#LoveEmptyHomes – a call to action for the housing sector

Empty Homes Wales is a project set up by United Welsh to help owners of Empty Homes to find bespoke solutions to bring their properties back into use. We offer signposting to finance, expert advice, referral to relevant services, full tenancy management, project management and so on. Anything that makes it harder for the owner to leave the property empty and unloved!

We work proactively with Local Authorities to offer services that mean we are able to get involved before enforcement action is taken against the owner.

This week I am busy promoting #LoveEmptyHomes – a timely campaign primarily aimed at reminding those owners of Empty Homes that their houses need love. Working with Local Authorities in Cardiff, Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent, I am sending over 300 Valentine’s cards to ask them to work with us for the sake of the community (if not their own bank balance!).

At the same time, over on Twitter we are stimulating discussion about the future of Empty Homes. Why not head over and join in, using the hashtag #LoveEmptyHomes. Please donate a tweet to the campaign via Thunderclap.

For me, this Empty Homes campaign has really highlighted that while there are many partners and supporters, what we really need to see in order to make a difference in the numbers of Empty Homes brought back into use is more housing associations getting their hands dirty along with United Welsh.

I’ve been asked regularly 'What do United Welsh actually get out of this? Is it just for show?' Well, in short: no, it’s not. Working in this sector, and as members of CHC, our bread and butter is 'investing in communities and changing lives'. And when I see a previously abandoned property that has been refurbished and has a family living in it, I genuinely feel that I am achieving that. But strategically this project helps us to meet our business aims and objectives - it’s not loss making, and it’s not a charity. The financial viabilities stack up. They have to, at the Board's continued insistence!

But we can’t do it alone. When United Welsh set up the Empty Homes Wales project it was always with the intention of encouraging more housing associations to get involved to cover more diverse geographical areas. I am in early talks with proactive housing associations in other areas of South Wales, who are tentatively looking to start working in the same way as us in their own zoned areas. We are keen to share any information and give the necessary support to get the Empty Homes Wales message out there.

So, if you have anything to contribute, any ideas or comments, then please get in touch using #LoveEmptyHomes to see what we can achieve together.

Michala Rudman, Empty Homes Project Officer
United Welsh

Digital exclusion - a tackling poverty issue

Having internet access within the home is fast becoming a necessity, not a luxury. The divide between those that are with broadband and those that are without because they cannot afford it is creating a social divide. Digital exclusion is therefore a tackling poverty issue.

Twenty per cent of social housing tenants who are not online cite that it is because they cannot afford home broadband. This equates to over 40,000 tenants across Wales who cannot afford to use the internet and take advantage of:

• Saving money through purchasing products/services online
• Searching and applying for jobs 
• Accessing online education and information services 
• Improved, fast communication with family and friends 
• Accessing online public services, including health services and remote monitoring
  

Having online access also leads to improved wellbeing and mental health, especially for the elderly. A study at the Phoenix Centre found that internet use leads to around a 20% reduction in depression classification and, compared with the digitally excluded, internet users feel less lonely and their personal wellbeing is enhanced.

Having access to the internet can mean the difference between work and unemployment, inclusion and exclusion, and happiness and depression.

Helping tenants to get online involves supporting them with developing online skills, helping them to realise the benefits of using the internet, and enabling them to have access to the internet. Community hubs currently provide a fantastic resource to up-skill the community through online training courses and some also provide free internet access. However, not everyone is able to access these facilities, especially those isolated or housebound. Of those that are online, 84% prefer to access the internet within their own home.

‘Fighting Poverty’ is about tackling the root causes of deprivation and enabling those in poverty to have the same opportunities as others. It is one of our five key aims in our CHC Corporate Plan and we therefore support our members to impact positively on the economic, environmental and social circumstances of tenants, leaseholders and communities. Our Your Benefits are Changing campaign and Moneyline Cymru service have done just that, and we are now looking to further support our members to raise the benchmark and help tenants to get online in the comfort of their own home.

To find out more about the work we are involved with on digital inclusion, contact Hayley MacNamara on hayley-macnamara@chcymru.org.uk .


Hayley MacNamara
Regeneration Officer

In One Place

Last week saw the signing of the In One Place collaboration agreement between Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB), 5 local authorities and 9 housing associations.

In One Place is the name of our new programme of work to deliver high quality accommodation and care to those with Continuing Health Care (CHC) needs.

Continuing Health Care is a package of care and support provided to those with complex health care needs, and due to a lack of local accommodation solutions many individuals are housed far away from their families in high cost ‘all inclusive’ packages of care, averaging £200,000 per year.

Supported by a Regional Collaboration Fund Grant, the partners will strategically plan, co-ordinate and deliver housing and care solutions and will engage the individuals to be accommodated and their families and carers.

Researchers will be appointed to track, measure and monitor the progress we make, with specific emphasis on quality of care, satisfaction with the solutions provided, organisational change, and cost.

This is new, it’s exciting, it carries high expectation and responsibility, but most importantly we expect the In One Place programme to make a real difference.

 
Mark Gardner
Chief Executive, Melin Homes
Mark.gardner@melinhomes.co.uk

Challenging the Benefits Street stereotypes

The Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street focuses on people living in one particular street in Birmingham – a city where we, the Accord Group, work.

It has immediately become the subject of hard hitting headlines, the hot topic on Twitter and Facebook and reignited a topic that polarises Britain – the benefits system.

Having worked in social housing for 25 years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of people in Birmingham and across the Midlands from many different walks of life.

I’ve met pensioners, young single mothers, women who have fled domestic violence, ex-offenders, people with disabilities and people in low paid jobs, just to name a few.

What do all these people have in common? They’ve all, in some way, needed state support to get by in life and a helping hand at a difficult time. Should they all be labelled as 'scroungers' as a consequence? We don’t think so.


Here are some facts you may find interesting:

• In 2012, 18% of working-age households were workless, but only 2% of cases demonstrated that no one had ever worked – dispelling a myth that we are overrun with generations of feckless families who have never had gainful employment.

• It is estimated (for 2011-12) that 0.8% of total benefit expenditure was overpaid as a result of fraud, again challenging a common view that benefit expenditure is high because of fraudsters and cheats.

• Interesting, the proportion of housing benefit claimants who are in work is rising to fast approach the one million mark. These are those people who work but are on low pay. A sign perhaps that wages are not keeping up with the ever increasing cost of living?

• It is estimated that over 55% of the local government workforce are entitled to some form of in-work benefits* and yet help to provide some of the most essential services in the country.

There will also be a significant percentage of health services workers also in receipt of state benefits. Are these people 'scroungers' too?

It’s time to put down the labels and challenge the knee-jerk assumptions and stereotypes about people who claim benefits.

Concentrating on creating sustainable, well-paid jobs, economic growth and affordable housing that really is affordable, would be far more profitable than constantly attacking those individuals and households for whom a benefit claim is the only way they can survive.

Dr Chris Handy OBE
Chief Executive of the Accord Group (www.accordgroup.org.uk - @theaccordgroup)


*New Policy Institute Report - TAX CREDITS: POLICY ISSUES FOR UNISON

Three things we should learn from Benefits Street

Apart from the unfortunate title, Benefits Street is pretty good.

Having seen the first two episodes I genuinely can’t understand what the fuss is about.

It’s a great piece of commercial television (think – My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding) that’s designed to shock.

And , boy , have we fallen for it.

Primetime TV + Benefits = Bang: The Twitter Liberal Left erupt in a perfectly predictable frenzy.

But by dismissing the show out of hand (I reckon less than 10% of people tweeting about it have actually watched it) we miss vital opportunities.

• We don’t learn from people who are superb storytellers and know how to construct a genuinely populist narrative. (Something the social housing sector has failed to do time after time)

• We don’t learn lessons about the way our organisations have failed to connect with some communities, and have contributed to their social exclusion.
• We get distracted and start indulging in petty campaigns (petitions to get it taken off air – for heaven’s sake!) rather than thinking big and innovating.
  

If we did more listening and a little less talking we would pick up three important lessons:


1. You change hearts and minds with stories not statistics

The past couple of weeks have seen a number of infographics and articles that aim to challenge the actual size of the welfare problem or show that tax avoiders are the bigger issue.

All of which are very interesting and probably correct but serve no purpose whatsoever in moving the debate forward.

Does anybody think that someone with an entrenched belief that welfare is a lifestyle choice gets one of these things in their inbox and says “Oh. I see. I was wrong all along. Apologies”.

Of course not. The producers of Benefits Street know that storytelling trumps statistics every time. As Thom Bartley points out in his latest post:

“The public doesn’t respond to blah blah million lost off a balance sheet, they respond to the story about a mother losing benefit because her disabled kid uses an extra room”


2. Real people tell a better story than professionals

This is the master stroke of Benefits Street. They’ve allowed people to speak for themselves. The professionals who help and, sometimes, hinder their lives are mercifully absent.

Here’s how we are referred to:

• Letter from Work Programme provider: “What f*****g work programme? I’ve never worked in my life”

• DWP changing payments: “There’s going to be riots soon unless people start getting paid”

• Housing: “These landlords think they are clever (chasing rent). They’ll have to pay to go court and it’ll take you about a year and a half”
  

So – not a great level of advocacy for the agencies who are paid millions to support them.

The residents come across as likeable, aware of their own shortcomings and display a deep sense of community.

It’s refreshing to hear the impact of reforms – positive and negative- untainted by professional bias. We need more of this.


3. The best ideas come from communities

The greatest thing about the programme are the many innovations that residents employ to get through their day to day lives.

These are not people without talent.

They are people who have existed in a system that has concentrated on what they can’t do rather than what they can.

I see more innovation on display on James Turner Street than I see across many organisations. Some examples:

• Neighbourhood mouthpiece “White Dee” using a community favours scheme to get a guy to save money for clothes and not blow it on drink and drugs.

• The “50p Man” who sells household essentials like washing powder in smaller affordable portions. He came up with the idea in prison and dreams of turning it into a national franchise.

• The Romanians turning trash into cash – literally going through bins.
  

One of the problems across the social sector is there’s too much top down innovation and an over reliance on tech based solutions.

We need to listen to communities, seed fund some grass roots projects and get out of the way.

The only real problem with Benefits Street , as Charlie Brooker has pointed out , is that title.

It’s designed to get your back up.

So let’s stop falling for it.

Now is the time for big transformational innovation.

Now is the time for our very best social innovators to work with the residents of James Turner Street and others like them.

• We could fund the likes of White Dee to become a Community Connector.

• We could try a localised approach to job creation and a resident led Work Programme.

• We could create a new deal for tenants rather than just moving them in and leaving them to it.

• We could have a social accelerator programme to scale up business ideas – like the 50p man.

• We could attempt to pilot a whole new system of benefits and help the Government out rather than sitting around willing Universal Credit to fail (Matt Leach outlines just such an approach in his excellent post here)
  

Or we could just get angry on Twitter, do battle with Daily Mail readers and become ever more polarised in our views.

I know how I want to spend my time.

How about you?


Paul Taylor
Innovation Coach

Read Paul's original blog post here.

Intensifying our fight against poverty

As 2013 comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on what the CHC Group and the sector have achieved in 2013. This is the time of year where those of us brought up as part of the Band Aid generation tend to think of those less fortunate. With increased austerity, and the impact of welfare reform and the introduction of the 'bedroom tax', concern for the less fortunate has been at the very forefront of our minds throughout the year.

We held a successful Annual Conference in November, with some clear messages from the Minister on the need to increase supply. So at the end of November I was delighted to attend the Housing Europe network in Denmark and to showcase the Welsh Housing Finance Grant as an example of EU Housing good practice, building 1,000 affordable homes without traditional capital subsidy or traditional bank lending. A real achievement in 2013.

At our Annual Conference, I was also deeply impressed by Sian Williams from Toynbee Hall and her messages about fighting poverty and financial inclusion. Financial education isn’t enough - there has to be access to affordable finance too.

The week after going to Denmark, I took a trip with the Four Feds to Northern Ireland and a tour of Derry and the Bogside to see some impressive housing projects, but also communities exploited by loan sharks. What hit home were the barriers local people encountered in accessing affordable credit, despite the maturity of the credit union movement in Ireland. This is why I’m so proud that members and CHC have worked so well together this year in extending Moneyline services to Merthyr, Swansea and Wrexham and helping so many people through the Your Benefits Are Changing campaign.

When we re-emerge in 2014, I want us to redouble our efforts in fighting poverty and extending social justice. As Sian from Toynbee Hall told us, 'We shouldn’t be worried about welfare reform – we should always have been angry about poverty' … our members are at the leading edge.

You can find out more about the CHC Group's activities over the last year in our Annual Review for 2013. 


Nick Bennett
Group Chief Executive

What impact will the Lobbying Bill have on charities across the UK?

There is often hyperbole around the impact of policy and legislation at any stage of its deliberation and, working in public policy, it is important to look beyond the headlines – the devil really is in the detail. When I saw claims that the Lobbying Bill currently going through Parliament could have ‘a chilling effect on campaigning in the voluntary sector’, I wondered whether the impact of the legislation was really going to be as shocking as some of the headlines. The further I delved into the legislation and the policy, the more I was shocked.

When the Lobbying Bill was originally released, the limited plans to register professional lobbyists caused a bit of a stir, but this proved to be somewhat diverting the attention from the real issues with the legislation. Part 2 of the Bill seeks to change the law on what non-party organisations, and charities such as CHC, can do in the run up to a general election (UK and Welsh!). Such was the outrage at the measures – which propose huge regulatory obstacles for groups wishing to campaign - the Countryside Alliance and the League Against Cruel Sports came together to campaign on the issue.

We were lucky to receive support from a number of parties in Wales in our opposition to the Bill, but it took an enormous amount from the Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement to get support at Westminster, and eventually a six week pause in the bill for consultation. I was delighted to see in the Commission’s second report today that they are recommending an exemption for all charities from the legislation, but this is far from the end of the journey. We must now work with the 100 or so other charities supporting the Commission’s work to ensure that our voices are heard in opposition to the legislation, and ensure that the Commission’s recommendations are applied.

Lobbying is a key function of CHC, and the housing sector has been successful in recent years in making the case to politicians about the importance of the work we do. Regardless of who is seeking election, or who may be in government, we must be allowed to continue in this role to affect positive change across society.

Whether it’s Russell Brand or Nigel Farage telling us, we constantly hear that people are disillusioned with politics, and it beggars belief that any politician could support a bill that will prevent ordinary people coming together to campaign on the issues that matter to them.

For more details on the bill, see the Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement website.

You can also show your support for 38 Degrees’ petition against the bill here.

Aaron Hill
Policy Officer, CHC