
By Elly Hoult, Deputy CEO Peabody and President, Chartered Institute of Housing
Not for profit housing associations in the UK have a strong tradition of supporting people into work. It’s one of many social initiatives we engage with beyond providing homes and one of the reasons why I’m so proud to work in housing. Today the UK housing sector is the largest non-governmental investor in employment support in the country.
You can trace the roots of employability and social housing back to the Victorian philanthropists like George Peabody, Edward Guinness and William Sutton – they saw housing and work as the two essential foundations for success.
The birth of the modern housing association in the 1960s coincided with rapid social, economic and technological change. Better education and the world of work created new opportunities for social mobility and professional development. But what hadn’t (and still hasn’t) changed was the enduring poverty in England’s towns, cities and urban areas.
Rooted in communities and connected with local people, the emerging housing associations were perfectly placed to support people out of poverty through employment and training. They provided not only a roof and a low rent but personalised support to help people overcome obstacles and gain the skills they need.
Today the UK social housing sector has grown, providing homes for over six million people – around 10 percent of the population. Some of the largest associations look after more than 100,000 homes and invest tens of millions of pounds each year into community activities. Our work not only provides a safety net for people, but also a springboard to their success. We support people to develop lifelong skills to progress their careers.
Supporting social mobility
Social landlords differ widely and take a range of approaches that vary according to their objectives, funding landscape and local needs. Smaller associations can make a massive impact, and large associations’ employability work has evolved as their expertise and capacity to invest has expanded. The type of employability work in the sector is varied and supports different groups. There is what we call the core employment services that are generally open to all in local communities. This is providing life skills like budgeting, CV support and digital literacy as well as soft skills training, including in communication, collaboration, negotiation and leadership development.
There is specialist support designed for people who are further away from work –funded from a range of sources including the European Social Fund, DWP funding and the National Lottery. This includes support for people with health conditions and disabilities, disadvantaged young people and those with multiple and complex needs. This can be the most challenging aspect of the work but also the most impactful. Helping people get out of poverty, reduce debts and become financially resilient will always be a vital part of what we do.
Partnerships and inclusion
Then there are two workstreams that have grown as landlords and communities have diversified and the world of work has changed over the decades. At Peabody we now have around 4,000 employees, with an Academy that offers apprenticeships, and a people focus that provides graduate programmes, learning and development training and professional accreditations.
Our supply chain generates millions of pounds worth of social value every year. We’re able use our own resources and partnerships to support residents and colleagues into careers that work for them and add value in our communities. This is why my campaign as President of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) this year is called CHOOSE HOUSING. I want to promote the sector as a career and a route to many different professions, and particularly to encourage residents to choose careers in social housing. It’s another way our industry can drive opportunity and social mobility.
What we deliver today reflects the modern world of work. Now our teams are expert connectors, linked into business groups and cross-sector networks including further education, local government and the creative industries and professions for example. They help connect young entrepreneurs and emerging small and medium enterprises with expertise and funding to help them grow. We still provide the foundations for people to develop skills and aspirations, but also have wide-ranging economic inclusion programmes. These supply resources and facilitate networks to harness, support and grow talent in local communities. For us, economic inclusion is about ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances, have access to the resources, opportunities, and support needed to participate fully in the economic life of their community or society.
The scale of large associations means we’re perfectly placed to play a major role in this area. Our supply chain, collaborators and partnerships are more diverse than ever before. Our relationships mean we can lever in expertise and opportunities with major banks, investors and a wide range of professional and creative industries. Opportunities include work experience and volunteering, mentoring, access to pro-bono business coaching, networking or public speaking experience for example. Complementing and enhancing our relationships with the public sector, these new partnerships are supporting a vibrant and new kind of employability, scaling up our impact in people’s lives and local areas.
Socio-economic challenges
The potential for positive impact is huge, but I don’t want to pretend it’s easy. Poverty endures, including poverty of aspiration and opportunity. It’s tough for many people in our communities.
A 2022 report by the Learning and Work Institute and Institute for Employment found that social housing residents are nearly twice as likely to be out of work as those living in other tenures. It also found that social housing residents in work are twice as likely to work in lower skilled jobs and are on average paid a third less than people who live in other tenures.
The Peabody Index is an annual survey tracking the experience of social housing residents in London. The latest edition in 2023[1] found that most residents are in work and, of those surveyed, 37 percent said they live in households earning less than £30,000 a year. Many people are stuck in a low wage economy that doesn’t deliver for them, and that needs to change.
We’re well placed to help. The not-for-profit housing sector, working with our partners and supply chains can make a significant contribution to designing a new plan for good jobs, careers and incomes. This is why organisations like Communities that Work are so important, providing an intersection between housing, employment and government to drive better outcomes for people in England.
I’m a strong supporter of the ‘Future that Works’ campaign[2]. which calls for a national commitment to create systemic change to tackle unemployment, economic inactivity and in-work poverty within communities. In practice this should involve reforms to the advice and support available in schools as well as an expansion of apprenticeships, giving them equal weight to academic and university education. It should set out how the public and private sector can adapt to changing industries and technological improvements and create economies of scale in green energy and digital services. The report also highlights the importance of partnership workingby local leaders, businesses and social housing providers to make sure any investment in local support matches local need.
Skills for the future
This kind of systemic change needs to take account of what industry, the economy and society needs. The right training and skills for working people is essential for social wellbeing, individual economic activity, social cohesion and the productivity of the country.
For example, the social housing industry spends billions of pounds improving and maintaining homes every year, adding substantial value to communities, supporting jobs and driving economic growth and productivity. But in the capital, vital remediation and retrofit work as well as day-to-day maintenance and construction activity is at risk from what is becoming a critical skills and labour shortage. The workforce is shrinking all the time and it’s not clear that there is a joined-up plan to train the next generation of professional multi-tradespeople.
This is bad for society and the economy, but it’s also a matter of inclusion. Currently, women represent only 14% of the construction workforce in London, with significantly lower percentages (around 2%) in trade occupations. People from an ethnic minority background make up less than a quarter of the construction workforce in the capital. Careers in the trades offer excellent pay, conditions and scope for progression but at the moment the opportunities aren’t reaching all of London’s diverse communities.
We need to build a more robust and diverse talent pipeline for the future, which is why we’ve formed the London Homes Coalition. Our group of associations and partners recognise the need for sector-wide collaboration, engagement with further education and training providers, and close cooperation with government bodies at national, regional, and local levels. Together we’re looking to innovate and inspire the next generation, trying to create a virtuous circle on skills, training and employability.
Looking ahead
The UK social housing sector has been intertwined with employment, training and skills since its inception. We’ve developed great capacity, expertise and partnerships in this area. But there are great challenges ahead after some very difficult years for residents and for the country. The cumulative impact of austerity, Brexit, the pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis is perhaps not fully appreciated yet. We want to support people in our communities develop the skills for the career they want. Whether they choose housing, or a trade, or want to explore professional services, the housing sector and CIH as our professional body will be there to help. For more information you can email me at elly.hoult@cih.org
References
[1] https://www.peabodygroup.org.uk/our-work/research-insights/the-peabody-index/