Meeting the minister

Resident involvement manager Dean Slavin is a man on a mission.

Just over a year ago Mr Slavin won Inside Housing and the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Rising Stars competition to find the most talented young housing professional. One of his prizes was to spend a day with the housing minister - who, at the time, was Grant Shapps.

Back in the heady days of his triumph, Mr Slavin, who works for Wythenshawe Community Housing Group in Manchester, promised that he would stand up for tenants when he got to meet the minister.

‘I am a Scouser so I can shout quite loud,’ he said at the time. ‘Grant would have to listen to me eventually.’

Of course, since then Mr Shapps has been regenerated into Mark Prisk - who may himself be replaced in a reshuffle rumoured this week after Inside Housing went to press.

So, one year on and shortly before this year’s Rising Stars winner was announced, Mr Slavin finally got his day with the housing minister - or two days, actually (that’s inflation for you).

Would Mr Slavin feel the need to shout quite so loudly with Mr Prisk? Inside Housing caught up with the duo at the House of Commons halfway through their first day together in order to find out.

It turns out Mr Slavin has been pleasantly surprised by the change.

‘I didn’t really know a great deal about Mr Prisk,’ he states, when Inside Housing asks him for his reaction to the new(ish) broom. ‘He has a much lower profile than his predecessor.’ (Don’t worry readers, Mr Prisk was well out of earshot when we had this conversation so his feelings were spared.)

Mr Slavin confesses that he ‘thought I was going to have to provide a lot of constructive challenge’ with Mr Shapps, particularly in making him understand the impact that government policies have on tenants. This hasn’t been the case with Mr Prisk.

‘I have been pleasantly surprised with Mr Prisk’s approach,’ he states. ‘I do have to say - and it might seem like I’m just trying to be positive because I have spent time here today - but tenants were definitely at the forefront of a lot of the thinking from Mr Prisk. That’s not just in the social sector. He was concerned with young people and families who want to buy homes in the future.’

Public platform
Despite the fact that Mr Slavin and Mr Prisk do appear to be getting on well during the time Inside Housing spends with them, it is clear that Wythenshawe Community Housing Group’s finest hasn’t passed up his opportunity to stress the importance of tenant involvement with the minister.

‘I have been given a platform to talk,’ he tells Mr Prisk as they chat.

‘I have spoken at about eight to 10 conferences in the last year, in particular on the tenant involvement front. It is something I am really, really passionate about. We’ve got that many things going on in the social sector in terms of tenant involvement - but not in the private sector. We would also like to see private landlords signed up to the ombudsman.’

Mr Prisk, who clearly knows his onions, says lettings agents need to sign up to a redress scheme [due to an amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013].

He says he is less convinced by the need to sign private landlords up to an ombudsman, though. ‘It’s a tricky one because you have got everything from a big institution to individuals,’ he says. ‘We want to focus on the property and the agents rather than the landlords themselves.’

Mr Prisk says he is determined to stamp out abuse in the private rented sector though - even if it involves early starts, apparently.

‘I have been out on the road with the police at 5am,’ he states. His outing was all part of efforts to tackle the problem of vulnerable people being housed in sheds by exploitative landlords. ‘This isn’t a home,’ he adds. ‘It’s a business and it is an exploitative business.’

Mr Prisk says he likes to get out and about when he can. ‘There is no substitute for getting out and seeing people outside of the Westminster bubble and listening to their concerns,’ he states.

Changing mindsets
Mr Slavin, of course, has his chance to make his concerns heard inside the Westminster bubble today. And he tells the minister that he really wants to change ‘people’s mentality’ about social tenants and social housing.

‘Social media is a very positive term and social housing isn’t,’ he says. ‘It is seen as the bottom rung of the ladder and where people have to live because they have nowhere else. I was brought up in social housing and I don’t believe that is the case.’

Mr Prisk stresses he is certainly not part of any anti-social housing brigade - although he does acknowledge that the Conservative Party has perhaps tended to overlook its importance in favour of homeownership. He says he likes to think ‘that I am tenure blind’ when it comes to attempting to deal with the housing crisis. The country needs to build more housing of ‘all varieties, not just owner-occupied’, he adds.

‘Blue governments have tended to think about owner-occupation and red governments about social housing - and nothing in between,’ he states. ‘But anything you do in one affects the others. Getting that thinking right is important.’

As well as promoting tenant rights, of course, part of Mr Slavin’s day involves an insight into Mr Prisk’s working life and thinking. It’s been fast-paced, taking in a session of the Future High Street Forum (a forum of retail and business leaders who advise ministers on… well, take a guess), an internal Communities and Local Government department communications meeting, case work meetings and a drinks reception with the Association of Retained Council Housing.

‘He has to do a lot more than I thought he did,’ Mr Slavin admits. ‘The variety and remit that he has to deliver is phenomenal. If I’m honest I thought most of the work was delivered by officials.’

The role clearly makes you something of a minor celebrity too. As our photographer snaps Mr Prisk and Mr Slavin on a bench inside the entrance to the House of Commons a tourist wanders over and takes a picture of the housing minister.

‘It is very intense,’ Mr Prisk states (about his day, not the photography). ‘I need to be able to juggle a range of issues.’

Mr Prisk was elected as an MP for Hertford and Stortford in 2001 and held shadow ministerial positions from 2002, but says ‘government is a different game’. He became housing minister in 2012.

Mr Prisk thinks the fact he has experience of life outside of parliament - he is a chartered surveyor - has helped him cope.

‘I think having run your own business is good training,’ he states. ‘I found that quite helpful. I’m a fairly organised person. You have to use your time very efficiently. It’s juggling. My wife would say most women are used to that.’

Old habits clearly die hard. Mr Prisk admits he is ever the surveyor, even in the House of Commons.

‘I walk the corridors here doing my snagging list,’ he smiles. ‘I’m a bit of an anorak in that context.’

Political future?
Our time together draws to an end as Mr Prisk is called away to a vote. Inside Housing rounds off by asking Mr Slavin if he would like to swap places with Mr Prisk at some point or if his day has turned him off politics for life.
‘I would love his job, to be honest,’ Mr Slavin enthuses. ‘Maybe in a few years’ time - I’m just 31.’

But his time with the minister has given him a new-found appreciation for the role. ‘It was very fast-paced. I don’t think I could do the job forever. I think it is something that anybody would love to do for a short space of time.’
And as his year as reigning Rising Star drew to a close, Mr Slavin has clearly made sure that he has made the best use of his time. ‘I learned a hell of a lot,’ he concludes.