An exclusive Housing Today survey uncovers sector's anger at housing strategy ratings
One in three local authorities have revealed smouldering resentment at the way regional government offices handled the assessment of council housing strategies.

Research conducted for Housing Today by Pennington FMCS also found that 37% said staff felt demotivated after having strategies returned as not being "fit for purpose".

Some of the comments gathered included: "After working at night and at the weekends and at home to get it done [on time], when the [poor] grading came out I felt dreadful." And: "Lots of work went in and afterwards you have to think 'why bother?' Morale was pretty low."

The research followed the recent declaration from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister that only 10% of England's 354 local authorities had provided fit-for-purpose housing strategies (HT 30 January, page 7).

A third of the 35 councils questioned by Pennington pointed out that the ODPM did not smooth the process by only managing to provide feedback to them outside its own 20 January deadline.

The researchers also found a fairly even split in the quality of the feedback received. Of those councils questioned 46% felt it had been positive, whereas 40% did not. One respondent called for earlier feedback and another wanted more detail.

"Some feedback was seen as positive, very constructive, and the government office was praised highly for its involvement and commitment to the process," said Di Stirling-Chow, senior consultant at Pennington FMCS.

"In other cases the feedback was seen as nitpicking rather than constructive."

Stirling Chow found negative motivation seemed most common where one or two individuals were involved in developing the plan and it then received a low grading.

A more positive response to feedback emerged where a larger team was involved in developing the overall strategy. "During conversations with different local authorities, it felt like we were discussing completely different processes," said Stirling Chow.

An ODPM spokeswoman said most housing associations had been given feedback before the deadline: "Arrangements for more detailed feedback, including meetings between local authority officers and government office assessors, are for [those parties] to agree between themselves."

Source

Housing Today