The Chartered Institute of Housing annual conference, taking place this week in Harrogate, is an opportunity for thousands of us to come together and work through the huge changes in housing and welfare policy.
The coalition government's No 1 priority since it came into power has been clear – reducing the deficit. At last year's conference, we responded by bringing the sector together to create the "housing pact", which reflected a drive to do more with less. The pact was a set of offers from the housing world tied to some equally important demands of the new government. So how have things progressed 12 months down the line?
It has been incredibly tough. On the housing sector's side, I'm proud of the innovation we've seen in making scarce public investment go further to provide new homes; of the progress on customer-focus and accountability for tenants; in more partnership working on housing and health; on the work to inform the reform of the council housing finance subsidy system; and on the offers made to tackle worklessness while fighting for a better set of welfare reforms. But there is a lot to do to protect frontline services in the face of savage government cuts.
Reductions in capital investment, the loss of funds for private sector renewal work together with major social housing reform will mean big changes to the way our sector operates. The investment framework – built on rents up to 80% of market rates and proposals for new flexible tenancies – has prompted serious concerns about maintaining stable communities.
Housing-benefit caps and wider welfare reforms will also affect many and will increase demand for the homes and services delivered by the sector. All this is coming at a time when those services are under pressure because of changes to funding structures. The cumulative effects are worrying.
Yet, as a whole, the sector continues to achieve. Between March 2010 and March 2011, housing associations completed 22,470 new homes for rent and local authorities delivered 1,250, according to government figures. About a quarter of new homes were delivered by the social sector. Innovation and creativity will continue to be needed if we are to get near to the target for 150,000 new homes by 2015. And we need to think beyond the numbers to the quality, range and choice of housing required to create and maintain vibrant local communities.
On the government's side, it's a mixed picture. On the plus side, we've seen more positive statements about the need for new development – although this leadership role hasn't yet filtered down to the local level. Measures such as the Green Deal are aimed at delivering on our demands to tackle housing's carbon footprint, and self-financing for councils will become a reality as part of the localism bill.
But there remain too many areas of genuine concern. Services for vulnerable people are at real risk because of cuts to the overall settlement for local authorities; funding for new affordable social housing has been badly hit; consumer-based regulation has been abandoned and welfare reforms threaten to create poverty and reduce social mobility.
Even more reason for people who care about housing to get involved in creating this year's housing pact and being part of presenting the sector's demands to Grant Shapps, the housing minister, on the last day of the conference.
Sarah Webb is chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing
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