Simon Inkson sets out two prognoses for the strategic housing role…
Much has been written and said about the importance of the strategic housing role of local authorities in Wales recently. But do we really understand and accept the significance of the function? And how can we set about improving the way the role is put into practice by Welsh local authorities?
Why is the strategic housing role so important?
Over the past 15 years, legislation and guidance produced by central government has encouraged local authorities to take a more strategic approach to the provision of housing, which requires a closer collaboration across the whole range of housing and related activities. The strategic housing role now requires close working, in particular between housing and planning, to ensure a more intelligent approach to planning for housing across all tenures and the delivery of integrated housing services.
The strategic housing function is expected to:
- ensure the delivery of seamless housing services to service users and potential service users
- ensure that connections are made across different housing activities to deliver efficiency savings
- contribute to wider corporate aims and objectives
The importance of the strategic housing function has increased over time because of the increasing complexity of housing in a local authority context. Local authorities are required to establish the direction of housing services in a locality, in an environment where:
- housing markets function in an increasingly dynamic way beyond local authority boundaries, across and within regions
- an increasing number and range of housing and housing related service providers operate at a local level
- the interrelated aims and priorities of different arms of local and national government need to be considered
- an intermediate housing market has emerged
- different arrangements for funding and managing housing have emerged
- the range of interventions available to a local authority and its key partners have increased and their impact on the local market needs to be understood
- there is a requirement for evidenced based policy making
The strategic housing function is of critical importance, both to national and local government, because it plays a key role in the delivery of integrated housing services, and because of the importance of good quality housing to the economic and social well-being of the population.
Housing services that are integrated are critical in an era of restricted public sector investment in new housing. The amount of investment in housing in Wales, particularly investment in the development of new social housing, has not kept pace with either the growth in needs, or the growth in levels of public sector investment in other policy areas. Therefore, at a national level, the achievement of the many objectives of Better Homes for People in Wales is almost entirely dependent on a well-developed and adequately resourced strategic housing function operating effectively in each area.
So, where are we in Wales?
The need for a strong strategic housing function in local authorities across Wales has been increasing, mainly as a consequence of the impact of housing market imbalance and the affordability problems that have developed in many areas of Wales. At the same time, there are serious concerns that the centrality of housing and the importance of the strategic housing function is not well understood at any level.
While some national plans recognise the centrality of housing to the delivery of their aims and objectives, the contribution of housing appears to be underplayed in others, such as the Wales Spatial Plan, or almost completely overlooked as in Wales A Vibrant Economy.
The importance of the strategic housing function and its apparent weaknesses at a local level were highlighted in the Review of Better Homes reported to the Local Government and Housing Scrutiny Committee in 2004. The review of Local Housing Strategies undertaken by the Welsh Assembly Government also highlighted weaknesses in the strategic housing function at a local level, identifying a need for the Assembly to support the function by working with the Welsh Local Government Association to provide training for strategic housing officers.
A weak strategic housing function at a local level is one which is starved of resources, where housing activities continue to operate in silos delivering disconnected housing services and critically, where housing is not recognised as a key function within local authorities. This is an all too familiar situation in many Welsh local authorities.
So why are we where we are?
There are many reasons why we are in this position. In both England and Scotland, the strategic housing role of local authorities is more developed than in Wales, but not significantly so. In both nations, what is different is the level of support provided to local authorities by central government and regulatory agencies, effectively guiding and nurturing the function.
In Wales, we are somewhat behind for a number of reasons.
First, local government re-organisation in 1996 created 22 local authorities in Wales, a substantial number of which are small and do not have sufficient capacity or resources to deliver the strategic housing role effectively.
Second, the Welsh Assembly Government, whilst promoting the function at a local level, does not appear to fully understand the function. At times, the Assembly has been guilty of developing and implementing policy initiatives that seriously undermine the function. A notable recent example is the introduction of the new arrangements for allocating Social Housing Grant (SHG). The introduction of development consortia and the allocation of SHG to these vehicles has, and will, make life simpler for Assembly Government officials, but has seriously undermined the local strategic housing function. In doing this, the Assembly has allowed the process of developing new social housing to be determined by personal relationships between housing association chief executives rather than by local or regional considerations which could have reflected those set out in the Wales Spatial Plan. In addition, the Assembly can also be accused of failing to support the development of the strategic housing function to date by not providing guidance on how the role should be put into practice, nor supporting initiatives to train and develop staff who have the responsibility for delivering the function locally.
Third, I feel that local authorities are guilty of failing to understand the role and its importance and consequently do not resource the function properly. In a number of Welsh councils, the strategic housing role is delivered by one officer, who more often than not, has responsibilities for a range of other activities. To expect one officer to successfully deliver the strategic housing function effectively is laughable. More worrying to me is the fact that a number of local authorities do not take the role seriously – less than half of the 22 local authorities responded to a recent questionnaire on the strategic housing function circulated by the All Wales Chief Housing Officer Panel by the deadline date.
Lastly, the main reason we find ourselves in this position is our own collective failure as a profession. We have suffered from a paucity of thinking, an innate conservatism and a failure to grasp the challenge of the changing policy agenda. We have chosen the safe option and stuck to doing what we know best, rather than develop ourselves and our profession. We can hardly whine about housing losing its importance at a local level, when we are responsible by failing to develop in response to a rapidly changing environment and embrace the function which is so important to the housing future of local authorities. We all seem to recognise that the strategic housing role is the key housing function of local authorities – now and in the future. So why do we continue to provide generalist training for students in housing, focussing on housing management, rather than recognising the need to ensure that a proportion of students acquire the skills required to deliver the strategic housing role?
Making sure the strategic housing function works well
We need to ensure that the strategic housing function works well in Wales to guarantee that the future for housing, the housing profession and the communities we all serve, is brighter. Where the function works well, it will ensure that:
- housing interventions are made in the right place and the right time by the right partner, ensuring that the housing market works well
- housing and associated infrastructure investment is maximised and maximum value is gained for the local economy from that investment
- housing connects effectively with other corporate and multi-agency activities
- the Assembly Government has a better chance of delivering its policy aims and objectives set out in Better Homes for People in Wales and any successor strategy
- the critical importance of housing to the delivery of corporate aims and objectives of local authorities is recognised
Where the strategic housing function doesn’t work well, we can expect more of what we have experienced over the last decade – a continual reduction in the status and resources given to housing in local government in Wales.
To develop the function in Wales:
- the Welsh Assembly Government needs to provide guidance for local authorities on the effective delivery of the function and some form of toolkit for local authorities to enable them to identify where and how the function needs to be strengthened
- the Welsh Assembly Government and the Welsh Local Government Association need to develop a series of ‘master classes’ to enable key local authority staff to acquire the broad range of skills required to perform the function, and
- local authorities need to commit sufficient resources to deliver the function either alone or in partnership with other authorities
As one local authority officer said recently ‘it’s time to go on the strategic housing offensive’. As a profession, we need to go on the offensive, effectively getting the message across, whenever and wherever we can. Failure in the strategic housing offensive is unthinkable.
The strategic housing function is the key local authority function of the future – the future is in all our hands.
Simon Inkson is an independent housing consultant who can be contacted on 01792 202764 or by email.