The trust of our tenants is hard won, and easily lost

Trust and reputation are built on delivery and results, which are themselves products of a clear strategic vision and sector leadership. Simply put, the onus is on us to demonstrate that we are a city that delivers the housing our residents need.  

Although more housing is being built now in Manchester than at any time since 2008, we need more homes of all types and tenures, and we need them quickly. 

Launched last summer, our new housing strategy makes a commitment to deliver 36,000 more homes over the next decade. Of these, 10,000 homes will be affordable and 3,000 of those will be in our city centre.

This is ambitious, but it needs to be to meet ever-growing demand for quality housing that our residents can afford. Indeed in 2021-22, we saw more affordable homes built than in any year in the previous decade.

“Our residents rely on a well-managed housing sector. We must hold ourselves to account as much as our residents do”

Alongside this, we have launched a wholly owned housing company – This City – to increase the number of homes available to Manchester people using council-owned land. At least 20% of all This City homes will be capped at the Manchester Living Wage – a rent level at or below the Local Housing Allowance rate, and therefore affordable to people on full housing benefit, widening access to as many people as possible.

When it comes to the homes that we own and manage directly, trust is hard won, and reputation easily lost.  

In 2021, we brought our ALMO Northwards Housing back into the council, taking over management responsibility for around 13,000 council-owned homes for the first time since 2005. 

Our aim was to improve standards and work directly with tenants to give them a louder voice around decision-making – welcoming them as an active partner in how their homes are managed and creating transparency where trust can grow.

Despite the many challenges facing the sector – not least access to national funding – we will soon approve the largest investment in our housing stock for many years: £25m in the next year to improve thousands of council tenants’ homes.

This is alongside £50m in decarbonisation investment over the next two years to improve efficiency and save residents money during the cost of living crisis (along with our innovative £1m cost of living support fund for social tenants through our Housing Revenue Account) – while also supporting the city’s journey to become a zero-carbon city by 2038. 

This is a major investment by any standards and a statement of intent that we are serious about investing in our homes to improve the lives of our residents. But it doesn’t mean that every problem is solved.

Manchester has a high number of social properties – around 70,000 homes, nearly 30% of all homes in the city – and delivering a consistently high-quality housing service is tough.

Similar to many housing providers, we are managing a backlog of repairs in the context of rising costs and labour shortages. Even so, we have undertaken more than 100,000 repairs in two years, with an 85% resident satisfaction rate. But we know that each outstanding job has the potential to erode trust in us.

“Trust and reputation are built on delivery and results, which are themselves products of a clear strategic vision and sector leadership. Simply put, the onus is on us”

Homelessness also remains a significant test for almost every city. But against an acutely challenging backdrop, we are making real progress with numbers sleeping on the streets and housed in temporary accommodation, especially B&Bs, falling here at a time when they are rising in many other places. 

This is thanks in part to our emphasis on prevention and policy changes around social housing allocation, which encourage people to seek help earlier when more can be done to help them. More persistent outreach is also helping longer-term street sleepers, who may have previously been reluctant to engage with services, to get support and move their lives forwards. 

So, there is cause for positivity, despite the major challenges both the sector and our residents are facing – but there is always more we can do. We are on a journey to deliver for our people.  

Through ambitious strategy and a clear demonstrable commitment to our communities, we are on surer footing now than we have been for some time to build trust with our residents. 

But we remind ourselves that while the journey to success is hard, maintaining it is harder.   

Bev Craig, leader, Manchester City Council 

Bev Craig is speaking at Housing 2023. Hear from her in the ‘Reputation, trust and responding to the challenge’ session at 2pm on 27 June. To find out more, click here