After the Floods - An open letter from Salix Homes & Irwell Valley Housing Association

Justifying his spending cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 that affected 4 Whitehall departments – including Communities and Local Government – Chancellor George Osborne said: “A surplus will make our country more resilient, safe and secure. It means that next time we have the money to help us through the tough times when the storms come.”

And the storms came. Literally. A month later. Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Over 1,000 residents were affected by the Boxing Day floods, leaving them dependent upon their social landlords to provide volunteer assistance in the evacuation to temporary accommodation, the clean-up operation and for financial assistance.

Here, Lee Sugden, CEO, Salix Homes andTom Manion, CEO, Irwell Valley Housing, take stock of the impact of the floods upon their customers and their organisations. With further downward pressures on the sector – they ask how is it possible for housing associations to weather the next financial storm and call upon Government to re-evaluate its public expenditure cuts.

Lee Sugden, CEO, Salix Homes:

“When the devastating floods hit our communities in Salford on Boxing Day, it was immediately all hands to the pump. Whether you were a resident, from Salix Homes, the council, a partner HA, the Environment Agency, or the emergency services we all pulled together to activate our emergency plan and do we what had to do to ensure the safety of our citizens.

To me, two things strike me as we reflect on the crisis and begin the recovery operation.

Firstly, it is clear the crucial role HAs have to play in the civil contingency response and one that is only really apparent in such crises.

Our role as a HA places us at the heart of our communities and I firmly believe we play a vital part in safeguarding our tenants during such emergencies. We mobilised our resources to support other agencies and had a key role in the command structure.

In the immediate aftermath of the floods, we had more than 80 employees volunteer their time over Christmas – providing an equivalent of 150 days support – to ensure the safety of our tenants.

There is much noise about there being too many HAs, but in times of crisis these perceived barriers are invisible as the Dunkirk spirit comes to the fore to get the job done. We had partner HAs coming in over Christmas, preparing emergency accommodation and even helping to support our call centre. It was that level of teamwork and co-operation that got us through the days after the floods, and will continue to get us through the weeks and months to come as we set to work rebuilding our communities.

The question has to be asked: Without the role HAs played, what would have happened?

Now the initial emergency response is over, we’ve moved onto the next stage of the recovery operation and it’s now that residents are beginning to count the cost of what they have lost. As with many things, that loss is magnified in our world.

This brings me onto my second reflection. Worryingly around 90% of our affected tenants have no contents insurance and we have to ask ourselves whether there is a correlation between poverty and the take up of insurance. Clearly something has fallen down here and it’s now down to us as HAs to look at what cost-effective solutions are out there to ensure our tenants are not only protected, but are able to protect themselves in the future.”

Tom Manion, CEO, Irwell Valley Housing Association:

“The River Irwell forms an oxbow lake structure and takes in 77 beautiful properties in Warth Fold. The Irwell was close to breaching its banks. Shipping containers and a Vauxhall Corsa were flowing down the river.

My colleagues and I went immediately into emergency mode, to firstly ensure that all of our residents were safe and that there was no risk to their health & safety. The heartbreaking scenes of Christmas trees, presents and personal belongings festooned around the street, with houses silted up with river deposits, trees and other debris, had to be seen to be believed.

A Herculean effort by the community, churches, local businesses and the council went into 24 hour action providing alternative accommodation, food, drink, clothing and basic essentials. In itself, it is remarkable that we were able to avert serious, personal casualties. The initial impact of the flood was so powerful that human chains were formed to help everybody – but particularly children, the elderly and residents with disabilities who had to leave their homes.

The flood also affected neighbouring owner occupiers who sadly did not automatically have the support of a Housing Association which operated very much as the fourth emergency service – although Irwell Valley incorporated them into our emergency and disaster recovery programme.

The resilience of local residents, most of whom could not afford household contents insurance, was nothing short of inspirational. Warth Fold is a very strong community anyway. However, the disaster that befell, brought out the best in human values of kindness, consideration and compassion.

All of us were on holiday, which was immediately cancelled without question in order to ensure that residents could get back to a “normal” living experience as soon as possible. Throughout the operation the rains continued and, despite the difficult circumstances, the majority of our residents were back in their homes within 2 days with gas and electric reconnected.

Dehumidifiers were fitted and the combined effort ensured that almost every home was habitable in record-breaking times. The estimated cost from our loss adjustors of repairing the properties is circa £2.7m, which will result in a significant increase in our insurance premiums in the future – if indeed we can actually get insurance for Warth Fold which was last flooded in 1965.

Bury Council and ourselves have issued emergency payments to residents of £1K with no strings attached in order to quickly allow them to get back to “normal” living. The use of social media was absolutely vital in communications and assisted us to relocate vulnerable residents – including the frail elderly, a 2 day old baby and a gentleman who had recently been discharged from hospital following serious cancer surgery.

It is interesting to ponder what may have happened had it not been for the fast and immediate response from Irwell Valley Housing Association, Salix Homes and other housing associations that responded likewise. I have no doubt that lives were saved. Anxieties, emotional trauma and anger were dissipated – and the community is stronger and more united than ever.

Government has a Westminster and London centric view of Housing Associations, which is reflected in the unpredicted high impact minus 1% rent reduction, coupled with other measures, which are part of an ideological attack on the sector.

I listened carefully to Greg Clark, the Secretary of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government at last year’s National Housing Federation conference in Birmingham. I would have expected Mr. Clark, who has experience of serving on Housing Association boards, to be much more aware of the impact of the rent reduction on the ability of Associations – particularly Salix who agreed a rent formula only last year to support their 30 year business plan – to support communities and be appreciative of the social value and significant savings for health and other emergency services made by the response of our colleagues and those of Salix.

Blunt weapons create blunt solutions and the rent regime bite will significantly reduce the ability of Housing Associations to go the extra mile and pick up the pieces left by so called welfare reforms and general cuts in public expenditure. The effect of a rent reduction, which effectively ripped up and binned a 10 year agreed rent deal, is subtle. It is true that some Associations may go to the wall. Compulsory redundancies are now widespread and all providers are now re-casting their business plans in order to stay within the regulatory framework.

Government often asks for joined up thinking and I would urge them to join up and understand the real combined and comprehensive impact of public expenditure cuts, which in the mid to long term will have massive impacts on the lives, health, education and wellbeing of many communities up and down the country.

The reflex response of Salix Homes and Irwell Valley is testament to the commitment, drive, and enthusiasm that Associations have for their endeavours. It is sad, to say the least, that Government does not appear to appreciate the more subtle aspects to work done by Housing Associations.

It will be great if Mr. Cameron, Mr. Osborne and Mr. Clark could spare time to come and look at the impact and response of both Salix and Irwell Valley which may help them gain a greater understanding of Housing Associations and their service delivery.”