Sector leaders hail ‘huge significance’ of May’s NHF speech

Ms May, the first prime minister to attend a housing sector conference, told delegates housing associations can achieve things “neither private companies nor local authorities can deliver”.

It comes exactly three years after then-prime minister David Cameron launched a scathing attack on the sector’s efficiency.

She also called for action to reduce the stigma associated with social housing.

Boris Worrall, chief executive of Rooftop Housing Group, said: “The speech reflected a complete shift in how the government thinks about social housing as part of the solution, not the problem. I think it was extremely well thought out. In many ways, it could have been written by someone from the sector. There was warmth, personal commitment, some good challenge in there.

“I don’t think you can underestimate how significant a step forward this is in terms of social housing. It’s an absolute gamechanger, for me. Yes, we need to see money, policies and all the rest of it, but the narrative and the relationship is utterly transformed.”

Geeta Nanda, chief executive of Metropolitan Housing Association, said: “I think it [the speech] was fantastically rousing, actually, and absolutely what people wanted to hear in the audience. So good for her for coming, and good for her for holding an arm out to housing associations.”

Kate Davies, chief executive of Notting Hill Genesis, said: “I’m not excited about the money. It’s quite a way off and it probably would have come anyway. But the strong point she made about politicians shouldn’t look down on tenants, and it’s a perfectly reasonable place to live, that was a good start in the fight against stigmatisation.

“I think it’s a message to the Conservative Party, people in power, people in the media, that making derogatory statements about social tenants is not good.”

Robert Grundy, head of housing at consultancy Savills, said: “I think it’s of huge significance that Theresa May made an appearance at the conference.

“It’s a statement of intent, it shows the importance that housing has become to the Conservatives. It also shows, I believe, a move to the middle ground as well. So I thought it was a fantastic support for the housing association sector and everything that the sector stands for.”

In the speech, Ms May specifically cited the Barking Riverside development by L&Q and the Thamesmead regeneration from Peabody as examples of the results associations can achieve.

John Lewis, executive director for Thamesmead at Peabody, told Inside Housing: “It was hugely positive. What was really nice to hear was the prime minister truly backing what housing associations can do.

“Our social mission, she said, should be at the heart of development projects. I’d not really heard that kind of language before. You can take a different view of what people say politically, but it sounded quite genuine to me.”