The editor’s rundown: out of the ordinary – payments, policy and professionalism

As such, the case and its regulatory resolution might be perceived as simultaneously concerning and reassuring, in that despite a precarious situation in which regular approaches proved unsuitable, sufficient regulatory powers did exist to intervene and keep tenants’ homes safely in the sector.

But as the flow of rescue mergers continues, and financial pressures on providers mount, questions will remain as to how often, and on what scale, the regulator (and its own financial backer, the government) might be willing and able to repeat this exercise.

For-profits

Other regulatory stories to look out for from the past month include two from the world of for-profit providers.

At the end of December, Sage Housing saw its registered providers receive compliant grades from the RSH in a first assessment, 10 months after Legal & General Affordable Homes became the very first for-profit to gain compliant grades.

Meanwhile, a fund manager owned by housing association Places for People has revealed its ambitions to launch its own for-profit provider, in a wide-ranging interview with Social Housing a few months on from a rebrand. Read the interview with Thriving Investments’ John Tatham here.

Rent policy confirmed 

And in the world of rent regulation, housing providers will in large part have been relieved to see formal confirmation that rent rises will be permitted at up to 7.7 per cent next year. While the rises are in line with the existing policy in the last year of the rent settlement at Consumer Price Index plus one per cent, last year’s rent cap intervention and other recent unheralded interventions by government mean that delivery of the existing plan warrants more celebration than it should.

Greater certainty in the longer term is the ask of many sector leaders, who have reiterated the need for a long-term settlement beyond April 2025. 

Pay and professionalism

Elsewhere this month, analysis by Social Housing has shown how the ongoing cost of living crisis together with recruitment challenges are impacting the wages providers are paying out. Average staff pay at UK registered providers rose nearly seven per cent in 2023, our data shows, with Scotland seeing the largest total increase at 15 per cent. Chloe Stothart and Robyn Wilson report.

The focus on employees continues in our comment pieces this month. Jill Murray, president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, argues that the New Year presents those working in housing with an opportunity to take professional development seriously.

Professionalism in housing goes “beyond qualifications, training and climbing the career ladder”, she writes, adding: “It encompasses everything about your working practices, such as the need to be in control and to display the right leadership behaviours, attitudes and empathy, and to operate within an ethical framework.”

Meanwhile, Tariq Kazi, director of financial strategy at Southern Housing, and Arun Poobalasingam, funding and marketing director at THFC, emphasise the crucial importance of the right knowledge and training to manage a housing provider today.

“Tailored and innovative funding structures have unlocked significant new opportunities for the social housing sector, but also mean the importance of proper treasury and finance training has grown,” they write. “Heightened scrutiny on the sector brings increasing training expectations.”

Indeed, in an era of financial challenge and ‘extraordinary’ regulatory interventions, the need for highly skilled professionals at the helm of provider finances, together with well-informed boards, is clearer than ever.

Sarah Williams, editor, Social Housing