BME landlords: the future

Eighteen months ago, senior figures in the black and minority ethnic (BME) housing movement set out on a journey to plan the collective future of the sector.

They had three very clear goals – to define the achievements of BME housing providers, look at the wider value they bring to communities and why there is a need for them, and set out a clear vision of the road ahead.

Inside Housing has reported on the discussions that have fed into this process – led by umbrella body BME National – as ideas have developed but this week, for the first time, we can reveal the final result.

The picture that emerges is of an ambitious aim to increase the size of the sector by two-thirds. The group will also look to develop a much more extensive network of benchmarking and best practice and help create a series of partnership vehicles to carry out joint procurement, development and repairs and maintenance teams.

Perhaps the most eye-catching aim is for the BME housing sector to expand by 40,000 homes – a 66% increase – to 100,000 homes within the next 10 years. This can be achieved in a variety of ways, including accessing new sources of finance – possibly through joint working – and stock transfer from councils and housing associations, according to the report setting out the aims which will be published next month.

BME National has already been approached by a couple of lenders – GB Social Housing and Triodos – who may be interested in doing more work with the sector.

Mushtaq Khan, director of 800-home BME landlord Aksa Homes, which is part of the New Charter Group, says that the desire from such dramatic growth is partly a reflection of the need for all providers to respond to the current housing crisis.

But he adds that there are specific reasons for BME housing associations to drive for growth. ‘We know there is disproportionate need in BME communities,’ he says. The need for specific BME –as opposed to mainstream – provision has also ‘not gone away’.

‘Certainly Aksa was set up 25 years ago because the Asian community felt that they weren’t getting a fair deal in terms of housing. I think that is still out there, but the discrimination is not as overt as it used to be.’

Mr Khan’s last point echoes one theme of the report, which attempts to define why BME housing providers are important (and, by implication, why the sector needs to grow).

The report concludes that there are two main reasons supporting the continuance of BME housing organisations. The first is the disproportionate housing need – BME communities are more likely to be homeless or live in poor or overcrowded homes.

Leading on from this, the report also argues that the needs of the growing BME population is not being adequately met by mainstream social landlords. Analysing census data, it suggests that by 2011, the BME population of England was 17% but government allocations data suggests 16% of lettings were made to BME applicants.

Kevin Gulliver, director of the Human City Institute which is producing the report, says that the proportion of lettings to BME applicants ‘should be a worry to us all’ because of ‘the poverty levels of BME communities’.

He adds that ‘you would expect lettings by social landlords who are there to meet need to be higher than the census level’ for the BME population on the basis of higher than average levels of deprivation faced by those communities.

This is echoed by Cym D’Souza, chief executive of 950-home Arawak Walton and chair of BME National. ‘There is still that level of discrimination in health, education and housing that there was in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is just not as overt,’ she states.

Part of the growth agenda designed to address these issues involves much closer working between BME social landlords than ever before. The report suggests that providers should look at creating a series of partnership vehicles, possibly on a geographical basis, to drive value for money improvements and help obtain development finance.

‘BME organisations need to work better collectively,’ Mr Khan adds, whose own organisation is planning to expand at a rate of 50 homes a year, by a mix of development and property acquisition.

‘I would like us to be ambitious,’ he says. ‘I think certainly in London [which has 42 BME social landlords], there is a lot more capacity for us to share some of the functions that housing providers carry out.’

Given that the report is yet to be published, it is too early yet to judge progress. Clearly, however, some conversations are already taking place.

Cym D’Souza, says members have already been ‘exploring how we can work more collectively together in terms of stock rationalisation opportunities’.

BME National recently coordinated a meeting between one large landlord looking to sell some stock and a number of BME associations – and this kind of approach, with BME National acting in a broker’s role, is one that could work well in the future, she suggests.

Part of this closer working will involve pulling together more collective data for lobbying purposes. The report states that the sector needs to ‘develop  satisfactory sectoral data’ about its performance and economic and social value.

This will involve publishing an annual report and the establishment of a BME benchmarking club, which BME National would lead on. Mr Gulliver admits that pulling together collective data was a tricky part of compiling the report.

Nonetheless some interesting statistics emerged from his research. Looking at the 70 BME associations, the report suggests they have an annual turnover of £600m and control £1.8bn in assets. The money they spend locally sustains 1,000 jobs on top of the 3,500 people directly employed by BME landlords.

‘If you are going to be taken seriously, you need to have all of that management information at hand,’ Mr Gulliver adds.

The future isn’t just about a numerical expansion, the report adds. It suggests that existing BME providers should look more closely at how to engage with, and meet the needs of, new migrants (given that many organisations in the sector were set up decades ago to meet very specific needs).

And the report also recommends that BME providers build up expertise in healthcare, promoting community cohesion and tackling extremism. This is likely to mean investment in communities and promoting integration and challenging media misconceptions rather than anything more direct. As Mr Gulliver remarks wryly: ‘I don’t think we were talking about BME organisations being part of MI5.’

The next few years are going to bring big changes for the BME sector. A clear strategy is now in place and a plan of action can now be developed. If its delivery matches up to these ambitions, then the size of the BME sector will balloon over the next few years.

Certainly the senior figures in the sector are clearer than ever about why they want to deliver change. ‘There is still a great need out there that is not being met by mainstream providers,’ Aksa’s Mr Khan concludes.