You’ve spent many years in the civil service – how will that influence your approach to your new role?
I’d like to think I bring a broad knowledge of and expertise in housing policy, but also the recognition that you can’t develop housing policy without understanding its impact on the ground. That’s where CIH [Chartered Institute of Housing] can come in. We are here to make sure the sector has the talent, skills and resilience to deliver the housing people need, but also to connect the knowledge of how things work on the frontline with the way policies are developed.
The second thing I can bring is an understanding of how government works and the kind of tough decisions that politicians and governments have to take. The key to influencing government is understanding what they are trying to achieve, and then suggesting solutions or helping them understand the potential impact of policies on people and places.
In my last four or five years at the Department for Communities and Local Government I was very involved in developing commercial approaches to housing policy, which will help as CIH develops its commercial activities.
What will be your three main priorities in the role?
First to make sure we are getting the basics right, so that CIH is working as efficiently as possible and we have a robust base from which to build.
My second priority is to make sure that we are helping housing professionals and organisations to provide the best possible services and to respond to the challenges facing the sector. Since I started as chief executive I’ve been struck by the number of different ideas that people have about what we do. If I could sum up what we do in one sentence, it would be this: CIH’s goal is to equip housing professionals and organisations to deliver excellent housing services.
Lastly, I want to build on CIH’s reputation as an independent, authoritative voice on housing. Our policy positions are informed by two things – what the evidence shows and what housing professionals tell us about what works on the ground. We don’t represent any particular interest within the housing industry and we work hard to make sure that everything we say is based on evidence and what works in practice. There is something very powerful about that and I’m determined to make sure we get it right.
How likely is it that the government will build more affordable homes, and how can CIH influence this?
We absolutely want the government to commit to building more affordable homes. There will be a spending review in the autumn and we look forward to working with the government between now and then on how they can achieve that. We’ve made a submission to the emergency budget that calls on the government to honour and strengthen previous commitments on affordable house building. But actually, our big push is going to be on increasing supply overall. We will be combining what the evidence tells us with the expertise of housing professionals to develop policy recommendations that we think will make a real difference.
Are there any particular achievements of your predecessor, Grainia Long, that you’d like to build on?
Three things stand out for me: putting CIH members at the centre of what we do; a relentless focus on the importance of professional standards; and developing strong partnerships with other organisations to make sure we play a part in broader campaigns to increase housing supply.
What can CIH do to keep housing near the top of the political agenda?
The key is connecting the expertise of our members and the housing sector with policymaking. There is a huge amount of knowledge and expertise among CIH’s membership base and I think we can do more to harness that expertise and connect it to the way that policies are developed and put into practice.
We will also continue to do everything we can to provide independent evidence on how our housing system is working and the policies that might make a difference.
Membership numbers are falling – how do you hope to turn that around?
Membership did fall last year, largely as a result of a change to the way we deal with student members. We’ve already increased and improved the number of services we offer exclusively for members, and there are more changes to come.
The changes are bearing fruit but membership numbers probably won’t increase until next year. We have a solid base from which we aim to grow – and we are aiming to grow membership as more housing professionals see the benefits of being part of their professional body.
But it’s about quality as well as quantity. We want to continue to attract people who value what we offer because it helps them in their career.
What changes can we expect from you at CIH?
You won’t see any radical changes in direction. This is an organisation that has gone though a lot of change in recent years, so in my first year my priority is to make sure CIH is operating as smartly as possible. Member satisfaction is increasing according to our latest member survey and some of our commercial products have begun to be very successful. So I want to continue to build on that and make sure we are making the most of the opportunities for growth we have identified, which include supporting organisations as well as individual housing professionals and improving standards in the private rented sector.
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