Key takeaways from CIH South West 2023

Professionalisation, rural homelessness, and net-zero were just some of the many big issues discussed at this year’s CIH South West conference.

Vibrant debate and insightful discussions are regular features of CIH conferences, and this year’s packed-out CIH South West event was no exception. Housing professionals from across the South West of England and beyond descended on Bristol to share best practice, solve problems, and learn more about the latest developments within the sector. 

There was much to take away for delegates – and the wider sector. 

Professionalisation 

Professionalisation is a hugely important area within the housing sector right now, particularly as mandatory qualifications and competency standards come in. 

In a session dedicated to the topic panelists agreed that the renewed focus on professionalisation was welcome. 

Sovereign’s director of customer and place, Luke Bingham, said: “I’m really pleased that qualifications for professionalisation are back in vogue."

Jill Murray (far right) chaired a session on preparing for professionalisation

The panel didn’t shy away from the challenges around the professionalisation agenda, however. Chair and incoming CIH president Jill Murray highlighted the issue of cost, which Bingham said will amount to “a lot of money” for Sovereign, “but it’s not a lot of in terms of what my organisation turns over.” 

Meanwhile, LiveWest lettings manager Charlotte Bond pointed out the need to ensure the new qualifications don’t pose a barrier to potential newcomers to the sector. 

Nikkie Pullen, head of organisational development at Abri, said it was important to remember why there has been a drive to improve professionalisation within the sector in the first place. 

“There are real reasons why this has come in,” she said, highlighting recent tragedies such as Grenfell and the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale due to damp and mould exposure.

Net-zero 

Net-zero was an unavoidable topic of conversation at the conference, particularly given Rishi Sunak’s recent watering-down of some of the government’s net-zero initiatives and policies – including pushing back the ban on installing new gas boilers from 2025 to 2035. 

Charlie Wood, deputy director of trade association Energy UK, said Rishi Sunak’s speech, along with the finding by the BBC that the government was scrapping the six-month-old Energy Efficiency Taskforce, was “concerning to say the least”. 

Charlie said: “The prime minister was correct when he said we need to engage consumers on net-zero…[but] removing some of those targets is not the way we would have gone about it.” 

Wood went on to highlight how, “the last time a prime minister decided to ‘cut the green crap’” –referring to David Cameron’s scrapping of green policies in 2015 – it ended up costing the public around £9.8bn in additional energy costs. 

Philip Morris, strategic stakeholder engagement manager at the South West Net Zero Hub, highlighted the need for long-term clarity from government, saying: “There’s a lot to do, but certainty and a clear direction certainly helps with the trust.” 

Chair Guy Woodroffe, head of policy for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, said the goal of getting the remaining 1.2m homes to EPC C and fully decarbonising a further four million homes “remains a significant challenge”. 

Homelessness 

Homelessness, specifically rural homelessness, was another keen area of discussion. It’s an issue that, according to Martin Collett, CEO of English Rural, is getting worse. 

“It’s a problem that persists, and it’s a problem that’s not well understood,” he said, adding: “It’s not just rough-sleeping, but people in horse boxes, in cars, sofa-surfing...” 

Collett said English Rural convened with other similar organisations in the area, as well as both the University of Southampton and the University of Kent, to commission research to better understand the problem. 

They found homelessness levels were indeed rising in rural areas and that rough-sleeping numbers had increased by 24% in the year the research was conducted. The research also found that, as things stand, there are insufficient resources to tackle the problem. 

The view of rural homelessness getting worse was shared by Mel Brain, head of housing options at Cornwall Council, who said the cost-of-living crisis “is putting households into those cohorts [at risk of homelessness] who would have never been there before”. 

Highlighting the lack of both the quantity and quality of housing in Cornwall, Brain said 24,000 households were not on the council’s housing register; while 3.5% of households have no heating in their homes, and 1.6% live in caravans or other temporary structures. 

Brain also pointed out that homelessness “is rarely just about housing”, and that local authorities and others who are trying to ease the homelessness situation in their area should think about provision for associated issues such as mental health. 

Ombudsman and regulation 

Delegates at CIH South West got the chance to hear from Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway, who held one of his regular ‘Meet the Ombudsman’ sessions. 

Speaking ahead of the upcoming consultation on the new complaint-handling code, Blakeway urged delegates to consider how they use their complaints team “so it’s like an internal audit”. 

He also told delegates to “keep an eye” on how the new code talks about learning from complaints. 

When landlords are required to pay compensation to residents, he urged delegates to “focus on the remedies as a whole”, arguing that issuing compensation is just one part of the remediation process.

He also said "sometimes landlords are not clear” on the reason for compensation, highlighting the need to make this clear to residents when compensation is awarded.

Richard Blakeway hosted one of his popular 'Meet the Ombudsman' sessions

Joining Blakeway was the Ombudsman’s head of dispute resolution, Sarah Woolley, who highlighted the “unprecedented demand” for the Ombudsman service over the last year. 

She pointed out that, as a result of this demand, the Ombudsman’s dispute resolution service had grown tenfold – from around 20 to 200 staff – in the space of a year. 

“The overall feeling is that residents really are starting to have their voices heard,” she said. 

Blakeway added that the cost-of-living crisis was being reflected in recent cases. 

General election 

With a general election expected before the end of next year, the extent to which housing might feature in the political debate was something delegates were keen to probe. 

Seeking to shed some light on this question, Aileen Evans – group chief executive of Grand Union Housing Group and former president of the CIH – said it was within the sector’s power to push housing up the political agenda. 

Evans’ advice was to “make offers to MPs and support them”, including those who aren’t in government, “as you never know where they might end up.” 

She recommended delegates produce case studies and suggest ways to do things differently, as these are “a great way to get attention”. 

Further, she said delegates should engage with all MPs in whose constituency they have stock. “Making it local makes it real for them,” she said. 

In terms of what specific issues the sector should shout about, the CIH’s head of policy, Rachael Williamson, said: “We’ve absolutely got to keep pushing for a fair and equitable transition to net-zero.” 

She also urged delegates to get housing “higher [as a political priority] than it is at the moment” and to do so by working with local councillors and politicians. 

The message purveyed by both Evans and Willaimson echoed that delivered by Alastair Campbell at the National Housing Federation’s National Housing Summit last month, where he urged the sector to proactively push the housing debate. 

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