Tough topics aren’t something we shy away from on our Raising the Roof podcast, and this time we’re tackling the monster that is stigma and reputation surrounding social housing. Our host and CEO Nick Atkin was joined by Inside Housing’s Martin Hilditch, HQN’s Alistair McIntosh and our very own Susan Godbold for a frank chat about where the sector’s at and how it can get to where we all want to be.
Susan is our brilliant customer insight and engagement manager so knows all too well the things that can make a real difference to customers’ lives. Communication was a big theme of the conversation in this episode – one of the ways we’ve made improvements at Yorkshire Housing on this was introducing our Customer voice and review committee. It makes sure the views of all our customers are heard – and they make sure we’re keeping our promises too!
Susan said, “Our Customer Voice and Review Committee understand the pressures in the sector, so bringing customers in to help prioritise services highlights what’s most important. It’s about working together with tenants to tackle these problems together.”
We’ve all seen certain campaigners popping up on our screens recently to spotlight issues in the sector, and Alistair sees them as a pathway for improvement if we can embrace what’s being said. He highlighted “If we had a well-funded, national tenant voice to ask the right questions, we’d get some sober discussions. The campaigners we see online and on television aren’t just the voices for tenants, they’re also the voices of frontline workers like Susan, and they’re saying what everyone has been saying for years.”
But the stigma in social housing hasn’t come about recently, Nick said “The stigma’s been around for years, often social housing’s seen as step on the path to something better. Many of our customers love the security of living in social housing and their communities are where they want to be and bring up their families.”
So how do we challenge these stigmas and stereotypes?
The work that campaigners are doing shows exactly what should be expected and challenges some of the social housing stereotypes. Martin went on to say “There are a number of factors feeding into stigmas and the sector needs to listen to its own tenants’ voices. The voices are there and sometimes they’re listened to on an individual basis, but really they need to heard as a collective to get the desired solutions.”
To make the necessary improvements, we have to be willing to hear about the challenges our customers face, and have the resources available to carry out change. The Social Housing Regulation Bill takes big steps forward, but we need a more integrated system to address the issues in the sector.
Thanks to our guests Martin, Alistair and Susan for joining us on Raising the Roof. To hear the full conversation, or catch up on previous episodes, head to Spotify or Apple Podcasts and follow our channel so you don’t miss the next one.