I attended my first National Housing Federation (NHF) Conference in Manchester in 1979. I then attended every year until I gave up in despair a few years ago. In those days they were not the grand, corporate, stage managed affairs that we experience today, where challenge and disagreement is discouraged. They were held at universities, at weekends, and were the focus of real debate on the purpose of social housing. There was not a suit in sight. I witnessed the social housing giants of the day talking passionately about all aspects of our work. The NHF’s director, Richard Best spoke on the Sunday morning. I was inspired and transfixed by it all. I knew that this was where I wanted to be, at the heart of the national social housing world.
Some months later I applied for the job of The NHF’s Midlands Regional Officer. I was interviewed by Richard Best and the directors of the leading housing associations in the Midlands. In my appointment letter Richard mentioned my youth and lack of experience. I had never felt so out of my depth as I began my third job in housing. I was working with the giants who had only recently inspired me.
My role was to support regional and city groups of housing associations, advise them, represent the sector and contribute to the national debate. My first opportunity to do this came after the 1980 Conference in Sheffield. The housing minister of the day, John Stanley, announced a moratorium on all government spending. At a stroke investment in homes would cease. The impact would be devastating. The response from the delegates was to give him an ovation. Surely that would not happen today, if a government minister made an announcement that would threaten the very future of social housing! Only later in the bars and over coffee did the delegates realise the full potential of the announcement. On the Sunday morning Richard Best delivered a rousing speech on the need to campaign against the cuts. Within weeks the campaign was in full swing. Housing Association directors were marching in protest. Bishops and Archbishops were taking part in ceremonies to board up homes that could no longer be improved. I and many others appeared on local radio and TV to make our case. Finally the government backed down and funding was gradually restored.
This was a time of conflict between the housing associationsector and the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher. Much of it was focussed on the government’s desire to extend home ownership at the expense of rented homes. I helped to organise the NHF’s campaign to stop the inclusion of charitable housing associations in the statutory “Right to Buy” Although passed by the House of Commons the measure was halted in the House of Lords after much lobbying. The argument was simple. Housing associations should not be forced to part with assets for the benefit of those already housed today at the expense of those needing housing tomorrow. I only wish that our current housing leaders had recognised that this argument is as valid today as it was then. Maybe some would have spoken against the so called voluntary agreement.
The government also tried to switch funding from schemes for rent to shared ownership. The NHF opposed this and we established “Housing Crisis Areas” where politicians proclaimed properties to be “Future Ancient Monuments” because each house would have to last 400 years in the absence of government investment. The government reversed the policy and Michael Heseltine announced that rented housing in inner cities would again become a priority over home ownership programmes. A period of urban unrest in 1981 had helped to change government thinking. (The subject of my next blog)
All of these issues on which the NHF campaigned so successfully in the 1980s are the subject of government policy today. I am sad to see that the sector has responded so differently to the way I witnessed in my time working for the NHF. Funding for social rent homes has ceased and the numbers are reducing rapidly. They will never be replaced.Home ownership schemes receive the majority of funding and are declared affordable when in many areas they are not. The “Right to Buy” has been extended by a “voluntary”agreement. In response to the governments attack on social housing, the silence from many leaders has been deafening. Sadly some seem more concerned about the effect of government policy on housing associations themselves. All of the resistance in the 1980s was focused on the effect upon current and future tenants. I wonder what the housing association giants of the past, who I had the privilege of walking with, would have said about this. I am sure that they would not have been as silent.
tommurtha 