Stormy weather
Social housing organisations in Scotland are battening down the hatches following cuts to the country’s affordable housebuilding programme. So, is there any light on the horizon?
GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT & REGENERATION
Image: Istock
Stormy weather
Social housing organisations in Scotland are battening down the hatches following cuts to the country’s affordable housebuilding programme. So, is there any light on the horizon?
GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT & REGENERATION
Image: Istock
Jason MacGilp
Board Director of Changeworks, former CEO of Cairn Housing Group and former Board Member of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
Jason MacGilp
Board Director of Changeworks, former CEO of Cairn Housing Group and former Board Member of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
Issue 70 | February 2024
On moving on after 12 years as CEO at Cairn Housing Group, here are a few reflections on the past 12 years and the road ahead.
At the time of writing (mid-January) after sub-zero temperatures, and Storm Isha, it is hard not to reach for the obvious weather-based metaphors. We are still getting our collective heads round the implications of the Scottish Government’s budget plans announced in December. Take your pick from the stark headline responses from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations (GWSF), and Shelter Scotland, of the budget being a “mortal blow”, “a hammer blow” and “devastating”.
Constrained as it is by the current devolution settlement and Westminster control of the economy, the Scottish Government has made its choice and unambiguously signalled that the rules of the game have changed for the More Homes programme. It certainly stretches credibility to the limit for ministers to still refer to the delivery of the national 110,000 new homes target as being achievable.
A new scheme opening by Cairn at Rosemarkie on the Black Isle.
Defining moment
It is not that long ago that ministers described the supply of affordable housing as a key national infrastructure programme and vital to achieving social justice in Scotland. The big debate in my early years at Cairn was the new-build grant rate cut in 2010. After successful co-ordinated lobbying from the sector, in 2015 the Scottish Government reinstated grant levels. For 2024, the now planned 27% real terms cut in the new-build programme is a real defining moment.
The sector certainly needs to ask itself some serious questions about why the government has now made its choice to divert national resources away from social housing and towards other programmes. What do we need to do differently?
Despite the best efforts of local authority teams and housing association partners across the country, and Housing First and Rapid Rehousing initiatives, the recently declared housing emergencies in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Argyll & Bute, mean it is hard to see the persistent and rising homelessness figures as anything other than a systemic failure.
The sector’s strength
The strength of the sector is in its diversity, and community-based associations continue to have an important place in Scotland.
At Cairn in 2016, we were an early adopter of hybrid/flexible working, as part of modernising the organisation. Attention to values and culture is always time well spent, extending trust to colleagues to focus on outcomes and quality. Operating models and the expectations of staff and customers are now in flux more than ever before. The future of work, the coming AI revolution, staff expectations from their employers, recruitment and retention all require different thinking.
Over the past decade, Cairn entered into a constitutional partnership with Ancho (North Ayrshire) and a transfer merger with Pentland (in Caithness) which has delivered tangible benefits to tenants and the organisations with a new group structure. Clearly this is not always the right or best solution for others. The recent vote of shareholding members at Reidvale HA in Glasgow rejecting the transfer proposals with Places for People shows that, as long as they can deliver affordable rents, investment and good governance, local associations are still highly valued by communities.
“The sector certainly needs to ask itself some serious questions about why the government has now made its choice to divert national resources away from social housing.”
Identifying resources
There is perhaps more scope and appetite for organisations to explore shared services, joint procurement and shared initiatives on back office services to achieve a step change in our cost model as a sector. Over the past 10 years or more, as digital services have become the default in all sectors, tenants increasingly measure us against their retail/customer experience in the rest of their lives – shopping, ordering goods and services from Amazon, IKEA or supermarkets – not our selected peer benchmarking groups.
A constant throughout the past 12 years has been identifying more resources, including new posts for welfare benefit advisors, to support and maximise income for tenants through the years of austerity, benefit caps and the rest of UK welfare ‘reform’, and the current cost and energy price emergencies.
We increasingly see a mix of what is both inspiring and deeply troubling, with staff collecting for foodbanks, scrabbling for funding for tenants for energy advice, but also blankets, thermos flasks, gloves and air fryers to keep our customers warm and fed. This is both a testament to the sector’s enduring values, and also an indictment of the systemic failure in government policy – at Westminster and Holyrood – to address the basic needs of our citizens, as the wider public sector retrenches to core services only.
A major partnership development between Cairn HA and Harbour Homes at Granton, Edinburgh, part of the city's waterfront development.
Investment innovation
The new Net Zero standards (SHNZS) will certainly dominate governing body decisions in the coming years, with current estimates ranging from £20 billion to £35 billion across the sector in Scotland to meet these new standards. I am yet to hear a convincing statement from the government on how this will be funded. Meanwhile social landlords will need to make tangible progress on the path to Net Zero as part of their asset management and energy plans, without clarity on long-term funding. Positive partnerships projects are beginning to be delivered across the country to decarbonise Scotland’s homes.
Without new funding solutions, it is hard to see anything other than a sharp fall in the national new-build programme in the next few years. The recent collapse of contractor-developer Stewart Milne Group and major associations like Harbour Homes announcing last year that they were halting their new-build programme, is perhaps a sign of things to come. With elections due at Holyrood and Westminster over the next 18 months there is a general sense that both governments have run out of steam and ideas – change is in the air.
So, my congratulations to my successor at Cairn, Audrey Simpson, who starts work in April. She will do a great job. It was a pleasure and privilege to lead the team at Cairn and work with great colleagues and board members and I wish them every success in steering a positive course in challenging times.
The sector continues to be full of well-motivated, values-based colleagues, with the will to overcome the odds, create partnerships and innovate to make the country a better place. After Storm Isha, that is the main thought I am holding on to this dreich morning in Edinburgh. First sign of snowdrops today, and I have a pilgrimage walk in Spain to train for in the spring. Ultreia y suseia (onwards and upwards)!
“With elections due at Holyrood and Westminster over the next 18 months there is a general sense that both governments have run out of steam and ideas – change is in the air.”
