The code outlines six principles associations should follow when making decisions on mergers, partnerships or acquisitions. The code, which arose out of concerns about a lack of emphais from the NHF on tenant engagement.

Known as ‘the Form Follows Function toolkit’, the code advises organisations to start by looking at their values, be clear on the problem to be solved, to commit to involving residents, take decisions impartially, demonstrate accountability and to plan ahead.

The document also includes a checklist of the types of questions organisations should consider before deciding to merge.

The consultation on the alternative code runs until 18 November, after which a fuller report will be published.

Civitas Social Housing PLC aims to raise £250m through an Initial Public Offering to the London Stock Exchange, and hopes to fund a pipeline of up to nine transactions worth £500m in its first year.

Accordng to Inside Housing:

“Through buying existing stock from housing associations, the vehicle – the UK’s first social housing REIT (a tax efficient structure that holds income-producing assets) listed on the London Stock Exchange – would cash in on high demand for liquidity in a sector faced with funding pressures.

Its investment advisor, Civitas Housing Advisers, said that it had already entered exclusive talks to secure two purchases worth £50m, in partnership with a pair of housing associations in London and the Midlands – on leases of effective terms of around 25 years.

Civitas Social Housing will be aiming to provide its equity investors with index-linked, quasi-government backed incomes at an anticipated yield of 5%. It would agree long-term leases of 10 to 40 years, while the housing association would continue to manage properties on behalf of Civitas.

Social housing and private-rented REITs have long been tipped as a solution to the lack of funding available to housing associations and to the private rented sector market, but they have so far failed to get off the ground. This has mostly been due to the perceived risks and upfront costs associated with bulk residential purchases and asset management, as well as lack of available stock.

However, larger housing associations with big investment portfolios are obvious targets for this kind of property deal, as they look to expand their development and investment programmes or improve services, and need sufficient access to capital. Loan-to-value ratios currently mean that, despite having access to debt, housing associations need 10-30% equity in order to get new schemes off the ground, meaning they need liquidity.

Housing associations are being forced to find operational efficiencies as a result of the 1% annual rent cut and cuts to grant funding.

Civitas said it would invest across the full gamut of sub-market rented housing: general needs, supported housing and extra care. Civitas’ advisory panel includes consultant Greg Campbell and former Department for Communities & Local Government director general Richard McCarthy.

This is not the first time a residential REIT has attempted to list in the UK. Mill Residential REIT, which was aiming to invest in buy-to-let style opportunities in 2014 by listing on the Alternative Investment Market, was forced to de-list in 2015 after it failed to raise enough equity from investors.!

MPs have raised concerns that DCLG) is failing to speed up the sale of surplus public land, despite a highly critical report more than a year ago.

The Public Accounts Committee said  “sluggish” public land sales, managed under DCLG’s 2015/2020 land sales programme, risked falling well short of the government’s stated target of getting 160,000 homes built on public sites by 2020.

According to Inside Housing:

“The committee’s report, Progress with the Disposal of Land for New Homes, states that DCLG’s current programme, which gives government departments individual housing targets, is being “back-loaded”. The committee referred to National Audit Office figures published in July showing that by 1 April 2016, almost a year into the new programme, land had been sold with capacity to build an estimated 8,580 homes across 77 sites – just five per cent of the programme’s five-year commitment.

The committee also expressed fears that remaining sites earmarked for sale would be harder still to release, as many of them are being used to deliver services, and have only “speculative” potential. The report says these sites could hold over 104,000 more homes, but over 50% of them are considered “high risk”.

In a September 2015 review of the 2011-2015 programme’s success, the committee slated DCLG for mismanaging sales and failing to collect adequate data about sites sold, or how many homes were actually being built.”

In the spending review last year the government announced that £40m would be given to support services for domestic violence victims. Councils have been invited to bid for part of the £20m pot launched today which will provide funding up to March 2018 to increase refuge spaces and accommodation.

This tranche of funding will only be available for councils that are working with other organisations, such as domestic violence organisations or other councils.

Successful bids should demonstrate how the council has assessed need and taken into account the particular needs of victims from isolated communities or black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Councils should make provision for victims moving away from their home area and moving into new areas due to abuse. The government ideally wants bids from three or more councils working across boundaries where they can form regional hubs where necessary.

Councils could receive around £100,000 each, but councils that work together could receive more.

Hello everyone

Here are the notes and handouts of the meeting:

Changing our approach to Co-regulation and involvement

Alison Leech and Jane Booth from Incommunities

• Our change of approach, the drivers and the intentions
• Our new Community Trust Panel and their role in co-regulation
• Commissioning our inspectors to scrutinise
• Hints and Tips and time for questions and discussion

Incommunities Scrutiny Net 5.10.16

 Tenant involvement in organisational change, merger, acquisition and collapse of groups and devolution in LAs

                             Yvonne Davies and Matthew Trueman

• Different approaches and requirements to organisational change
• How do we involve customers in devolved government?
• The Thirteen approach to Group Collapse and tenant engagement (Matthew Trueman)
• How do we link the feedback to governance?

Matthew’s presentation on collapsing a group

S.Net 5.10 16Group collapse Leaflet FINAL

Yvonne’s presentation on mergers, acquisitin and demerger practices on involvement

S.Net 5.10 16

Discussion – on the couch

What are tenants scrutinising (YD/Plus Dane)

•  Habinteg – responsive repairs
• Cestria – just going digital so refeshment of the panel is underway, but will use on line and e forums to support the scrutiny panel to reach out to other tenants for their views
• Bernicia/4 Housing Group – 2 lanlords have merged and they are ndergoing a review of how to join up the Scrutiny Panels
• Incommunities – Supported Housing
• Leeds – managed by the Croporate Governance team, so also covers hedges and highways
• Richmond – looking for ways to engage new tenants in diffeernt ways for scrutiny as Panel is now down to 3 members
• PlusDane – recruited 16 people for the panel wiht the support of the commuications team
• South Liverpool and Liverpool Mutual Homes tenants are reviewing cusotmer engagement
• Wulvern have just completed their review of complain services
• Thirteen have just reviewed concessionary gardening 

Can your panels be more digital?

Its early days at Cestria, who are about to embark on a maily digital engagement offer. they are keen to include those people under 50 years in their reviews ad to give people opportunities to comment frm their home.

They are building up a tenant data base to support individual scrutiny which may involve some meetinsg but will be complated through on line forums an discussion groups as well as traditional scrutiny methods.

A Performance Clinic of Directors will choose the service review subject and the Housing and Communtities Committee of the Board will also suggest scrutiny subjects, ince a quarter with reports completed within that quarter using a less intensive scrutiny model

Incentives for involvement

Adactus – gameification of invlvement – tenants send in pictures and get £1 for every good picture sent in – thsi can be managed by the orgasiation as they ask for feedback on specific services within budgets

Many landlords used prize draws for involvement in scrutiny or compaints panels and soemtimes also offer lunch/dinner as a thanks for completing the work.

Cestria:

• Return of new Tenancy Agreements (x 3 different categories) by deadline – Prize draw entry of £100
• Difficult to let properties
  • Decoration vouchers
  • Carpet provided
• Employment Programmes
  • Empty Homes Programme – £25 B&Q Voucher on completion of course
  • Care Skills Foundation Course – 20 reduced cost driving lessons (£5), Theory & Driving Test paid one completion of course

Induction programmes for new tenants (Trafford Housing Trust)

This conversation was moved to the next meeting so Mark coudl share his wisdom from work done at THT.

In the meantime, he has shared these documents:

QIP Induction Flowchart 2015

Quality and Insight Panel JD

QIP Interview Question 2016 VS2 matrix

THE QIP ARTICLE WHO ARE WE2015

Three Month Feedback

Six Month Feedback

Induction Docs SEPT 2016

INTRODUCTION TO THE QUALITY AND INSIGHT PANEL VS2 FEB 2016

Discussion/information

• Next newsletter will be sent out after 23rd November Comprehensive spending reveiw
• NHC Scrutiny Conference, 6^th December at Leeds – reduced cost bookings to mid Oct on NHC events page
• Future speakers – agreed we woudl hear from Mark on his induction, spend more time on customer incentives, ask Plus Dane to share their work to date on changing the panel and Matthew to share how he uses Google to survey tenants – and anything else you want.
• The next meeting will be on 24th January 2016 at Liverpool Mutual Homes 10.30-2.30 as always

The government’s new apprenticeship framework brings with it some great news for housing. In the past, the range of apprenticeship frameworks on offer has covered generic sectors and topics, but with this change they become much more tailored, specific and relevant.

The new-look apprenticeships come in three levels, targeted at specific job roles at varying levels. For the first time, the same apprenticeship can be applied to housing management in social housing and property management in the private rented sector:

• Housing/property management assistant
• Housing/property management officer
• Senior housing/property officer

With these specific apprenticeships, an organisation can now offer much more relevant programmes designed to upskill the apprentice and support their progression into a career in housing or property management.

Here is the CIH briefing:

390651_how-to-enhance-temporary-accommodation-provision-final Housing apprenticeships what are they all about

Faye Greaves, policy and practice officer for CIH has put together a briefing on how to enhance temporary accommodation.

390651_how-to-enhance-temporary-accommodation-provision-final

Associations, in negotiations with ministers on the details of the voluntary scheme, have been pushing against plans for the government to pay 70% of the compensation on sale and the remainder when a replacement home is started. However this mechanism for paying compensation was outlined in a National Housing Federation (NHF) briefing to members last week, and it is understood ministers will not budge on this point as they want a lever to ensure replacement homes are built.

Although the NHF insists the deal with government is for full compensation even if homes are not replaced, the emerging split compensation plan is causing concern that associations might not in some instances be able to receive the full open market value of the homes they sell under the scheme.

One housing association chief executive, who preferred not to be named, said: “Conditional compensation is not what the NHF signed up for – many organisations, particularly smaller organisations, might find it impossible to fund replacements.”

Associations will be able to partner with another organisation to build a replacement and claim the remaining compensation. In “exceptional circumstances” if they cannot afford the replacement home they may instead be able to buy an existing property.

Gordon Perry, chief executive of Accent Housing who has sat on the NHF sounding board which develops the scheme, said some organisations may run into problems with charitable law which requires organisations to achieve full value for assets sold.

He said: “The boards with charitable objectives which require us to receive full consideration would have to look at the detail because it sounds to me like this may not be sufficient.

“The one-for-one replacement commitment was a national promise, not for individual associations to fulfil, and this is a shift away from that.”

Ian Graham, a partner at Trowers & Hamlins solicitors, said: “The association will need to consider whether the ‘guaranteed’ value it will receive renders it an appropriate transaction for the charity to undertake.”

Jonathan Higgs, chief executive of Raven Housing Trust, said: “The commitment from government is that each association will receive 100% of the value of their properties.”

The NHF briefing note also revealed housing associations will be required to check with government in advance of each sale to ensure enough compensation is available.

The discounts will be funded by the high-value asset levy on councils, which has not yet come into effect, meaning funding may be limited in the early days of the extension.

The NHF also this week advised its members they will be required to create local policies for exemptions and a scheme of portable discounts before the scheme launches.

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government said it will announce a start date for the extension in due course.

The National Housing Federation (NHF) has called on members to help crowdfund £70,000 for a data project estimating tenants’ incomes ahead of the voluntary introduction of Pay to Stay.

In a briefing note to members, the NHF said it had been seeking datasets which will help social landlords decide whether or not to implement the controversial means-tested rent rises.

It has settled on a complex estimation tool developed by academics at the University of Cambridge, which estimates social tenants’ income by local authority and household type.

The NHF said it believes this data will help housing associations decide whether or not to introduce Pay to Stay, but it will cost £70,000 to produce across England.

The government had originally planned to make Pay to Stay – which sees tenants earning more than £30,000 charged up to market rent – compulsory for all social landlords.

But after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reclassified housing associations as part of the private sector, the government u-turned making the policy voluntary for associations. It said it still expects “the majority” to introduce it.

The income management charter is a flexible framework unique to CIH that helps organisations to challenge their income management services and identify the outcomes a good quality service can deliver. The charter focuses on key areas of service delivery and contains a series of commitments which are underpinned by a range of outcomes that the organisation should hope to achieve. Together, the commitments and outcomes provide a framework for organisations to assess where they are now and where they aspire to be.

Why do we need an income management charter?

• By signing up to the CIH income management charter, you are making a public commitment to deliver a high quality approach to income management which balances the needs of the business against outcomes for tenants
• This approach to income management will help you to identify what outcomes a good quality service can deliver
• The flexible framework can be tailored to suit outcomes that matter to organisations and their tenants
• The charter was developed with the expertise of the sector and by our experienced

The charter

• Download the charter
• Sign up to the charter