A chance to change lives

In 2009, when I began as editor of Inside Housing, the next five days seemed pretty daunting, never mind the next five years. However, I have lived to tell the tale in 2014 and it is one of a UK housing sector which is much altered.

There are fewer homes being built, less grant to support this and more people to house, with many in desperate need. Yet in the plus column there are now more people being helped into training and work, there are fewer homes in poor repair, and new homes today are cheaper to run and more adaptable than ever before.

So what of the next five years? The survey we publish today, in partnership with consultancy Campbell Tickell, paints a pretty bleak picture of continued high housing costs with little evidence painful welfare reforms will persuade more people into work.

The National Housing Federation has been gazing even further into the future - 2033 to be precise - and predicts that ‘the environment is likely to remain challenging’, with average house prices up from 11 times to 13 times average incomes.

Yet, there is hope. Perhaps the most significant change in the UK housing sector in the past five years is that local authorities and housing associations are evolving into more proactive, savvy businesses. They have begun emerging from a prolonged period of introspection with clear strategies to best help the communities in which they operate.

For the NHF this means housing associations embracing the increased provision of other tenures such as market sale and private rent - apt as the English Housing Survey this week found the number of private rented homes (3.9 million) last year eclipsed the number of social homes (3.8 million).

I would agree with this, but feel landlords of all tenures can redouble their efforts on training and employment opportunities for their unemployed residents. That is why we have this week launched our Homes Work campaign, in partnership with construction skills charity Building Lives.

Supplying more homes to help those in housing need is the heart of social landlords. But to win the minds of the public they must do more - Homes Work is just the job.