Time to put our heads above the parapet on efficiency

The world doesn’t stand still for the housing association sector. From the rent cuts to our aspirations to be a key part of building the homes that the country needs - it has the remit to be a dynamic and important industry.

However, it isn’t currently best known for driving efficiency and commercial excellence.

Last year, the HCA announced that it needed the industry to deliver a step-change in how it manages its operating efficiency over the next five years. I believe that is a positive and necessary challenge to housing associations; but let me explain why.

Race to the top

Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@MarkGHenderson) will know that I like motorsport.

I not only enjoy watching motorsport but I also enjoy taking part. In my youth I raced motorbikes and still do occasionally - although now that I’m a little older (and have more responsibilities) that’s added more than a few seconds to my lap times (as has my weight)…

I only drive on four wheels on the road these days, and think I’m a pretty good driver, but then everyone thinks they’re a good driver.

Turn to the people you’re with now and ask them - assuming they drive - if they think they’re a good driver. Almost certainly they will all answer ‘yes’.

Now ask them to list the attributes of a good driver. Speed awareness, courtesy for others, avoiding indecisiveness, indicating, being observant, anticipating others’ actions, confidence…the list goes on.

Two things spring to mind.

One is that we can’t all be good drivers. It’s statistically impossible and the evidence I see on the roads each day, reinforces this. Secondly, with no common set in stone criteria, how do we judge what is good?

To one person doing 35mph in a 40mph zone is prudent, while to another it’s slowing down the efficient flow of traffic.

Now ask yourself ‘Do I work for a good housing association? Is my employer efficient?’

Instinctively we all want to say ‘yes’. But just like we’re not all good drivers we can’t all work for efficient companies. Furthermore, who is to say what the criteria for judging efficiency should be?

Home truths

This is the dilemma the sector currently faces. We all think we’re good, no-one’s prepared to admit (publicly) they might not be.

And individually we’re all likely to default to criteria which plays to our strengths and ignores our weaknesses while defending our positions.

We need to collectively place ourselves under the microscope and develop a set of efficiency metrics by which we can be judged.

If we don’t, the government has made it clear that it will.

They’ve also made it clear that it will be in the sector’s best interests for us to do it ourselves.

And let us also understand that no matter how noble our core social mission is, our efficiency criteria needs to be based on something substantial and quantifiable - something that government and other observers can understand.

A united front

For the last 18 months a group of more than 20 housing associations have worked together to create a set of efficiency metrics which can be used to benchmark.

We imaginatively called it the Efficiency Working Group.

With support from Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the National Housing Federation, the group - made up of associations from all regions and all sizes - has proposed 15 efficiency indicators which we’re calling ‘The Sector Scorecard’.

The scorecard covers five areas including: business health; development - capacity and supply; outcomes delivered; effective asset management; and operating efficiencies.

All members of the group agree these indicators will enable us to compare like with like, while at the same time recognising that ours is a diverse sector encompassing a wide range of legitimate social missions.

For housing associations we’ll be carrying out a year-long pilot and we’ll be looking for housing associations of all sizes from throughout the country to take part.

We want this to be truly representative, and if it is going to work it will need to be so.

Housemark members will automatically be asked for these metrics as they have said they will incorporate the sector scorecard into their dataset for 2017.

For everybody else, the great news is that Housemark (for HAs with more than 1000 homes) and Acuity (for HAs with under 1000 home) will provide this as a free service for the pilot year.

Improving performance

So why take part? What’s the benefit to sticking your head above the parapet only for the risk of having it shot off?

I guess one of the main driving factors is that by formulating a sector-wide agreed set of metrics it can only help us in our core mission - of delivering the best possible service we can for our customers and increasing.

I’m under no illusion that there will be some areas where Home Group doesn’t fair too well.

Indeed one of the objectives of our latest business strategy is to become 20 per cent more efficient.

Culturally it may be uncomfortable for us all to take a long hard look at ourselves.

But we could learn a lot from British Cycling which was transformed from also-rans to the dominant force in world competition under Sir David Brailsford.

His philosophy of improvement through marginal gains has resulted in impressive medal hauls for Team GB at Olympics and World Championships and our first ever Tour De France winners at team Sky.

Be it improving our driving skills, cycling a bit faster or providing value for money for our customers, we can only improve if we benchmark ourselves.

That’s why I’m hoping the sector will really embrace this pilot scheme and sign up to it.

We’ll be releasing more detailed information in the coming weeks but if you have any questions or comments about this work, please do not hesitate to get in touch via sectorscorecard@homegroup.org.uk