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The Week in Housing: what went wrong at Swan?
Peter Apps recaps the biggest headlines of the week, including the full story of what went wrong at Swan and the questions it poses for the sector
Good afternoon,
If you started a conversation with someone about the financial health of the social housing sector or its regulation in the 2010s, you were likely to hear the word ‘Cosmopolitan’.
This is probably the ultimately sign of the size of an organisation in crisis: its name becomes a proper noun for the crisis, as well as the organisation itself.
In years to come, will ‘Swan’ carry the same meaning? It probably should. One of the sources we spoke to for our special report this week branded the rescue “bigger than Cosmopolitan”.
If you have not read the story yet, you can here. In summary form, the saga is a cautionary tale about the perils of over-ambition.
Swan, it appears, was simply going too hard in terms of its development plans and hit the buffers pretty hard when things took a turn for the nasty with regard to the economy in recent years.
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The saga raises many important questions. One being how was it allowed to happen – how did the regulator, auditors and credit agencies fail to recognise the dangerous waters Swan was drifting into? Or, at least, fail to stop it changing course?
Connected, are others going to find themselves in similar peril, particularly if the anticipated housing market downturn really bites? And who will rescue them if they do? It cannot always be Sanctuary.
Also this week, we’ve been speaking to councils that do not think the recent changes to Right to Buy receipts will help them enough in their battle to replace the homes sold under the policy. It’s also probably about 10 years late.
The continuing economic downturn continues to impact the sector, with another developer going bust – this time it was one in the North West.
As the Welsh sector gathered for their major annual Tai conference this week, there was also a stark reminder of the pressure the current operating environment is putting on staff. Research revealed that high workloads and low resources are affecting services.
Finally, there was an important story from Dudley, where the council was found in breach of the Home Standard for its failure to comply with a host of safety requirements.
Councils will be engaging with the regulator a lot more than they are used to when the new law comes into force and will need to be up to speed with the requirements if they do not want to face its ire.
Have a great weekend.
Quote of the week
“So much of the baleful legacy of 2010 to 2016 is still in operation and yet to be unravelled.”
Columnist Jules Birch bemoaned the gap between what the government says about social rent and how much it spends on it.
Stat of the week
60%
Percentage of social landlords that intend to use a single annual survey to gather data on tenant satisfaction measures.
Peter Apps, deputy editor, Inside Housing
Say hello: peter.apps@insidehousing.co.uk
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