365 Days in Housing

 

So yesterday was my one-year #ukhousing birthday – exactly one year ago, I took the plunge and left journalism, joining Northwards Housing as their media and communications specialist. I’ve been laid low with a very strange chest infection/vomiting bug, so my jubilation was rather low-key. No celebratory doughnuts for me, sadly.

But one small benefit of being off poorly was that it allowed me to reflect on those 365 days in housing communications – what I’ve learnt, where I’ve done well and where I’ve done badly, but lived to tell the tale.

This year has, then, been something of a rollercoaster, so bear with me if this goes on a bit. I’ll try to be succinct though.

 

Here’s what I’ve learnt:

• There is no such thing as a ‘typical social housing tenant’

Contrary to what the papers would have you believe, the world of social housing is not homogenous. There is no such thing as a ‘typical tenant’. One on the great things about working in communications in housing is that you get an overview across the whole business, so I’ve had the chance to meet lots of tenants in lots of different situations. For example, in one of my trips shadowing an neighbourhood housing officer, I met a very drunk elderly man who had collapsed at the side of the road. Another time, I wrote a press release about a very anti-social tenant who had made his neighbours’ lives a misery.

Those are the bad ones. But I’ve also met some inspirational men and women with brilliant ideas. The steering group who advised us on our annual report, for example, was full of tenants with really advanced ideas and suggestions about how to communicate dry facts and figures. During door-knocking to raise awareness of welfare reform, I met mums who were trying hard to make ends meet, who wanted the best lives for their children. I met people who were succeeding and who were proud of what they’d achieved. Have a listen to these guys if you want further proof – some of our tenants were hand-picked to appear on the Today programme. They’ve never had any media training, yet they speak to Evan Davies with articulacy, knowledge and passion.

It’s also interesting for comms professionals – it’s hard to write to a target audience when your audience is so diverse. Actually, Northwards Housing already had that covered before I arrived and I think we do a fairly good job of it, but it’s something really important that I try to bear in mind when we are starting a new job.

• Digital, digital, digital

My Northwards birthday comes as I’ve been rather flatteringly listed in Paul Taylor’s Top 50 Power Players in housing – very strange because I still know nothing in comparison to some of the bigwigs on the 24Housing list. Still, I think his point – that many of the top dogs in the housing world lack an online profile – is a valid one, and he’s brave to make it.

There are others with more experience of detailing the benefits of having an online presence – Paul Taylor’s blog is excellent, and this article about why housing organisations need a digital strategy is really good too. But I’m adding my voice to the clamour, with my own little piece of advice – be human. Being a ‘suit’ doesn’t cut it, and the best communication is the stuff that marks you out as a real person.

• Housing providers are the first to innovate

I’ve been amazed at how much innovation goes on in the housing sector. I’m not just talking about the digital stuff – though Halton’s welfare reform infographic wins in the digital stakes for me. I’m also talking about the interesting ways housing professionals have found to cope with the unprecedented challenges which face our industry in a climate of public sector austerity.

From New Charter’s ‘soap opera’ on welfare reform, to the Foundations in Housing apprenticeship programme, to something we’re working on that I can’t tell you about til next month, it’s clear that there’s no shortage of brilliant minds in the housing sector. I count myself lucky to work alongside such interesting people, people whose minds I’ve been plundering, hoping that even some of that knowledge will rub off.

• Comms is king

Talking about innovation, there are lots of really cool, really interesting people working in comms in housing. I regularly attend the National Federation of ALMOs comms officers meetings – sharing ideas and best practice. An ALMO in Kent, for example, has cool ‘you’ve been papped’ cards to hand out at public events, to drive traffic to their website. I also went to #commscamp in February, where I met some innovative people talking about really changing lives by the way we use communication. The authority in Scotland, for example, trying to help people get fit by sending targeted text messages. If it’s a nice day, they’ll text about going for a long walk, or getting off the bus a stop early.

• It’s not always easy

Re-reading what I’ve written above, it sounds lovely. Working in housing sounds like a romantic ideal, where things never go wrong and everyone is fabulous all the time. It’s not like that either. People mess up (including me!). But I think what I’ve learnt is that it is just as much how you deal with the mess. I learnt that, and I’m continuing to learn that every day.

I’m so lucky to work in #ukhousing and I’m already looking forward to detailing what I’ve learnt this time next year!

Aargh, where is the TIME?

Don’t tell anyone, but I have a secret. You mustn’t reveal it to anyone. Here it is: I’m not superhuman.

I know I’m not alone in my embarrassing lack of superpowers, but I kind of feel that working in communications in the public sector involves developing them, double quick. So I’m issuing a plea to those who seem to have it sussed: tell me how you do it?

I’ve not yet reached the milestone of a year in the industry, but it already seems that there are many challenges. There’s the day-to-day job, the reading, the learning, the strategies. #commschat on a Monday night is teaching me a lot, as is Weekly Blog Club and the inimitable comms2point0.

There’s reading up on comms best practice, studying current affairs to see what to do, and what not to do.

But still, there’s a lot to learn. One of my new year’s resolutions is to cut out the faff from my day, to allow myself more time for learning. That’s helping.

But I’d love to know how everyone else balances their day? Any thoughts, please shout me below.

Pamela

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. I love it.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Comms at Christmas

Ah, Christmas. I’ve already overdone it on the gluhwein this year and if anyone else offers me a mince pie, they may find themselves in A&E getting it extracted from a very personal part of their anatomy.

What I’ve found fascinating is how so many people are vying for my attention in the festive season. I’m not that special, but there are so many competing things that advertisers, TV channels, magazines and cookbooks want me to look at, I feel rather in demand.

That said, I have noticed two cracking marketing campaigns that I wanted to share – communications that I felt have thrown off the shackles of tinsel and glitter to bring me a more punchy message.

Godbaby

I see this billboard every morning on the way to work. It has the catchline ‘Christmas starts with Christ’. Now, although I was very religious in my youth, I’ve rather lapsed as I’ve got older. I’m no longer convinced by the narrative of organised religion. So there’s no way that this can be described as a road to Damascus moment. But on my daily commute, I’m usually cross with myself for yet again failing to get up ON TIME, cross with other drivers for consistently being IN MY WAY and cross with the God of Traffic Lights for always making them RED.

Every time I see this advert, it jolts something in me that makes me think of what Christmas means to me. For me, that isn’t Christ, but it is goodwill to all men. It reminds me how I feel when I watch Scrooged, when Bill Murray has his moment of anagnorisis. If you’ve not seen it, you need to. It’s here.

Dryathlon

Another campaign to grab my attention this December has been Cancer Research’s Dryathlon. If you’ve not heard of this yet, it’s fairly simple. Give up alcohol in January, give the money from your bar bill to Cancer Research, save your liver and feel good. Maybe it’s the aforementioned gluhwein indulgence, but this has really touched me.

As a campaign, it’s beautifully timed. Just while people like me are tucking into their third box of Cadbury Heroes saying, ‘I’ll sort it out in January’, here comes a ready-made plan of action. It also has the element of humour, rather than being self-righteous and emotionally crippling, as so many charity adverts are guilty of.

What I think these two campaigns show is that at Christmas, comms only work if you’ve got something interesting to say and you say it in an interesting way.

Does anyone else have any festive favourites they’d like to share?

Why I joined the Labour Party

For those of you who know me, you’ll know I take my politics seriously. I’m also fairly guarded about whose side I’m on – I suppose that’s left over from my journalism days, when I didn’t want to be seen as biased. It didn’t seem to make any difference, mind you. I was accused of being all colours on the political spectrum, which I suppose told me I was doing it right!

Which is why I found this decision tortuous. I’m now a fully paid up member of the Labour Party.

I’ve got a lot of problems with the Labour Party. Locally, I’ve found many Labour councillors to be patronising, misogynistic and arrogant. Nationally, the advent of career politicians in all parties means that the Labour leadership are far removed from the plight of ordinary men and women, so I don’t have much confidence there either.

But I can’t sit back and watch this government tear apart the working poor, in order to get a few extra votes at the ballot box. The issue that’s really pushed me in this direction (and trust me, I’ve agonised over the decision) was the bedroom tax.

Seven months in social housing, and I’m still baffled by this policy. There’s not a single way I can look at it which makes sense. No one has been able to explain to me why it’s a sensible idea. I regularly voice my concerns about it through on Twitter, and Liberal Democrats and Conservatives either ignore my point or answer it with one of the myths below, myths I know to be untrue.

They are:

We need to free up social housing

I agree. But this policy won’t do it – and the reason for that is that most local authorities simply don’t have the housing stock necessary to make this happen. For example, if you live in a three bedroom house and you are a couple with one child, you are under occupying by one room under the rules. You’ll lose 14 per cent of your housing benefit. The argument goes that you should move out of that property to make room for someone who needs it more than you do. Setting aside the judgement call on need, where do you go? There’s a chronic shortage of two-bedroom properties. These stats show that. Also, outside London (an entirely different beast to the rest of the country) many local authorities have a ‘no children at height’ policy which means that children shouldn’t be housed in tower blocks. The reasons for that are complex, but there are issues around safety and around anti-social behaviour. Many of the flats in tower blocks are two-bedroom and many of those are occupied by single men – either those deemed vulnerable ie those rehoused after being homeless, or men who need the second room for access to children after family breakdown. So under the rules, the original family can’t move from their three bedroom house because there is nowhere to go. And the single man in a two bedroom flat can’t afford to stay. So the flat stays empty, nobody gets rehoused, the waiting lists go up not down.

We need to address the spiralling benefits bill

Myth number two is about the cost of housing benefit and the need to address it. If you read this interesting piece about ‘benefits culture’, you’ll see the bill is actually decreasing in terms of percentage of GDP. But that aside, if you want to reduce the benefit bill, then the bedroom tax won’t do that. People will be eager to move out of social housing to escape the reductions. Shared accommodation rates in the private sector are up to £250 per week. That’s still more than the average social rent of £70-80 per week. I’m not an economist and I’m not definite about this, but it seems to me that the benefit bill won’t go down, it’ll go up as a result of these changes.

Why don’t they get a job?

This one really grinds my gears. I’ve written on this before – the idea that there is a majority of feckless, lazy people living in social housing is simply not true. Yes, there are some, and I’ll come to them in due course. First, there’s been a significant rise in the number of claimants of in-work benefits. So the ‘get a job’ chant doesn’t really work here. Secondly, there is a skills gap between those jobs which are available and those who want to apply for them. The market is saturated and to stand out for entry-level posts, you need to be pretty brilliant. I’m not sure who I would blame for that, possibly schools, possibly parents. But I’m not sure the answer is the bedroom tax. Thirdly, for those who simply have no interest in working, I’m yet to be convinced that the introduction of such a penalty will have the desired effect. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that not everyone is motivated primarily by financial considerations, something which I think the government fails to understand. If you’ve never worked, never wanted to work and never intend to work, then chances are, you aren’t that bothered by the bedroom tax. You’re already living without much money, and you’ll just sink further into poverty. I can’t see how that’s a good thing.

I won’t have been the first to point these considerations out, and I’m sure cleverer people than me have already made these observations to people in powerful positions in Whitehall. Which makes me suspect something really unpleasant – the bedroom tax in its most basic form is popular on the doorstep, and its implementation is purely political. A ploy to get more votes from a ‘squeezed middle’ trying to make ends meet.

I’m a reasonable woman. If I’m wrong, or if my figures don’t stack up, I want to know. I want to know why this is deemed to be a good idea. But I can’t stand by and idly let this happen.

Which is why I’ve joined the Labour Party. I’m not going to be one of these people who mindlessly acts as a cheerleader for their party though. I’m going to mither my local councillors and MP to death on this subject. So too will I speak out if I think the party are wrong – and I suspect that will be often. Nor will I become one of those people who see their side as good and the other as evil. I agree with Mr Cameron, for example, on Leveson and dare I say it, on Europe. Simon Hughes from the Liberal Democrats has long been an inspiration to me.

But til the bedroom tax is dumped, I will have to fight for what I believe in.

It’s the way you make them feel

I’ve been on leave for a week. It was lovely to recharge my batteries, watch Homes Under the Hammer in my jammies and eat more steak than you could shake a stick at.

I also did some really interesting things on my week off – I like to read, so I volunteered at a few events as part of the Manchester literature festival. One of the events was listenng to the sublime, wonderful Clare Balding talk about her life, her animals and her career. It was hugely inspiring, not least because she’s led a varied, fascinating life – from lunch with the Queen to inventing the Mobot. 2012 was her Golden Year – her coverage of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games were much lauded and propelled her firmly into the ‘national treasure’ club.

Her whole talk was lively and interesting, but she said something at the end which moved me to tears. She was talking about a mistake she’d made on telly a few years back. Clare had made a remark about a jockey’s teeth, but it hit the wrong tone and she’d received hundreds of complaints. She said:

I learnt one thing that moment. People don’t care how you look or what you are wearing, they only care about how you make them feel.

I think, as comms professionals, we can learn a lot from this. Our messages are much more effective when we bring people in, when we make them feel included and important.

It’s something worth thinking about!

Ed Miliband, the bedroom tax and me

On Saturday, I was very privileged to be asked to be in the audience for a special town hall Q&A session with the Labour leader Ed Miliband. The event was organised by the Manchester Evening News (my former employers) as part of the Labour Party conference. In my old role as a journalist, I covered several political conferences in Manchester. The level of security is incredible and as such, you can feel very isolated from ‘real people’. The aim of the MEN’s event was to bring politics from behind the ‘ring of steel’ out into the real world, where politics matters.

I took my seat, hidden from the TV cameras in the back two rows. Unexpectedly, a lovely lady from the Labour Party asked me to move into the shot. Vanity, compounded by the fact that I’d just had my hair done, prompted me to accept. So that’s how I ended up sitting right behind the Labour leader, in full view of the country’s political media, securing my 15 minutes of fame. That’s me, on the far left, the one with several chins.

I had gone with the intention of getting a bit cross with Mr Miliband on the issue of welfare reform. My question, which had been submitted beforehand, was to be something along the lines of:

From next April, hundreds of thousands of tenants in social housing will be affected by the bedroom tax. Labour have been unexpectedly quiet on the issue. If your party won the next election, would you still support the reforms?

He’d set the tone of the event fairly early on, by saying that he couldn’t promise to reverse all government cuts, because economic conditions wouldn’t allow it. I was still planning on asking my question, though, given how strongly I feel on the issue.

Because Ed’s back was to me, it was difficult to grab his attention. He took several rounds of questions – some on the economy, some on the working poor, some on city farms, of all things. Nothing came up on social housing or welfare reform, which surprised me. Then, out of the blue, a lady called Val from a tenants’ group in Manchester asked about housing benefit. Hurray, I thought. At least someone will get to grill the Labour leader on the issue. I’m paraphrasing Val, because I wasn’t taking notes, but she said something like:

I’m from a residents’ group and we are very concerned about the impact of welfare reform. I agree with the universal credit, because it’ll massively simplify things, but we’re all a bit concerned about the bedroom tax. Labour’s response has been wooly, can you clarify?

With the exception of her praise of universal credit, Val took the words out of my mouth. Mr Miliband slightly disappointed me by agreeing with Val on universal credit, but was fairly confident in his opposition to the bedroom tax. “It’s wrong,” he said. He said Labour had opposed it in parliament and would continue to oppose it. He said there are better ways of calculating how many bedrooms people have.

I’ve worked in the media for years and I knew that, although the political bigwigs were probably putting their final touches on their copy, there would still be a lot of commentators live-tweeting the event. So although my question had already been asked, I spied an ideal opportunity to flag up social housing as an important topic.

My hand stayed firmly in the air, and in the last round of questions, I finally got picked. Here’s what I said:

My name is Pamela and I work in social housing. This government seems to have a rather alarming agenda to alienate and demonise those people who live in social housing. That’s in evidence from what Val said about the bedroom tax and Grant Shapp’s ludicrous suggestion to rebrand social housing as ‘taxpayer-funded housing.’ What can you do to assure me that you take this issue seriously?

Mr Miliband came back with a rousing response. He said that two generations ago, we’d never have had this stigma on those living in council houses. He said the government was pitting social housing against private housing, public sector against private sector and rich against poor. He said the government was seeking to divide and not unite the country. It was here that he sounded most confident in himself as a leader and there’s no doubt that his rhetoric was good. He spoke with passion. But what concerns me is turning passion into policy.

We’ve heard how Mr Miliband disagrees with the stigma attached to the sector but we haven’t yet heard if he’ll do anything about it. With 18 per cents of all households in England in the sector, he should think of some policies, and fast.