The Road Not Taken

This week’s gathering in Manchester could be a defining moment for social housing. Over the past year, the sector has started to change from being a navel-gazing, back-slapping, introverted industry into something better. Whether it’s engaging with bigots on twitter over reality TV shows, or coming up with smart new communication ideas, housing people are coming out of their bunker and engaging with the wider world. Paul Taylor’s Power Players’ list has highlighted the growing importance of social media, and the creation of campaigns like Council Homes Chat and SHOUT have drawn in a fresh generation of people who are prepared to stand up for social housing.

But the past year has also seen the rise of a potentially dangerous schism in the sector. We’ve arrived at a crossroads and some people are heading off in different directions. It reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken where a traveller is confronted by a choice of two roads. Let’s call them Market Road and Traditional Road. Heading down Market Road are those who are keen to embrace an increasingly commercial approach. They see “affordable rent” as the “only game in town” and are pushing into private lettings, market sale and even buying up private companies to expand their portfolio. They believe that a world without grant is possible and, in some cases,  that social rented housing is a failed brand that creates dependency. Heading down Traditional Road, are groups like Placeshapers and SHOUT who want the sector to stick to its core principles and to defend and promote its primary product, social rented housing.  

This divergence of views resulted in some terse exchanges during the year, starting with Mick Kent’s open letter to ministers which led to responses like this and this. Tony Stacey for Placeshapers made a powerful case against “affordable rent” (or AR,as he calls it) and in support of traditional community-based housing providers. The sector has “sleepwalked into acquiescence” he said.

Brendan Sarsfield from Family Mosaic sprang to the defence of the Market Roaders, which prompted this response from Steve Hilditch at Red Brick. Just a couple of weeks ago, a senior official at the GLA accused the opponents of affordable rent of being lazy and facile which also prompted this tart response from Steve Hildtich. Mick Kent even returned to the fray to suggest that public subsidy is a drug that we could wean ourselves off.  And on it goes.

I am involved with SHOUT, so I clearly favour the Traditional Road. I think there comes a point where “partnership” with bad policies starts to look self-defeating, and if we are being required to sell the family silver in order to build a few “unaffordable’” homes then it is time to say no. It’s not an easy decision, because housing providers have a moral duty to build homes, but they have to be the right homes, at the right price, and in the right places, and not just part of a numbers game. With thousands of homes being lost to the revamped right to buy and “converted” away from social rent, and a new product called affordable rent to buy (that will replace grants with loans) lurking around the corner, it must surely be time to say “enough is enough”.

My view is that Market Road leads to the cliff edge. I have cited in the past the example of the mutual building societies who believed, foolishly, that they could prosper in the big, bad banking world. They were wrong and few of them now exist. Over the next few years some housing associations may decide to become private entities, with the aim of competing in the wider property world, but I believe they too would soon be swallowed up as a result of shareholder pressure. The losers would be tenants.  

This growing divide within the sector is troubling. A divided sector is easier both to control and to ignore, and it is something that the NHF or and other trade and professional bodies should be very concerned about. At the very least, we should be able to agree on a common set of values, principles and actions that will help to protect social rented housing in the long term. 

No doubt there will be heated debate and argument over the next few days, but this reflects the fact that the sector faces some difficult choices. I would urge those who are heading down Market Road carefully to consider that the “Road Not Taken” may be the better alternative in the longer run. Take a deep breath and consider your history. Ten years from now, it would be good for the sector to be able to look back and repeat Robert Frost’s words: “Two roads diverged…and I/ I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference”.