Don’t take part in an ugly dogs competion - be a best in breed!
A recent round table of senior people within the housing sector echoed what many have been saying for some time in concluding amongst other things that ‘social landlords will increasingly need to demonstrate the value of every £ they spend’.  They recommended fresh ways of looking at value for money, which don’t involve taking part in an ‘ugly dog’s completion’. If you’d like to take part in a good looking dogs competition, we have a fresh and creative solution already being used by many across the sector, which Raglan and Catalyst Housing are the latest landlords to benefit from. 

Landlords face some forthcoming uncomfortable choices on maximising income under welfare reform.
Not wanting to be associated with a mass use of county courts, while rent arrears debt is certain to be the first and highest debt on the insolvency claim route.
In many respects it will come down to whether the landlord wants the money or the tenancy.
Barry Marlow poses the uncomfortable question in this article. Might it be better and cheaper to leave the tenants where they are and just collect the rent?  

Whether you're an existing or aspiring leader, and in whichever sector you work, at a time of significant change ( aka all the time) you need to be on top form.
This great article by Glenn Llopis in Forbes.com contains 15 key habits which great leaders exercise everyday.
Get exercising, or put some nudge theory into practice and remind your leader to go to the leadership gym more....

At the CIH conference next week you'll hear digital hipsters claim that e-mail is dead & dreadful, & that you have to adapt to social media.
Social media has its benefits, but e-mail is not dead, it’s evolving, and still apparently workers’ most effective collaboration tool.
Its far from perfect: Three-quarters of all e-mail is junk, and we’re wasting lots of time on internal messages to 'cover our backs'. Read this great infographic by Barry Gill, and make your own mind up on the future......

Peter Hall (@PHHSl) reflects on key questions discussed in a session at #housingcamp held at Thames Valley HA's offices on 18th May, with some useful history thrown in for good measure!

Recent articles suggest the housing sector may be heading back to a future of tougher rent collection and even bringing back rent collectors to deal with welfare reform and direct payments. We think organisations should think more strategically about income management. Increasing numbers of staff isn’t neccessarily going to increase effectiveness or collection rates.  While reintroducing the personal contact of old will be a good thing, smarter solutions and using technology will be just as important.

Value for Money isn't rocket science. But in some respects it has its roots in the stone age. Our successful ancestors certainly would have looked for a mixture of good cost, performance and quality from the stones and rocks they used. Those who didn't probably aren't in our DNA.

Secure your organisation's genetic legacy.
Book an on demand webinar or virtual tour of V3a
 

A call for the sector to use its ballast well and increase efficiency from within.
In this article, a version of which was first published in The Guardian in March 2013, Peter Hall says it’s time for the social housing sector to start delivering on its main purpose of building homes rather than bolstering its balance sheets.

There's never been a more compelling time to ensure your teams work together more effectively. These key habits of successful teams which we've worked on with various organisations are timeless. As effective now as they were decades ago and will be in decades to come.
Use them as a guide or live by them and you'll ensure you have highly effective teams who deliver corporate objectives, excel at customer service, and exceed performance targets.

In this article published in The Guardian in September 2011, Peter Hall suggested that DLO's offered marginally better value for money, but geographic factors were probably more significant, and Joint Ventures were  a potential best of both worlds approach worth pursuing.
Having spent time working with clients on improving the Vfm of repairs over the past 18 months, we still think this approach to measuring and improving Vfm is relevant.