Jo Blogs.... A fortnightly update from Northern Housing Consortium Chief Executive, Jo Boaden

20th February

6th February

All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North

The APPG for Housing in the North met on the 24^th January at Parliament. The theme for the meeting was Challenges and Opportunities to deliver homes in the North. Deborah Mclaughlin from the HCA attended to update parliamentarians on the progress with the HCA delivery programme and gave a very useful insight into the state of the northern housing markets. MP's were particularly interested in the state of the private rented sector and direction of rent levels - we agreed to do some further work on this.

At the previous meeting we discussed the problems facing first time buyers in particular in accessing mortgages -we were very fortunate to have a new customer of Gentoo's Genie product with us. Lorri told the MPs her story, setting out the impact not being able to afford a mortgage was having on her family life and the benefits provided by Genie.

Finally, we discussed the current state of Welfare Reform proposals with the MP's and they asked the NHC to continue to monitor the impact and in particular to look at the capacity of the discretionary housing benefit fund.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 2012 and is around the theme of housing and financial inclusion.

If you would like an update on the work of the APPG or our wider engagement with parliamentarians please don't hesitate to contact Charlotte.Harrison@northern-consoritum.org.uk

24th January 2012

We are currently updating our web site and you will see the completely new site in the summer. As part of this we are doing some immediate changes to help us deliver better services.

From tomorrow you will be able to find  on our website a link to the constituency profiles we have produced for the 58 MPs that have joined the All Party Parliamentary Group.    A copy of the link is below:

Please click here to view the profiles for your constituency profiles.

Profiles will shortly be available for all   Northern MPs.   The profiles cover how the constituency is performing on a variety of issues covering the economy, welfare, health and social care, and the environment. We hope you will find them useful when engaging with MPs and other key stakeholders and we would be really interested in your feedback.

We will be using them when we meet with the APPG on Tuesday and we will of course be keeping you informed on what is covered.

Please email blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk with any comments or feedback.

9th January 2012

2012 is going to be a challenging year for us all, and one in which we need to ensure our voice is heard now more than ever. Many of the Government's proposals are likely to have a greater negative impact for the North, whether it is through welfare benefit reform or the changes to right to buy being highly unlikely to enable 1 for 1 replacement. The Consortium will continue to high light these and many other vital issues through the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Housing in the North in our campaign to gain better understanding and hence more Northern sensitive policy. And while we are clear and straightforward on those issues that negatively impact on the North we also ensure we emphasise the innovative and effective action that our Members take to provide the housing that is so desperately needed. If you have a project you would like us to highlight to the APPG please let us know.

It was great to see Members being recognised in the Queen's New Year's Honours list. Many congratulations to Sally Hancox, director at Gentoo Green, who was honoured for services to reducing carbon emissions and fuel poverty; Fiona Jane MacGregor, head of affordable housing at the Homes and Communities Agency who received an OBE for services to housing and Susan Ratchford of Northwards Housing for receiving an OBE for services to local government in north Manchester.

19^th December 2011

Christmas is nearly here and we await the Government's consultation documents on fraud in social housing, higher rents and higher incomes, and changes to Right to Buy. The documents are due for release shortly and we will be working with you to ensure a Northern Voice is heard on these critical issues. The Localism Bill has now become an Act and Welfare Reform moves closer to gaining Royal Assent - we now see policy moving into practice and we will be working with you on a host of projects in the New Year - including identifying the economic impact of housing and seeking opportunities to engage with LEPs, practical tools to help you through Welfare Reform changes, working with providers and credit unions to support financial inclusion - and much more! More details on our plans can be found here.

This year has shown more than ever the need for a coherent voice for the issues affecting housing in its broadest sense. Through the growing momentum for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North and the other work we are doing on early day motions, parliamentary questions etc we hope, with your support , we can gain and promote a better and wider understanding of the very different impact of many policies for the North and action to deal with policies that impact unfairly on communities in the North.

This is the last ezine of 2011 therefore I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

To provide any feedback or for further information please contact blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk.

28^th November

The NHC has returned to the office following an extremely successful Northern Housing Summit 2011.

With a focus on innovation and opportunities for the North, the conference hosted speakers including; David Miles, Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Ian Mearns, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North, and Andrew Stunell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government. The conference further raised the profile of Housing in the North and stressed the important role housing plays in supporting and developing local economies by providing a wide range of positive practice examples. Some of these examples were seen through the Northern Silver Screen, Big Society in Action Awards and I would like to congratulate each of the winners and the nominees in each category.

Of course a key talking point at the conference was the Housing Strategy which was released last Monday (21st November). We responded to the strategy by producing a on the day briefing for members and this can be downloaded here. We took the opportunity at the conference to produce a series of short films which captured our Membersopinions on the details of the strategy- you can view the films on YouTube by clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/NHConsortium#g/p

We also used the platform of the Northern Housing Summit to launch three important initiatives for the Consortium. The first, Smarter Buys, I have mentioned previously in my blog the concept of a group discount deal scheme specifically for social housing tenants was met with great interest from the membership and I will update you shortly on when this service will be available. The second initiative was the Efficiency Market Place (EMP), a new electronic platform that will transform the way NHC Members access goods and services, as well as allowing you to share and trade resources within the social housing sector. Again, we received positive feedback about this service and I will share how and when Members can access this in future blogs.

The final initiative we launched was a new procurement alliance with Procurement for Housing and Fusion21. The new alliance will generate social outcomes as well as cost savings for over 1,000 social landlords.
The new alliance aims to overcome the duplication and complexity created by the range of consortia options available to the housing sector. It will also link procurement spend to wider community benefits such as job creation, training for disadvantaged groups and supporting local SME suppliers.

A full update of the latest activity from the NHC can be found within the full articles in this weeks ezine.

There is much to follow up on from your input at the Summit and we will be using your ideas and suggestions to support the APPG and our work more generally. Another busy week for the Consortium!

For further information or to provide views on the topics covered, please email blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

14^th November

I recently wrote to all the Chief Executives within our membership to inform them of a new initiative for us,'Smarter Buys'. We have received overwhelming interest in the initiative so far and I would like to further gauge the level of interest and to offer you the opportunity to share your views on the idea.

What is 'Smarter Buys'? 'Smarter Buys' is a group discount deal scheme designed specifically for social housing tenants.

Working with Groupon, we have agreed that they will negotiate deals on NHC's behalf. These deals will make products and services available at discounts of up to 70%. The intention is for these deals to focus on products and service areas where we know that the most vulnerable in society are often exploited, such as white goods and computer equipment. We are also working with ABCUL to ensure that credit unions are aware of the Smarter buys deals and will be ready to quickly process credit applications for those who need them.

How would it work? You would promote NHC's Groupon - 'Smarter Buys' - to your tenants through all of your existing communications channels - newsletters, website, SMS alerts etc, and make the link to the site available on your website, and encourage people to supply their email addresses to sign up as 'members'. This would need to be a planned campaign of activity that introduced the idea, then advised them of the starting date, and then kept reminding them that the date was approaching. You would also make the link to 'Smarter Buys' available through your website.

Groupon will negotiate a deal on a product area of our choosing - you can input into this. When the deal goes live, we need to ensure that as many tenants as possible have the opportunity to participate. We are working with the Association of British Credit Unions to ensure that tenants will be able to not only sign up to the deal, but very quickly and easily access the necessary funds through credit unions - these links will also be available on our site.

We see 'Smarter Buys' as working in exactly the opposite way to high interest stores - it's about giving people access to the products they need at a huge discount, with affordable finance options.

We would supply you with the communication messages about Smarter Buys to send to your tenants.

I hope you will feel as excited about this as I do. I would be grateful if you could let me know as soon as possible, by phone or email, if this is something you wish to participate in.

Please send any feedback to blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

31^st October

The NHC supported the second meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North last week. The changing of date for the debate on the EU referendum meant the meeting clashed with the PM's speech but even with this 'excitement' we managed to get a reasonable representation of MPs who were both interested and concerned about the issues profiled in our recent work on the New Homes Bonus and working with the Health sector. We are also hoping to work closely with other APPGs on health and private sector housing to maximise the impact of our work where there is a differential impact for housing in the North. Thank you to those members who were able to attend our APPG roundtables over the past few weeks - we found them very useful. We will be using the insight you provided at these roundtables to develop our forward plan for engaging with the APPG members - we hope to send this plan out to all NHC members in the next couple of weeks.

For any further information on the issues covered in Jo Blogs, please contatct blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk.

18^th October

This week the Northern Housing Consortiumhas published a toolkit that will help the housing sector play a stronger and more visible role in tackling health inequalities and improving outcomes. The toolkit 'A foot in the door: a guide to engaging housing and health' aims to demystify the organisational structures and assurance processes of health and care and sets out six clear steps for housing organisations to take when putting together your offer and building stronger collaborative relationships with the new leaders of health and wellbeing.

The toolkit is sponsored by Gentoo Group and co - signed by Professor Richard Parish, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). In the months ahead we look forward to building relationships with organisations like the RSPH and working with our members to promote examples of how housing organisations are engaging effectively with health and wellbeing leaders and setting out their contribution. Please look out for both a electronic and hard copy of the toolkit being circulated to your organization, and if you would be interested in working with us please get in touch.

We are also fast approaching our annual Northern Housing Summit and I am delighted that we have been able to secure a Ministerial address from Rt Hon Andrew Stunell MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, DCLG. The Summit will play host to the Northern Silver Screen Gala Awards Dinner, thank you to all Members who submitted short films for this competition - I look forward to watching the final films.

If you have any questions about the content of this fortnights ezine or any other aspect of the Consortium's activity, you can contact me on blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk.

19^th September

I had a very useful meeting last week with Ian Mearns MP, Chair of the APPG for Housing in the North. For those unaware of the NHC's involvement in this, we are the Secretariat for this group. Our meeting highlighted the key issues and priorities that the APPG would like to take forward and this will be formalised at the next meeting of the APPG for Housing in the North in October - we are very keen that NHC Members feed their views into the APPG and assist us in providing high quality evidence to the parliamentarians on the APPG to continue to make the case for housing in the North. To ensure we collect your views ahead of the next meeting and to assist us in shaping that picture for the APPG , we are hosting 3 free roundtables "How Housing Holds the Key - building the evidence base". The roundtables will be at;

• 13^th October 2011 9 -11am Salford
• 14^th October 2011 1-3pm Stockton on Tees
• 19^th October 2011, 12 - 2pm Wakefield

I think that this is one of the most important opportunities for our Members in truly setting out to government the role of housing in the wider economic and social agenda and I do hope that you can feed into this process.

To register your place please contact trish.sleep@northern-consortium.org.uk indicating which session you would like to attend.

Finally, a bit of housekeeping! The NHC will be emailing each contact held on our CRM as part of an important data update exercise. This will provide the opportunity to amend your contact details and your communication preferences. It won't take long to complete and it will mean that we can be more effective in how we share information with you - I hope you can assist us with this exercise.

As usual I am happy to respond to any questions or queries and I can be contacted at blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk.

Article published 5th September 2011

As parliament returns we are looking forward to working on the key issues for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North.

To help define those key issues facing the sector in the North we will be organising a series of member only roundtables to enable your views to be brought to the APPG.

The roundtables will be held in October in venues across the North East, Yorks & Humber and North West.

I hope you can make what will be a really interesting debate on the things that really matter for the North. To register your attendance please email trish.sleep@northern-consortium.org.uk.

We are also currently developing an efficiency market place for the supply of goods, services and information. The idea is to make it much quicker and easier for our members to buy and sell services to each other; to buy services from the NHC, and to source other suppliers who can provide the services they need. The NHC's efficiency market place would be a portal which, once you've logged in, will provide you with instant access to information on the products and services you want, and enable you to post your interest (like a noticeboard), so that like-minded organisations could contact you.

We are about to engage with the wider membership on the efficiency marketplace and I would welcome your views on how you would utilise this resource.

To provide feedback on the efficiency market place or for anything else you wish to discuss, please contact blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

22nd August 2011

The media news cycles these past couple of weeks have been dominated by the riots. Why they happened, what exactly did happen and perhaps most crucially for us- what will happen to those involved? Some housing providers are pursuing evictions for convicted rioters and their families in social housing, and a punitive agenda of sentencing is already well underway. Voices on all sides of the political spectrum are talking of a 'moral decline' or 'alienation in communities'.

For us, the question is how we answer and respond to this debate and what has happened across the region and across the country, and how we can use our resources to minimise anti-social behaviour and create positive opportunities for tenants in this difficult economic climate. Lengthy and expensive prison sentences (it costs £40,000 to imprison someone for one year on average) will not create positive outcomes for individuals or for communities more widely. For those on short sentences, 67% re-offend within a year.

I couldn't help thinking what our sector could accomplish with that level of investment in homes and communities directed at supporting the work many members already do alongside the police and other partners to integrate disaffected young people within local communities, unpinned by robust approaches to antisocial behaviour . I think the financial argument needs to be made - a substantial redirection of investment to innovative social housing projects could turn around lives and improve communities for everyone.

1st August 2011

Since joining the Consortium last October, one of my main priorities has been building ever-closer links with our members, and developing a deeper understanding of your requirements.  I am focused on the fact that, as a membership organisation, we can only prosper if we provide the services that support our members and ensure we are adding value to your organisation's activities. I have travelled our membership area extensively, and have had one-to-one meetings with many of you, and this will continue. What is apparent from my discussions with you is the pace of change that the sector is experiencing, and the impact this is having on everyone working within it.  I know that you are all having to find ways to change and adapt to the evolving landscape, and this is something that the Consortium must also do if we are to remain a relevant and valuable resource for you.

Over the past few months, we have carried out a comprehensive audit of our structure and our service offering to establish whether we are offering you the right products and services, in the right way. This has already started to impact upon some of our activities - you will, for example, have noted our very deliberate efforts to raise our profile and ability to influence, and to become a more active campaigning 'voice' for the North, as it is our unique role and ability to represent the North's interests that many of you have told us you value most. This is proving highly successful. We now have an APPG on housing in the North, and we have done a tremendous amount of work across government departments to help them understand not only the scope of what housing offers, but why housing in the North is different (and needs to be treated differently).  We have also increased our capacity to deliver new collaborative procurement frameworks, as we know that the drive for efficiencies is higher in the current economic climate than ever before, and that this is therefore a key area where we can help you.

You will continue to see some changes to our organisational structure and our service offerings in the months ahead (the most notable being an extremely exciting new product which we will bring to the sector in Autumn, and which we believe will potentially transform the way products, services and information are accessed). I believe these changes are not only essential but very positive. We remain passionately committed to shaping what we do to fit what you need, and I hope you will continue to support us in our efforts.  I look forward to sharing more information with you about our offering in the months ahead.  

Please provide any comments or views to blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

18th July 2011

Since our last ezine, our influencing work has continued, with the NHC facilitating a Labour party policy review session with Caroline Flint MP and Julie Elliott MP. Whilst the NHC is a non political organisation, we welcome every opportunity for our members to make their voices heard with politicians. Membership of the APPG continues to grow, and we will be exploring opportunities to link into the work of other APPGs where relevant, such as the national APPG on the private rented sector.

We have also been invited to feed case study examples of the impact of housing benefit reform into Professor Ian Cole's government-commissioned review of welfare reform. We will update you on this work in the coming weeks.

We have had a fantastic response to our call for submissions for the Northern Silver Screen 2011, 'Big Society in Action'. The closing date is August 19th, so there is still plenty of time to make a submission if you haven't already done so.

Please send your views and comments to blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

5th July 2011

This week is a busy week of influencing!

First of all, I am delighted to confirm that the Consortium's All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Housing in the North reception took place last night at the House of Commons. The launch was attended by over 20 MPs and Peers from across the three Northern regions, which was a fantastic start to what promises to be a really positive and influential grouping. The MPs watched a collection of short films from previous Northern Silver Screen entries, with several then remarking upon how impressed they were with the range of activities housing is involved with. The NHC will provide the secretariat for the APPG (which now has 54 MPs and Peers signed up), and feed into its agenda. The next meeting will take place in the House of Commons on the 13th September, and I look forward to updating you on its progress.
 

This week also sees us host a regional event with Caroline Flint MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.  This event will be attended by invited tenants of  and is focused on the current Labour Review of Housing Policy.  We have submitted our evidence for this review and the full update for this can be found on the news section of our website.    

20th June 2011

I hope you manage to read the this week's article on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Housing in the North. We now have 50 MP's signed up, support from Lords and Baronesses and a parliamentary launch! An awful lot has been acheived in such a short space of time and I would like to thank all of the Member organisations who have played an active role in bringing the creation of the APPG to the attention of their local representatives. I am confident that the expectations of the group will be met and that there will be important and positive outcomes.

The final Regional Growth Fund roundtable was held this week and along with all of the events held so far, received very positive feedback. Thank you to the representatives from Wakefield and Hull who kindly offered to share their success stories with organisations who will be bidding in the second round. I hope those who attended found the sessions informative and I would be keen to hear about your experience of the bid process and lessons learnt along the way.

If you are visiting the CIH conference & exhibition in Harrogate this week, I look forward to seeing you on our stand,242, Hall M.

6th June 2011

I am delighted to report that we now have20 MP's committed to participating in our All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) - as well keen interest from members of the House of Lords.

Members are getting involved and are greatly assisting in promoting this activity which is both helpful in terms of resources and a positive sign that Members see this is an area of importance.

We intend to host a parliamentary reception in the Summer to formally launch the APPG with a schedule of activity of MP engagement following including this and incorporating work with Parliamentary Outreach (who recently provided some excellent training for us here).

I'd like to thank those members who have responded to the customer satisfaction questionnaire sent out a few weeks ago -the information we get back on your how we are doing to represent you and the savings you get from your membership is really valuable.

This is the last blog before the Consortium team depart for the CIH conference and exhibition in Harrogate wheere we will be hosting the first ever Consortium Procurement Village.

Any Members visiting Harrogate are welcome to call in and have a coffee with a member of the team. We'll be in Hall M , stand 242.

blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

23rd May 2011

We had an excellent session at our Leaders day event in Leeds last Friday, and it was very encouraging to see such a strong turn out of leaders representing our Member organisations. Jake Berry, MP, and private secretary to Grant Shapps, spoke at the event and was keen to stress his support for the role that housing providers play. We are also delighted that Jake has agreed to join our All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing in the North, which will lend further strength to our campaigning elbow.

I'm looking forward to taking part in Inside Housing's round table on efficiency savings this week. I'm aware from my visits with Members that it is a subject very much uppermost in all of our minds, and it's an area where the Consortium is undoubtedly in a position to lend support through our collaborative procurement frameworks. I will also want to drive home the message about how housing can contribute towards efficiencies across a local area - it's important that decision makers understand the role housing can play in achieving financial efficiencies (as well as better outcomes for individuals), in relation to health, social care, education and employment agendas.

I wrote to you in April outlining some of the benefits your organisation had derived from your membership of the Northern Housing Consortium over the previous 12 months. I also explained then that we are constantly looking for ways to improve our offering to you - whether that be through the development of new product and services, or just by doing some of the things we already do - but doing them better. As part of our ongoing commitment to achieving this, and to feed in to our organisational review, I am sending our main contacts within Members a brief survey, the results of which will be genuinely invaluable in helping us shape our organisation to ensure we meet your organisational requirements going forward. I'm aware that some of you already suffer from being surveyed to the extreme, but I'm going to make a plea in advance that you take the time to complete this survey - we really do need to know your views!

blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

2nd May 2011

You may have seen that I had a blog featured in the Guardian which was a great opportunity to represent work we are doing as a voice for housing in the North - you can still view this piece by clicking on the link below;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2011/apr/19/what-north-needs-grant-shapps.

I would welcome any feedback - as yet the Housing Minister hasn't tweeted his response!

You may know that we are procuring a new Assisted Living Framework on behalf of our membership.

I am pleased to confirm that this process will start with the release of contract notice w/c 23^rd May 2011 with a view to contract award and Member call-off available from September 2011.

The Assisted Living framework will deliver efficiency and value for money by enabling service commissioners and providers to procure "telecare" and "telehealth" products and services in a way that meets the needs of the individual yet remains flexible over time. We have provided services in this area for many years and recognise the importance of enabling people to live in their own homes with independence and peace of mind. This framework will support service providers with access to thoroughly market tested suppliers.

As with all of our frameworks, the Consortium Procurement team are in place to support Members throughout the contracting process; from understanding the service requirements, building business cases, evaluating for the right solution, contract documentation and on-going performance management - doing all that we can to ensure budgets are maximised.

If you would like to share any views you may have on the work we are currently undertaking - please contact blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk.

18th April 2011

I have just finished my first six months in post and have spent much of my time listening to what Members think about the NHC, and our value to you as Members. Whilst I will still be talking to as many of you as I can directly,I will also be working with all the staff at the Consortium, on how we can provide you with the best possible services for now and the future. We will be undertaking this review over the comingweeks and will be asking you for your views and thoughts as that progresses and I very much look forward to hearing what you have to say.

As the start of that process you can now respond to this blog by emailing: blogs@northern-consortium.org.uk

I understand the pressures the sector is facing in demonstrating value for money from the services you subscribe to, therefore I hope that you will utilise this opportunity to tell us what you want from your membership, we want to ensure we continue to be a relevant and responsive organisation.

4th April 2011

Our work on progressing with an All Party Parliamentary Group for housing in the North, is going very well, and since my last blog I have met with a number of northern MP's who are very keen to support the establishment of a cross party panel ensuring that the voice of housing in the North is heard in Whitehall.

As previously communicated we are working actively to take this project forward and we are keen to hear from members who are interested in our work in this area. Please contact Charlotte Harrison, Director of Policy & Strategy via email for further information, charlotte.harrison@northern-consortium.org.uk.

Ahead of the Localism conference held on Wednesday 30^th March, we hosted a members only dinner with Terrie Alafat, Director of Housing Growth and Affordable Housing at DCLG. It was a very informative session with subjects covered including; the release of more public sector land for new build, affordable rents and how they'll work in our region and dealing with underoccupation/welfare reformand how this will impact on the hard work already done on creating balanced, sustainable communities. Overall it was a very productive meeting and we were able to provide a number of key messages for Terrie Alafat to take back to government.

Finally, as we review the financial year 2010/11 I am pleased to let you know that over the past twelve months we have saved our members over £9.5 million as a result of interaction with the procurement frameworks offered by Consortium Procurement. This new financial year will deliver a range of new procurement frameworks for members and I would encourage you to contact our procurement team at solutions@consortiumprocurement.org.uk if you are interested in shaping and helping the procurement programme as it develops.

21st March 2011

This week saw our series of roundtables discussing the impact of government policy on the North. Hearing first hand from members how you are grappling with the scale and pace of change is of course daunting, but what is striking home to us is the determination to make things work for your communities.

Some of the key messages we're taking away is the very real need for housing in the North to have a louder voice in Parliament. We are working actively on this and any support you can provide through opportunities to jointly meet your MPs or share feedback and insight your getting from your regular engagement - do let us know - we're very happy to provide information and briefings to you. We want to secure an All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing in the North and working together we have a real opportunity to make that happen.

Other areas of interest from the roundtables include;

Delivering efficiencies and using assets: there is huge focus on how we can demonstrate to government we are an efficient sector and we make use of our assets and resources. Our procurement activity means we can demonstrate a strong track record for the sector in the North - but we can and will go further. We'll shortly be launching support services around asset maximisation, risk appraisal and new approaches to redesigning/sharing services. For more information do contact our Commercial Director Andrew Carlin on andrew.carlin@northern-consortium.org.uk or Policy and Strategy Director Charlotte Harrison, charlotte.harrison@northern-consortium.org.uk.

Health and Social Care: how can we ensure housing is at the new table? We're working with Department of Health and our members to help members build capacity to influence locally - in particular around reducing health inequalities and getting a voice on the new Health and Well being Boards.

Welfare Reform: although the reforms have not yet been implemented, many of you are raising concern about how you'll support tenants to be aware of potential impact of income reductions and how organisationally you can minimise the impact. Elsewhere in the ezine you'll find an update on our work in this field.

8th March 2011

I will keep this fortnight's blog short as I have just returned from a week's annual leave.

We included a copy of our cumulative impact report 'Northern Impact: Northern Opportunities in the previous ezine and the response we have received to this has been extremely positive - this report is still available to view or download from our website and if you have any feedback that you wish to provide to us then please do let me know.

Some readers may be aware that the Northern Housing Consortium is a twitter user and we use this tool regularly to provide an instant response or update on our activity - we are gathering quite a number of followers and if you wish to find us we are @NHConsortium.

I am very interested to hear from other organisations that blog on a regular basis. I would like to include highlights of your comments as a regular ezine feature - if you are interested in this and wish to provide details of your blog, please contact louise.coulter@northern-consortium.org.uk.

21st February 2011

Before I update you on the Consortium's activity since my last blog, I would like to congratulate Wakefield & District Housing for their gold award success at the SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow) Awards. I would also like to say well done the winners of the Northern TPAS Awards, please click here for the full list of awards and winners.

This week has seen the launch of our important new research paper, Northern Focus: Northern Opportunities'. If you haven't already read the paper, I would strongly encourage you to do so. We are organising a number of round tables to discuss the paper with Members and will be taking the results of these sessions to central government through our key influencers.

With the introduction of the Coalition government's radical Welfare Reform Bill, financial pressures continue to be uppermost in all of our minds. My focus is certainly very much on delivering best value for money to our Members. Since my appointment as Chief Executive in October, we have taken assertive measures to drastically reduce our own cost base, whilst making our services more relevant to your needs. We offer to support you on how to streamline processes and on doing 'more with less', and, believe me, we are very much practicing what we preach. What you won't see us doing this year is holding events such as our golf day and summer ball. Although these events that we've held for many years in support of our chosen Chair's charities have traditionally been extremely popular, we don't feel that this is what you either want or need from us in these challenging times. We will, however, still offer you excellent networking opportunities, but it will be through our breakfast meeting briefing sessions, policy round tables, networks, and of course, the annual members meeting at Christmas will still go ahead. We are also committed to raising money for our chosen charity, Help For Heroes, but we will do this through other fundraising activities - we'll be contacting you with details of how you can get involved in due course.

7th February 2011

This week sees the launch of the Professional Practice Networks, the new service offering from our Performance & Practice Team. The networks cover a range of important functions including lettings, income management, customer contact centres, tenant scrutiny and customer insight. The networks are an exciting opportunity to share best practice from across and outside of the sector. I hope you will read the information the team have provided within this week's ezine, as these networks offer genuine opportunities to improve your organisational efficiencies, which is something that I know we are all heavily focused on in the current climate.

The 'Designed For Life' competition also got underway last week with the first meeting between our Expert Reference Group and Northumbria University Design students. This competition aims to raise the profile of inclusive design in housing adaptations and we have received a very positive response to the initiative from Government. The design students have been challenged to come up with innovative new solutions to existing adaptations problems. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the winning submissions at our annual Adaptations conference in May.

Finally, we are receiving a lot of interest in anticipation of our Cumulative Impact Report. This explores the cumulative effect of the Government's policies on northern communities, and makes for some very interesting reading.We will shortly be forwarding a copy of the report to main contacts within our members organisations, and I hope that you will have the opportunity to review it. If you are not your organisations main contact for NHC and would like to read the report, please email charlotte.harrison@northern-consortium.org.uk - it really is well worth a look.

25th January 2011  

Friday 21^st January was the deadline for first submissions to the RGF.  The £1.4bn fund is to be welcomed but of course is much smaller allocation of funds than previously managed by the RDAs. The RGF was set up to foster growth opportunities in those regions which needed additional support to make the transition from a public sector to private sector led economy. Our briefing paper demonstrates strongly why the North fits these criteria and we've written to members of the RGF panel to ensure they are fully aware of the positive contribution that housing activity can make to the economic potential of areas. We await with interest to see the distribution of funds from the first round and are keen to hear from members if you're progressing bids for future bidding rounds.

Promoting the North is at the heart of what we do and we'll be shortly be releasing analysis on the cumulative impact of government policy on the North and what we can do - with government assistance - to overcome unintended consequences.  We'll be setting up some thematic roundtable discussions on welfare reform, housing delivery, healthcare reform, economic development in the North to help develop solutions to the challenges we face - do look out for the dates in your region or contact us for more information.

10th January 2011

The latter part of 2010 delivered a number of important policy announcements for the sector and set the scene for more changes to come, 2011 promises to be a very challenging and exciting year for social housing in the North.

We have begun preparation for our response to the affordable housing programme, which offers a new approach to housing development; this innovative thinking will be valuable considering the tight timescales.

We shall be meeting with DCLG in advance of our Social Housing Reform Conference, (13^th January 2010, York Racecourse), in order to continue our dialogue on this issue and also our ongoing work in response to the Localism Bill. We will be providing further briefings on these topics shortly.

I have met with many of our Members since October 2010 and of course my visits will continue throughout 2011 - however if I have not yet met with you and this is something which you would like to arrange, please contact me, jo.boaden@northern-consortium.org.uk .

20th December 2010

As we head to the Christmas holidays we will have a lot to think about!

One particular thing for me is how we demonstrate to Government the value of the sector in the widest possible sense.

An element of this is how housing providers actually provide the route to the Big Society and answer the question that many commentators are asking about what does Big Society really mean? For me it means engaging with local communities in a way that facilitates the right environment to work together to build, nurture and sustain a community in which people want to live, work and contribute to its development and quality. In essence the focus for most housing providers. But Government doesn't seem to have that view of the sector, the Consortium would like to change that and if you have good examples of the Big Society in action please let me know so we can use the information in our conversations with Government.

Very best wishes for a Happy Christmas

Jo

6th December 2010

The consultation paper that was issued last Monday, "Local Decisions: A Fairer Future for Social Housing", outlines reforms to the sector that are far reaching, and we know many of you have some serious concerns about whether they will actually be effective in tackling issues such as worklessness. We were fortunate enough to have Richard McCarthy in attendance at our pre-Summit dinner last Monday evening, which gave us a very timely opportunity to interview him on his thoughts on the reforms and how they would play out in reality. The video of the interview is available to view at http://tinyurl.com/29gontm, and I would encourage you to take a look at it if you haven't already done so. We are scheduling a number of round tables and evidence gathering projects that will follow up the issues raised by Richard both at the dinner and in his presentation at the Northern Housing Summit - we've actually just had to postpone the first couple due to these awful weather conditions, but we'll keep you posted with the revised dates.

What is evident in all of our recent discussions with government is their appetite for an 'ask and offer' approach - it's becoming increasingly clear that this is the most effective tactic for useful engagement. By demonstrating the value that housing can bring, particularly as the lynchpin for localism, we are far more likely to be heard. We need to work together to build the evidence base that proves the value of investing in our homes and communities in the North, and we will continue to talk to you about the ways in which we plan to do this and how you can get involved.

15th November 2010

I am keen that we make these points very strongly to government before decisions are made on the regional growth fund so that the local impact of these policies is well understood.  

As part of our action to help provide the evidence to make this case, I'd encourage you to contact Director of Policy & Strategy, Charlotte Harrison, charlotte.harrison@northern-consortium.org.uk.

 

"I'm now in my second month at the Consortium, and I have spent much of my time out and about trying to meet as many members as possible, and this is something I plan to continue.

In fact, it is my intention to meet with all of you in person over the next six months. I have been really inspired by the passion and commitment that I have found in my discussions with members. It's great to be working back in the sector and your enthusiasm and positivity has reminded me just how much I have missed housing! I think the fact that housing is so fundamental to the infrastructure of our communities means that now, more than ever, there's an opportunity to really make a difference to people's lives and wellbeing.

The insight I am gaining from these meetings with members is invaluable. By understanding your concerns and requirements more fully, we will be able to tailor our services to help meet your organisational needs. I'm confident that the member benefits statements we issued in April have already helped demonstrate the value for money that the NHC delivers to you, and we intend to ensure that you receive maximum return from your subscription fees. As well as sharing understanding of new and emerging policy, and creating opportunities to share best practice within the sector, we are committed to helping you achieve greater efficiencies, and I know how vital this role will be for you in the face of reducing funding and the demanding operating environment. I'd welcome any thoughts you may have around this, so please feel free to contact me directly with any suggestions.

This week sees our AGM, and we anticipate the election of a new Chair. I look forward to updating you on the outcome of the elections, and more on our emerging workstreams in the wake of CSR, in the next issue of Ezine.

For now, thanks for the warm welcome you have given me, and for your continuing support of the Consortium. I look forward to working with you to really make the NHC 'the voice of housing in the North'."