There has been a lot of less than positive press regarding the impact of budget cuts. However, we need to consider how organisations adapt to ensure they can still deliver first rate services. We have spoken to some key leaders across the industry to see what they are doing.
A key theme coming through from many organisations is the desire and drive to keep developing. Ruth Cooke, Finance Director at Midland Heart says, “As the funding model is broken we need to find another way of working and we have had to adapt our business plan to accommodate this. The fact of the matter is that we don’t see demand decreasing and actually, we see it increasing, so we need to find a new model for developing. There are 120,000 people on the waiting list in Birmingham and we have a responsibility to try and reduce that”. So, faced with these huge numbers what are people doing to resolve this?
Paul Tennant, Group CEO of Orbit Housing Group, one of the largest registered providers in the country, states, “As an industry we need to be looking at flexibilities in getting houses built- we’re not looking for special measures because we work in social housing but there needs to be the understanding that there are significant benefits from developing- it brings about jobs, which means less strain on housing benefits and also more taxes are being paid back into the system by those people in work”. The difficulty here seems to be in finding suitable measures to help housing providers keep developing through the usual channels and so innovation and creative thinking is needed.
Simon Kimberley, Chief Executive of Optima Community Housing, a strong developing organisation in the Midlands comments that, “We have seen that you can’t reduce grant rates too much without it having an effect, so we need to look at other options. We are looking at alternative tenures including private sector housing to see if that’s a viable option for us at the moment”. This is an approach that has been banded about on numerous occasions as a way of increasing housing supply, but it seems peoples hands are being forced now to try and build it in to their housing strategy moving forward.
Perhaps the biggest theme that came from our discussions was the need to start working collaboratively. Organisations are exposed to more risk, and can source less cost efficiencies when working in isolation and there seems to be a real feel of the sector as a whole coming together to find joint solutions, like splitting the costs in retro-fitting and new-build schemes across a number of providers and developers.
Strong leadership is also key from an internal perspective, to ensure everyone is looking at their own remit and identifying better ways of working. If an organisations leader can encourage these behaviours, then the organisation as a whole will demonstrate a willingness to find ways to develop new properties and in turn house more people. Paul Tennant explains, “I think the key is in organisations showing strength of leadership, and also demonstrating an investment in staff. We have to engage in our people and involve our staff in the decisions.
“By making staff question their day-to-day operations and asking them to see efficiencies. We have tried to humanise the cuts so we are all pulling in the same direction”.
In order to help support organisations during these times, we’ve noticed an increased demand in engaging interim management professionals who specialise in being able to find efficiency savings in the asset management/development field. People who are able to review processes, re-negotiate contracts and identify smarter ways of working are worth their weight in gold and they can easily cover their costs. Additionally, they are able to carry out a short term review of services across the board in order to evaluate potential cost savings which far outweigh the initial cost.
