Housing Matters 16 November 2009

I am sure that many folk have been left bereft at the lack of Housing Matters posts during the last few weeks but apologies I have been a bit busy. A pity since there has been some interesting housing stuff going on recently.

Why did the most highly paid Housing Association boss ever - John Belcher - leave Anchor Trust?
Inside Housing speculates here on the reasons why the £391,000 per year CEO left in the same year that the Trust posted a £35 million loss. I’m intrigued that there are rumours that the going rate for an early bath CEO is a year’s pay upfront (no Schedule One problem with that it appears while with more junior staff earning far, far less it is often a different story). Is it anything to do with the anti-trade union decision by Anchor to de-recognise Unite as its trade union last year? I see that the relatively new Chair of the Anchor Board is Aman Dalvi the Head of Regeneration and Planning at Tower Hamlets Council. Maybe it was something to do with Hyde HA CEO David Eastgate at this year's Labour Party conference comment here about excessive CEO pay? There are “several highly paid outliers” but “don’t tar us all with the same bush”.

Chickens live better than Children
Roof Magazine here reports on the campaign by Shelter to update the 1935 definition of overcrowding. Suggesting that MP’s have more concern about the living conditions for factory chickens than children living in overcrowded homes. Applying these standards and actually explaining them to residents is at best completely embarrassing to any housing officer never mind the resulting personal misery of overcrowding for our tenants. Unfortunately Shelter have joined forces with London arch Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson who thinks that the fairer taxation that would be needed if you were actually serious about ending overcrowding is comparable to Stalinist mass murder. Hmmm.

Housing Associations to float on Stock Market
I have no doubt that this story will go up and down in line with the likely expectations of a Tory Government next year.

A Million Voices for a Million Homes
On Wednesday at the House of Commons there was the launch of UNISON/Apse report into the rebirth of Council Housing. This is part of the UNISON Million Voices Campaign.

FED attacks rents cuts
The National Housing Federation not unsurprisingly attacks the decision by the Government for them to cut rents in line with the latest deflation figures. This is a serious issue for many Housing associations but I am still trying to remember exactly what was the attitude of the FED to the abnormal inflation figure of 5% last September?

What would the founders of the Housing Association movement think of such a headline? Just a thought.

(picture taken in a West Ham Newham Homes estate during a summer evening while fighting the good fight)

Anchor Trust pays CEO £327,000- 32% increase

(The first of two things taken from “Inside housing” email bulletins).

£327,000 per year - what on earth is going on here? No wonder the sector has such a bad reputation for this sort of thing. Anchor is supposed to be a “not for profit” organisation, it employs 10,000 workers and has 50,000 clients.

What is the average salary of a worker compared to the CEO?

In the words of the former head of M&S, Paul Myner, do we have the same problem in the social housing sector with “the self appointed managerial elite are raping the resources of companies”. So called “independent” external advisers on executive pay are called “Ratchet, Ratchet and Ratchet”.

It just makes you despair. It is also a pity we have a new housing minister or I would have reminded her about this pledge.

“The chief executive of one of the UK’s largest housing associations raked in nearly a third of a million pounds last year following a huge pay hike.

John Belcher of Anchor Trust was paid £327,000 – up 32 per cent on the previous year. He is the first housing association boss to pocket more than £300,000 on salary and bonus alone.
Mr Belcher’s salary has more than doubled in seven years, from a more modest £162,000 in Inside Housing’s 2001 salary survey.

Last year’s pay packet included a car allowance of £15,000 and a massive £72,000 bonus.
Including £32,880 in pension contributions and £1,000 in medical insurance, his entire package is worth £360,880.

In 2005 Places for People boss David Cowans picked up £314,000, but this was partly due to an historic pensions underpayment.

Clare Miller, director of regulation at the Housing Corporation, said salary increases ‘should be proportionate and linked to organisational performance’.

Ms Miller, who received a 15 per cent salary increase herself in 2007/08, added that salary rates were a decision for each housing association. ‘We accept that leaders of large organisations need to be remunerated appropriately to reflect the nature of the challenges they face and their success in meeting these challenges,’ she said.

Michael Gelling, chair of Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England, said Mr Belcher’s wage was ‘unjustifiable’. ‘The people they are serving are on the breadline – how can you justify being paid that much?’ he asked.

Anchor Trust said Mr Belcher’s compensation was high because half the association’s work was in care services instead of housing provision, a sector where the main competitors are private sector companies such as BUPA.