Does size matter?

At the Social Housing Finance conference this week, there's lots of chatter about our increasingly tough operating environment driving a trend in merger activities, with Homes and Communities Agency's Chair, Julian Ashby, projecting that 50% of all HA stock could be owned by just 12 landlords in a few years time.

Whilst the Governance, Viablity and VFM standard requires Boards to undertake a "rigorous appraisal of all potential options for improving VFM, including the potential benefits in alternative delivery models" let's not forget that M&A is  only one of a number of delivery options.  

Although mergers may well be the right route for some, we're in danger of becoming a one trick pony!   Despite the incredibly flux and uncertainty in our operating environment, we [the housing sector] are still applying the same old thinking, at a time when we need very different results. 

We need to reimagine service delivery models across traditional organisational boundaries - considering all the strategic options in our armour - strategic alliances, partnerships, joint ventures, cost sharing groups, co-located or co-produced services with others working in the same neighbourhoods - the place where our major stakeholder - our tenants and leaseholders - call home.  Let's not lose sight of their voices - and their wellbeing - in all this.

Tenants want local services, delivered by local people which supports the local economy.  They want control of service quality and cost, and have a real voice in how services are delivered.  

I question whether continued M&A activities will leave Boards and residents feeling uncomfortable being 'swallowed up' as part of successive groupings, losing their 'local' feel and focus?  I fear M&A will create groups too large to rescue in the event of collapse - and that social housing will simply be sold off privately if HAs fold.

All this chat about M&A brought to mind this Chartered Institute of Housing paper published in 2012 - Does size matter? Analysing sector performance it found absolutely no correlation between cost, performance or size of landord, and more importantly in our current M&A frenzy, evidenced that scale alone did not automatically deliver efficiency, nor guarantee improvement.

ICYMI it's really worth a read: 
http://www.cih.org/resources/PDF/Policy%20free%20download%20pdfs/Does%20size%20matter.pdf


Sharon Collins
Director, Shared Ventures Ltd
07740 482976
sharon.collins@sharedventures.co.uk 

Drives me nuts! Where's the residents' voice in influencing big decisions?

Influencing Big Decisions

The National Housing Federation's recently published Voluntary Merger Code provides a framework for Registered Provider boards and executives to work to, having decided that a merger, group structure or other partnership "is the best way forward for their organisations and tenants".

However, despite some solid guidance from Savilles, the complete omission of the engagement of tenants in influencing and having a voice in collaboration is deafening.

In fact the word 'tenant' only appears once in the entire guidance - despite merger, group structure and partnership opportunities being key to strategic discussions around how to achieve business objectives and maximise value for current and future tenants.

Take a further search of words like 'consult', 'rights', 'vote',  'customer' or 'involvement' and you draw a blank - despite boards remaining accountable to stakeholders for informed decision making, and Consumer Standards setting out in black and white the need for opportunities for tenants to influence strategic priorities and how services themselves are delivered.

I'm absolutely determined to turn the tide for resident rights and equip them with the skills and knowledge to influence these big decisions - and very happy to actively support Tpas develop an 'alternative merger code' that truly places power and influence in service redesign in the hands of landlords' largest stakeholder - the tenants themselves.  

More soon ...

'Alternative' merger code - Inside Housing 03 05 16 

Health and housing collaboration - Speaking the same language

Speaking the same language

In April 2016, Radian Housing Group hosted a conference where residents and health, housing and other sectors got together to talk about how they can work more closely together.

The Right Honourable Lord Hunt OBE, the Labour Party's health spokesman, Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords and President of the Royal Society for Public Health was the key speaker.  

Health and Housing 2016: Speaking the same language conference helped delegates come together to share insight, expertise and knowledge and began to break down traditional organisation barriers providing space to begin to reimagine what services, delivered collaboratively, could look like.

For me, it's a no-brainer.  What residents want is simple. They want local services, delivered by local people in jobs which support the local economy. They want to retain control of service quality and cost, and have a real say in how services are delivered. 

There is a live decision for the housing sector to debate whether we continue to make or buy … or share co-produced services for the public good. 

The debate on whether or not we can collectively begin to better work together at a regional/sub regional basis to meet the challenges we face is indeed now centre stage. 

Lord Hunt's thought provoking presentation is available by following the link below.  Let's continue the debate using the Twitter hashtag #CollaborateDebate

http://bc-radian.s3.amazonaws.com/_Residents-Documents/HH16_HealthHousing_LordHunt.pdf

Social housing - are we ready to put aside our guilty pleasure?

Are we ready to put aside our guilty pleasure?
To make, buy … or share

Product diversification, growing commercialisation, mergers, acquisitions, insourcing, outsourcing … the sector is awash with tried and tested strategies aimed at mitigating risk and building business resilience.  But how can we continue to use yesterday’s solutions in an operating environment where radically new solutions are needed to solve increasingly complex problems.

We seem so focused on our ‘guilty pleasure’ of remaining autonomous businesses that we have lost sight of the need to fundamentally rethink operating models and traditional service and sector boundaries if we are to free up capacity for new homes, drive efficiencies and protect vulnerable frontline services.

How can we argue as a sector that it continues to make sense for 2,000+ housing organisations - all with similar core values and strategic intent, operating shoulder to shoulder within regions - to maintain traditional service boundaries and operating models which duplicate spend within the same communities.  How is that demonstrating value for money?

Future advantage will go to organisations which can stimulate and support business-to-business collaboration as a lever to both secure and maximise return across all assets of the business.  This means we need to rethink how we can work in collaboration, at a regional level, to deliver more with less resource – and we can do this by sharing.  Sharing front line services such as ASB, community cohesion, financial inclusion, repairs, housing management - as well as sharing back office services too, such as shared IT, financial, legal services, HR etc. 

Shared services ventures are delivered by you to your customers – so control and ownership remains across the partnership.  Sharing ‘directly necessary’ services, means we can share risk, share investment, share efficiencies, share surpluses and ultimately boost capacity for affordable housing.  Who knows, we could even find ourselves generating enough capacity to build homes without any grant funding for years.

How can Boards justify, in the short to medium term, strategic options which don’t at least explore whether collaborative advantage would provide a step change in capacity and capability?    

We’re ready to work with you to find collaborative solutions.  Are you ready to join the conversation?  Join the debate at #CollaborateDebate

www.sharedventures.co.uk

Sharon Collins
Director, Collins Corporate Solutions Ltd

Director, Shared Ventures Ltd
Mobile: 07740 482976