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Click here to download the SOCIAL_HOUSING_CROSSWORD_PUZZLE.pdf

The future of social housing was prudently addressed, following a riveting conversation held by Theresa Mays former chief of staff Nick Timothy at one of our own board awaydays, back in January.

Many believe that social housing is nearing the bottom of the agenda when it comes to the implications of Brexit and is being heavily overlooked.

Arguable, the main issue that the social housing sector is going to face is the logistical changes to supply chains. With materials like timber being heavily imported from the EU, many merchants have already begun contingency planning to maintain their sustainability, and have adopted the approach of stockpiling materials; however, it’s a very temporary solution

The overcomplicating of importing materials is set to have some implications on the affordability of social homes, whether this is going to be for the good or bad of renters in the UK.

But the question is, does anyone know what they are doing? Planning for the unknown is an impossible feat in all walks of life, let alone when looking to mitigate the effects of Brexit on an entire industry.

The potential knock-on effects are endless with the immediate ones possibly the most damaging. Will we begin seeing more or less jobs in the construction industry? Half of construction workers in London come from the EU and many have already gone back to avoid being ‘stuck’.

The effects that deal or no deal Brexit could be endless from temporary purchasing alternative materials to a complete logistical change, steering away from current just in time solutions.

Going from a blanket agreement to, well, who knows what, is going to be a huge change regardless of the specifics and the social housing market is inevitably going to learn to adapt no matter what comes its way; Deal or No Deal is just the beginning of something bigger.

With every future deal coming from UK Parliament, surely our government will do what is best for UK citizens? It is no secret that the UK has been in a housing crisis for some time now with the publication of reports like the Shelter’s “vision for social housing”.

Although the UK is going Brexit crazy, there’s no need to panic. CHIC has been actively collaborating with its members / suppliers to gather intel on what is the best course of action to mitigate the amount of disruption to the supply chain. 95% of Manufacturers and Distributors have already plans in place to mitigate for a No deal vote with the large majority being determined as low risk. (Testimonial from a supplier)

CHIC has engaged with it’s supply chain to ensure that members have contingencies in place for every aspect of property maintenance requirements.

CHIC’s Merchant Services Manager (maybe change it to Supply chain manager) is of the opinion that: “The worst thing that we in the social housing industry can do right now, is to put our heads in the sand and hope that this storm will pass us by. The first thing that will be affected will be supply chains, as we see in other sectors such as the automotive industry. Arguably if housing associations engage with purchasing groups, in respect of their suppliers, trends will be noticeable which means that steps can be taken to mitigate negative effects.”

As rightly pointed out purchasing groups such as CHIC, are better positioned to notice trends in the market that individual housing associations cannot see, and this is purely down to the number of suppliers each engages. Having a pool of suppliers providing the same type of service, normally via a framework, will allow members that purchase through that group a better understanding of where the market is going.

In these trialling times, co-operation is key, and instead of we can do it better, we need to do it better together.

The question is then, what has your association done to ensure that services will not drop.

Quote from Bournville to come: - need to chase giles again today.

If you are worried about the Brexit impact on your organisation, please give us a call.