The Editor’s Rundown: New roles, new models, new takes

The same day, housing secretary Steve Reed wrote to the RSH to welcome its new chief. Referring to the regulator’s plans to engage the sector over a potential refresh of its economic standards, Mr Reed asked that this process consider how to “better reflect the importance of new supply” and “ensure that its practices support increased investment in the sector”.

The comments came just days after Social Housing sat down with Fiona MacGregor for her very last interview before stepping down as RSH chief executive at the end of April. Our conversation, published today, delves into what leading the regulator’s response to a slew of policy shake-ups and financial challenges has looked like from the inside, which economic episode proved the most testing, and her reflections on resilience at a sector level and a personal level.

We also discussed how regulation is positioned today and the path ahead for her successor. And, amid growing calls for ‘new models’ of investment, Ms MacGregor told Social Housing why she feels the RSH has been “badly misrepresented” on its appetite for innovation.

The subject of new ideas was also on the table as Richard Petty spoke to Social Housing ahead of his retirement after three decades in social housing valuation. He talks Michael Lloyd through the hurdles overcome, the successful collaborations – and the innovations that didn’t quite take off.

Innovation

One new(er) model that continues to drive activity in the sector is that of the for-profit registered provider, with Pension Insurance Corporation becoming the latest investor to register its own. Verda Living will support the investment firm to take a “more direct role” in the provision of social and affordable homes, two-and-a-half years on from its first direct equity investment in the sector.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of a housing association currently in the process of registering its own for-profit has called for changes to taxation to level the playing field between the two types of landlord. Karbon Homes’ Paul Fiddaman said creating this balance would be important in achieving the “scale and impetus” the association is seeking “in the new homes delivery space”.

Social Housing also reported that a carbon credit scheme centred on the retrofit of social homes, first piloted in 2022, tripled in size in its latest full year. The growth takes the potential total lifetime revenues for participating housing providers to £100m on credits already in play, with scope for more to be issued.

Funding and finance

Towards the same goal, housing bodies welcomed a recent top-up to the sector’s decarbonisation grant funding. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has said that it would provide an additional £100m for the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund in 2026-27, subject to final approvals.

And providers now have more clarity on when they can bid for the much-anticipated low-interest loans, after Social Housing revealed that the ‘go live’ date for the National Housing Bank’s (NHB) £1bn share of the pot will be in the autumn.

Housing associations continued to secure private finance during the month, as well as finance supported by government guarantees. Wales’ largest housing association secured a £130m sustainability-linked RCF from Swedish bank Handelsbanken, while two English landlords secured a total of £225m through the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme.

Most recently, an East of England landlord became the latest to secure a loan supported by National Wealth Fund guarantees.

Our special report this month looks at the broader picture on net impairments for the largest UK housing associations. It finds that these rose again in the last full year of audited accounts to reach £272m, partly as a result of contractor failures and a volatile housing market. Read the analysis in full here.

We’ll be digging into all of this month’s themes and more next week, as finance leaders meet for the Social Housing Finance Conference on 14 May.

Highlights include:

• Political and economic insight from Grace Blakeley, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Simon Rubinsohn and More in Common’s Alex Newton, a week on from today’s local elections
  
  
• Our first interview with Jonathan Walters as chief executive, to hear more about the RSH’s appetite for ‘new models’
  
  
• Simon Century, chief executive of the NHB, joins a panel of chief financial officers one month on from the institution’s launch to lift the lid on what ‘open for business’ really means, chaired by experienced sector leader Geeta Nanda
  
  
• And speakers on our special Treasurers’ stream in partnership with the Association of Corporate Treasurers include Octopus Capital’s Ellie Vlavianou, Abri’s Vimal Gaglani, the Universities Superannuation Scheme’s Eamon Ray and Peabody’s Tariq Kazi

I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Sarah Williams, editor, Social Housing