By Neil Merrick
Housing associations must accept that the boom years are over and focus on raising standards for their growing customer base, a leading finance director told the conference.
Waqar Ahmed, director of finance at London & Quadrant Housing Group, said life as an RSL finance director could not have been easier over the past five to ten years. ‘The only job easier than being a finance or treasury director was being a valuer or an estate agent,’ he said. But the credit crunch and recession meant associations could no longer fund house building and decent homes work through selling homes. ‘We can’t rely on the past ten years’ financial models,’ he told a workshop.
Tenants of RSLs included more young families than before, but also more vulnerable people who might become victims of rising unemployment. ‘What does that do for our estates and mean for rent arrears and antisocial behaviour?’ he asked. Associations such as L&Q also sell shared-ownership homes to families who have a different perception of the kind of area they wish to live in.
RSLs also had to improve IT and respond to residents who wanted to communicate via the internet or text message. ‘We need to provide common services for all our customers,’ said Ahmed. ‘That means pushing up service standards.’
