The Chartered Institute of Housing’s new chief executive, Sarah Webb, tells Nicola Carroll that councils must make housing more of a corporate priority
Sarah Webb is buoyant, considering there are 1.6m people on council waiting lists, campaigners say one in 10 children live in overcrowded homes, and even young professionals struggle to afford mortgages.
‘This is the best time ever in my career,’ she says. Her optimism is not due to the fact she has moved into the top spot at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), she quickly clarifies; but because housing has finally moved up the national political agenda.
Critics might argue that councils have scant hope of building many of the much talked about three million new homes to go up by 2020 under current government plans.
Yet, according to Ms Webb: ‘The future is bright for local authorities when it comes to housing, but it is strategic.
‘I see them as conductors of an orchestra responsible for a vision and ensuring all the players with money, land and skills are brought together. That is the most important thing they can do.’
Ms Webb believes councils are still not making housing enough of a corporate priority, despite its obvious links with improving health, education and community wellbeing, social care and the local economy. Last year’s CIH survey, Skills for Success, revealed that although council chief executives appreciated the strategic corporate role housing could play, this was not necessarily being fed into Local Area Agreements.
A follow-up survey is now due to assess whether housing now has a bigger corporate role – as Ms Webb hopes it will in light of local authorities’ new place-shaping duties. CIH is also re-writing Communities and Local Government guidance on the strategic housing role of councils and working with the IDeA to develop suitable skills.
That target for three million new homes by 2020 will be ‘tough’, Ms Webb says, and local government’s part in delivering them will be ‘crucial’. But, in her view, this part is primarily in terms of planning. ‘The big bit that is missing is not legislation or money or structures.
What we haven’t got is public opinion behind us. NIMBYism prevails. People protest against building new eco-towns at the same time as complaining about lack of affordable housing. The greatest threat to these targets is that planning will be opposed.’
For this reason, she considers it no bad thing that the Homes and Communities Agency being created under the housing Bill will have the ultimate power to overrule local planning decisions: ‘There is a need for someone to step in… where the local authority has failed.’
Ms Webb was brought up in leafy Hertfordshire. The seeds of her commitment to better housing were sown when she witnessed ‘dreadful estates’ in Glasgow as a geography student and this led her to become a housing officer.
She was part of the team of civil servants that introduced housing-option appraisals to local government and then worked as CIH’s director of policy and practice and deputy chief executive before becoming chief executive earlier this year.
She is not planning to revolutionise CIH, but to build upon predecessor David Butler’s achievements in putting the organisation on a sound financial footing from which to introduce new services such as e-learning.
Nor is CIH likely to be more outspoken under its new chief. ‘We take each policy issue on its merits and work closely with policy-makers behind the scenes, which has more credibility than the sound bite.’ The organisation’s tactful press statement following Caroline Flint’s controversial remarks that tenants should work or lose their homes was characteristic: Ms Webb welcomed the new housing minister’s ‘focus on worklessness’, while pointing out that a stable home is ‘a springboard’ to education, training and work.
With 20,000 members from across the housing world – 27% from local authorities, 41% from housing associations and the rest from providers including the private sector – pragmatism prevails.
‘If you forget the processes and structures and think about output for the end user, that is what is important and what brings us together. I am completely neutral on how housing is provided and managed; that is down to local people to decide.’
CIH has campaigned for councils to be able to opt out of the Housing Revenue Account – now under review. It also called for amendments to the housing Bill to ensure regulator, Oftenant, provides the same level of protection to all residents. Ms Webb wants to see ‘resident-led self-regulation’.
This would, she explains, enable individual housing bodies to deliver what their residents really want – and meet her own long-held ambition of placing residents at the centre of the housing stage.
‘This is the best time ever in my career,’ she says. Her optimism is not due to the fact she has moved into the top spot at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), she quickly clarifies; but because housing has finally moved up the national political agenda.
Critics might argue that councils have scant hope of building many of the much talked about three million new homes to go up by 2020 under current government plans.
Yet, according to Ms Webb: ‘The future is bright for local authorities when it comes to housing, but it is strategic.
‘I see them as conductors of an orchestra responsible for a vision and ensuring all the players with money, land and skills are brought together. That is the most important thing they can do.’
Ms Webb believes councils are still not making housing enough of a corporate priority, despite its obvious links with improving health, education and community wellbeing, social care and the local economy. Last year’s CIH survey, Skills for Success, revealed that although council chief executives appreciated the strategic corporate role housing could play, this was not necessarily being fed into Local Area Agreements.
A follow-up survey is now due to assess whether housing now has a bigger corporate role – as Ms Webb hopes it will in light of local authorities’ new place-shaping duties. CIH is also re-writing Communities and Local Government guidance on the strategic housing role of councils and working with the IDeA to develop suitable skills.
That target for three million new homes by 2020 will be ‘tough’, Ms Webb says, and local government’s part in delivering them will be ‘crucial’. But, in her view, this part is primarily in terms of planning. ‘The big bit that is missing is not legislation or money or structures.
What we haven’t got is public opinion behind us. NIMBYism prevails. People protest against building new eco-towns at the same time as complaining about lack of affordable housing. The greatest threat to these targets is that planning will be opposed.’
For this reason, she considers it no bad thing that the Homes and Communities Agency being created under the housing Bill will have the ultimate power to overrule local planning decisions: ‘There is a need for someone to step in… where the local authority has failed.’
Ms Webb was brought up in leafy Hertfordshire. The seeds of her commitment to better housing were sown when she witnessed ‘dreadful estates’ in Glasgow as a geography student and this led her to become a housing officer.
She was part of the team of civil servants that introduced housing-option appraisals to local government and then worked as CIH’s director of policy and practice and deputy chief executive before becoming chief executive earlier this year.
She is not planning to revolutionise CIH, but to build upon predecessor David Butler’s achievements in putting the organisation on a sound financial footing from which to introduce new services such as e-learning.
Nor is CIH likely to be more outspoken under its new chief. ‘We take each policy issue on its merits and work closely with policy-makers behind the scenes, which has more credibility than the sound bite.’ The organisation’s tactful press statement following Caroline Flint’s controversial remarks that tenants should work or lose their homes was characteristic: Ms Webb welcomed the new housing minister’s ‘focus on worklessness’, while pointing out that a stable home is ‘a springboard’ to education, training and work.
With 20,000 members from across the housing world – 27% from local authorities, 41% from housing associations and the rest from providers including the private sector – pragmatism prevails.
‘If you forget the processes and structures and think about output for the end user, that is what is important and what brings us together. I am completely neutral on how housing is provided and managed; that is down to local people to decide.’
CIH has campaigned for councils to be able to opt out of the Housing Revenue Account – now under review. It also called for amendments to the housing Bill to ensure regulator, Oftenant, provides the same level of protection to all residents. Ms Webb wants to see ‘resident-led self-regulation’.
This would, she explains, enable individual housing bodies to deliver what their residents really want – and meet her own long-held ambition of placing residents at the centre of the housing stage.
