you about our aligned projects

in our nations across the UK.

In Wales, CIH Cymru is doing fantastic work in its

Tuvvy Tie project and in Northern Ireland our

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Rethinking social housing project is exploring

similar questions.

Both of those projects benefit hugely from the

knowledge and understanding of the unique

context in each nation.

I said earlier that housing is all about people.

And that is true on so many levels.

Because as much as housing is about helping

people, its delivery also relies entirely on people.

It relies on committed professionals, doing great

work to make a difference every day.

And that’s where you come in.

As your professional body we are proud to

support you.

We’re proud to help you gain the skills and

knowledge you need to be the best you can be

and make that crucial difference.

Because you are the people that make it happen.

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You tackle the harsh realities of our housing crisis

every day.

You give people a home and other crucial support

to help them live their lives.

What could be more important?

We will always support you to do this.

That is what this week is all about.

It’s about coming together to learn, debate, share

ideas and challenge each other to be better.

It’s a chance to be part of something bigger.

A chance to exert our collective influence and

demonstrate that, together, we are here to

provide the solution to our housing crisis.

Thank you for listening and have a great week.