LABM recently caught up with Mike Turner, the Chair of the National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) Service Provider Forum (previously the Contractor Forum) to learn about the organisation, its plans and how it will be helping members to charter the multiple big challenges ahead.
For those of you who don’t know us, the NHMF Service Provider Forum was established in 2012 and our membership represents the housing sector’s finest in housing maintenance and repairs innovation, best practice and collaboration. Embodying a broad cross section of provider organisations with differing interests and specialisms, from household names to SMEs, the Forum helps members stay ahead of legislative changes, exchange ideas, experiences and best practice, and above all, collaborate to raise standards in housing through facing challenges together.
When it comes to challenges, the social housing refurbishment sector is certainly one that is under intense scrutiny, grappling with huge topics like retrofit and decarbonisation, the management of damp, mould and condensation, the Building Safety Bill, new procurement legislation and inflationary pressures on an already squeezed supply chain. Housing provision is complex so none of these topics are surprising, but they do bring with them a unique set of challenges which as an organisation, we aim to support our members to overcome. Many of these challenges are interlinked, driven by two over-riding issues: money and skills.
Living in an inflationary world
Adapting to life in our new high inflation world is impacting on everyone. With disparity between CPI/RPI and rent caps, labour shortages, material price hikes, significant additional resources required to deliver Net Zero by 2050 to name but a few, money is a hot topic for the membership.
Are our contracts and provisions in contracts fit for purpose in this new high inflation economy? Can we mitigate the current threats by collaborations like collective purchasing? How can innovation play a role?
Soft Market Testing is proving itself to be a great way to determine the capacity of a market to supply a service and to gauge the level of interest in future procurement, an approach that is a way for clients to have earlier engagement with contractors to save time, money, and resources.
Skills
It’s fairly well documented that as an industry we’re facing a skills crisis and whilst some of the blame can be placed on Brexit and COVID, one of the key contributors is that as a sector, for years now, we haven’t been appealing enough to attract new talent. The existing workforce is gradually retiring with nobody to take its place. The practice of not having directly employed tradespeople on the payroll has led to a skills’ vacuum in organisations, with entire generations of in-house skills being lost. But there is opportunity, and we need to collectively, make a career in housing desirable and widen the talent pool, so we all enjoy the benefits of a diverse workplace.
Net Zero: one of the UK’s largest ever building challenges
The biggest challenge the country faces is meeting the Green Agenda, especially now Government has confirmed £3.8bn of SHDF funding. We all welcome the necessary money to allow social housing landlords to invest to improve the energy efficiency of their housing stock and help cut housing emissions, but it too comes with its challenges. It is one of the biggest technical challenges we have ever faced and will only be successful if as a sector, the supply chain works collaboratively. If you’re a social housing landlord who has successfully secured SHDF funding, you will need to work with providers who can efficiently and effectively work with you to deliver your decarbonisation and retrofit programmes.
Tight timescales are involved. The grant must be drawn down and expended by 31st March 2025, with works completed by 30th September 2025. In order to meet deadlines, landlords need to be working with their providers now (if they aren’t already) to design and deliver the any solutions required. The sooner the process begins the better the outcome, especially against the backdrop of a tight labour market. Many of our members have been gearing up and it’s been a topic at the head of our agenda for a while.
Better together
Ultimately, a thriving housing sector needs to be built on the foundation of collaboration, which is what makes the NHMF and the Service Provider Forum such unique organisations. Collectively, our role is to encourage longer-term perspectives within the market, rather than adopting stopgap or knee-jerk reactions. We learn from each other about how best to assess and balance risk.
Naturally, as a sector, we want to do our best to rectify challenges, and plan for the future in a sustainable way whether that relates to the environment, improving housing conditions or new ways of working and attracting the next generation. Doing this in isolation can be really tough, which is where the NHMF Service Provider Forum plays such an important role. Being a member of the Forum gives businesses the opportunity to learn collectively about what these changes will be, through for example, debate and specialist speakers at regular meetings, both in person and online. This engagement means change will continue and as providers, we will be better able to meet the needs, aspirations, and challenges of our customers and the wider housing market.
NHMF: index link to website
If you’d like to join us as member or try us out a guest, please visit imogen.bowen@m3h.co.uk
