The social housing sector in the UK has
undergone several changes since the post-war 1950s, some of which were driven
by legal moves such as the "right to buy" schemes encouraging home
ownership.
Other changes within the social housing sector were caused by the shift in the psychological approaches that naturally developed to make social housing more influential in increasing people's sense of well-being and community within local environs.
The standard of social housing within the UK post-war was in dire need of severe improvement. The Government introduced “The Housing Subsidies Act 1956”, the “National Plan” (1965) and the “Decent Homes” standards of the 1970s to encourage local authorities to improve housing stock within an economy where financial resources were in short supply.
Since the 1970s, local authorities have been hiving off their housing stock into “Arm’s Length Management Organisation” (ALMO) entities to enable housing organisations to raise funds in the private sector and money markets to reinvigorate themselves into becoming more entrepreneurial.
There are predominantly two types of organisations that provide social housing within the UK, Local Authority Registered Providers (LARP) and Private Registered Providers (PRP, more commonly referred to as Housing Associations or HAs), that charge either Social or Affordable Rents to customers.
Affordable Rent levels are set at a rate of no more than 80% (including service charges) of the general rents charged within the local market. They must form part of an agreement between the LARP or HA and Homes England or the GLA for both General Needs and Independent Living properties.
The UK Government subsidises Social Rents for low-income households at a lower level than the rents for similar local private sector rental properties. Social rents are calculated utilising a UK Government formula that creates a level of rent for each property, which is based on the value and size of the accommodation relative to local income levels.
Leadership in social housing organisations has become increasingly important. How staff ideologies are shaped relies upon the stakeholders’ perceptions and responses to the housing sector, organisational change, and acceptance of innovations.
Doctrine within the social housing sector dictated the need to inspire and motivate stakeholders such as staff, managers, and customers to invigorate the market to improve housing standards and overcome the UK national housing shortage.
Since the 1960s, there has been a move from housing organisations being just a provider of low-cost housing to becoming a sector where customers' social and physical well-being is paramount. The local community environment is a significant factor affecting society generally, indirectly affecting people’s mental well-being and self-worth.
Both transactional and transformational management and leadership styles can be positively associated with social housing organisations having a more positive attitude towards adopting an evidence-based management practice. Transactional or managerial leadership is a leadership style where the Executive Team relies on rewards and punishments for staff to achieve optimal performance.
Transactional management and leadership styles are based on an exchange or transaction of management thought or action. The Executive Team rewards staff who perform tasks to the specified level and punishes those who do not perform.
The relationship between the Executive Team and subordinates is based on assumptions that individuals are not self-motivated and need structure, instruction, and supervision to accomplish tasks.
However, transformational leadership was negatively associated with a housing organisation’s perception of the difference between the social housing organisations’ current and evidence-based practices. Transformational and situational leadership styles are practical approaches to social housing organisational leadership.
Depending on the work environment and situation, transformational leaders typically lead based on the personal traits of the vision and inspiration created by the Executive Team. In contrast, situational leaders rely on the intuition and analysis of a given set of circumstances to lead in a way that makes sense based on the situation and the stakeholders’ perception of the problem.
The social housing sector has seen a massive transformational change in philosophy and is moving in a new direction. The Executive Teams within housing organisations are increasingly seen as transformational leaders as they lead a sector in flux.
The social housing sector is embarking on significant changes as the industry creates a solid vision and a passion for accomplishing great things in making and changing the industry within the UK to become more customer-centric.
However, vision is critical for transformational leadership. The stakeholders within the housing sector are creating the concept itself. More so, middle management teams have taken the impetus set by the Executive Teams to communicate increasingly with the customer base to transform customers’ wants and needs into creating a social housing model.
It is less about bricks and mortar and more about the provision of housing, which is increasingly seen as influential within social and community well-being. Housing organisations are comfortable when they understand the vision and direction of the organisation going forward.
The engrained passion within organisational staff helps the transformational leader to sell a vital vision, especially in organisations where morale is low and the organisation is undertaking a significant change in direction.
Transformational leaders are often known for their charisma, which enables them to inspire and motivate stakeholders to mould and shape their impact and performance in line with the new organisational philosophy and ideology.
Whereas other leadership and management styles are based on the traits and approaches of leaders, situational leadership has emerged as a prominent approach to organisational leadership since the early 21st century.
It is influenced by the notion that leaders adapt to each situation as they become paramount and apply different leadership skills to motivate and influence the capabilities of stakeholders in that given situation.
Transformational leadership is referred to as a single preferred style of management. In contrast, situational leadership means that management traits will change to handle different scenarios.
Several factors are related to situational leadership, including external relationships with customers, financial resources available, internal team management and the organisation’s culture.
Transformational leaders might use their approach regardless of organisational culture. In contrast, a situational leader realises that culture powerfully influences teamwork and cooperation, in which communication styles strongly engender a team-oriented culture. The most successful housing organisations utilise management styles based on a mix of transformational, transactional, and situational types.
The housing sector has undergone a systemic change in its operations since the post-war era. It utilises financial resources raised within the money markets to fund the building of new housing whilst improving the standard of current housing stocks.
As the social housing sector evolves, it will need to modernise to enable the industry to become increasingly lean, agile and adaptive to customers’ changing needs. Processes and procedures will need to become increasingly value-adding rather than continuing to be undertaken “because that’s how we have always done things”.
Operating standards and commercial procurement measures will increasingly need to emphasise the efficient and effective utilisation of financial resources. As ever, risks will need to be managed to minimise them, but not to the extent where the processes to manage risk stifle innovation within the sector.
Entrepreneurialism and enterprise within the sector are paramount to ensure that managerial waste and inefficiencies are eradicated to allow social housing providers to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the industry in a way that maximises the efficient use of the sector's resources. However, the management structures within the industry will need to radically modernise if they are to deliver the needs of tomorrow, today.
Other changes within the social housing sector were caused by the shift in the psychological approaches that naturally developed to make social housing more influential in increasing people's sense of well-being and community within local environs.
The standard of social housing within the UK post-war was in dire need of severe improvement. The Government introduced “The Housing Subsidies Act 1956”, the “National Plan” (1965) and the “Decent Homes” standards of the 1970s to encourage local authorities to improve housing stock within an economy where financial resources were in short supply.
Since the 1970s, local authorities have been hiving off their housing stock into “Arm’s Length Management Organisation” (ALMO) entities to enable housing organisations to raise funds in the private sector and money markets to reinvigorate themselves into becoming more entrepreneurial.
There are predominantly two types of organisations that provide social housing within the UK, Local Authority Registered Providers (LARP) and Private Registered Providers (PRP, more commonly referred to as Housing Associations or HAs), that charge either Social or Affordable Rents to customers.
Affordable Rent levels are set at a rate of no more than 80% (including service charges) of the general rents charged within the local market. They must form part of an agreement between the LARP or HA and Homes England or the GLA for both General Needs and Independent Living properties.
The UK Government subsidises Social Rents for low-income households at a lower level than the rents for similar local private sector rental properties. Social rents are calculated utilising a UK Government formula that creates a level of rent for each property, which is based on the value and size of the accommodation relative to local income levels.
Leadership in social housing organisations has become increasingly important. How staff ideologies are shaped relies upon the stakeholders’ perceptions and responses to the housing sector, organisational change, and acceptance of innovations.
Doctrine within the social housing sector dictated the need to inspire and motivate stakeholders such as staff, managers, and customers to invigorate the market to improve housing standards and overcome the UK national housing shortage.
Since the 1960s, there has been a move from housing organisations being just a provider of low-cost housing to becoming a sector where customers' social and physical well-being is paramount. The local community environment is a significant factor affecting society generally, indirectly affecting people’s mental well-being and self-worth.
Both transactional and transformational management and leadership styles can be positively associated with social housing organisations having a more positive attitude towards adopting an evidence-based management practice. Transactional or managerial leadership is a leadership style where the Executive Team relies on rewards and punishments for staff to achieve optimal performance.
Transactional management and leadership styles are based on an exchange or transaction of management thought or action. The Executive Team rewards staff who perform tasks to the specified level and punishes those who do not perform.
The relationship between the Executive Team and subordinates is based on assumptions that individuals are not self-motivated and need structure, instruction, and supervision to accomplish tasks.
However, transformational leadership was negatively associated with a housing organisation’s perception of the difference between the social housing organisations’ current and evidence-based practices. Transformational and situational leadership styles are practical approaches to social housing organisational leadership.
Depending on the work environment and situation, transformational leaders typically lead based on the personal traits of the vision and inspiration created by the Executive Team. In contrast, situational leaders rely on the intuition and analysis of a given set of circumstances to lead in a way that makes sense based on the situation and the stakeholders’ perception of the problem.
The social housing sector has seen a massive transformational change in philosophy and is moving in a new direction. The Executive Teams within housing organisations are increasingly seen as transformational leaders as they lead a sector in flux.
The social housing sector is embarking on significant changes as the industry creates a solid vision and a passion for accomplishing great things in making and changing the industry within the UK to become more customer-centric.
However, vision is critical for transformational leadership. The stakeholders within the housing sector are creating the concept itself. More so, middle management teams have taken the impetus set by the Executive Teams to communicate increasingly with the customer base to transform customers’ wants and needs into creating a social housing model.
It is less about bricks and mortar and more about the provision of housing, which is increasingly seen as influential within social and community well-being. Housing organisations are comfortable when they understand the vision and direction of the organisation going forward.
The engrained passion within organisational staff helps the transformational leader to sell a vital vision, especially in organisations where morale is low and the organisation is undertaking a significant change in direction.
Transformational leaders are often known for their charisma, which enables them to inspire and motivate stakeholders to mould and shape their impact and performance in line with the new organisational philosophy and ideology.
Whereas other leadership and management styles are based on the traits and approaches of leaders, situational leadership has emerged as a prominent approach to organisational leadership since the early 21st century.
It is influenced by the notion that leaders adapt to each situation as they become paramount and apply different leadership skills to motivate and influence the capabilities of stakeholders in that given situation.
Transformational leadership is referred to as a single preferred style of management. In contrast, situational leadership means that management traits will change to handle different scenarios.
Several factors are related to situational leadership, including external relationships with customers, financial resources available, internal team management and the organisation’s culture.
Transformational leaders might use their approach regardless of organisational culture. In contrast, a situational leader realises that culture powerfully influences teamwork and cooperation, in which communication styles strongly engender a team-oriented culture. The most successful housing organisations utilise management styles based on a mix of transformational, transactional, and situational types.
The housing sector has undergone a systemic change in its operations since the post-war era. It utilises financial resources raised within the money markets to fund the building of new housing whilst improving the standard of current housing stocks.
As the social housing sector evolves, it will need to modernise to enable the industry to become increasingly lean, agile and adaptive to customers’ changing needs. Processes and procedures will need to become increasingly value-adding rather than continuing to be undertaken “because that’s how we have always done things”.
Operating standards and commercial procurement measures will increasingly need to emphasise the efficient and effective utilisation of financial resources. As ever, risks will need to be managed to minimise them, but not to the extent where the processes to manage risk stifle innovation within the sector.
Entrepreneurialism and enterprise within the sector are paramount to ensure that managerial waste and inefficiencies are eradicated to allow social housing providers to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the industry in a way that maximises the efficient use of the sector's resources. However, the management structures within the industry will need to radically modernise if they are to deliver the needs of tomorrow, today.
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