A time of opportunity and challenge

This is a time of great opportunity for housing associations. The Government’s Housing and Regeneration Bill represents a major overhaul of the institutional arrangements for housing. The impact of the credit crunch is expected to further increase demand for social housing, whilst fundamental questions about social inclusion and worklessness are being debated. Affordable housing is news.

I believe housing associations have a major role to play in responding to the challenges that are being set and the key to our success will be how we respond to our changing environment. We must capitalise on the opportunities that exist and build upon the substantial track record that we have for innovation and flexibility.

For L&Q the Bill will mean delivering 30,000 new homes over the next five years, which will help us house - on average in a working day - one family every 15 minutes. It will also mean ensuring that we produce sustainable homes and larger family homes of high quality and design. We are about to launch a design brief that sets out new standards, informed by what residents have told us they want, for all of our new homes.

The Hills Report reminds us of our continuing responsibility to our current residents, particularly to improve customer service, introduce choice of tenancy and continue to invest in our current properties. We will be talking to staff and residents about how we balance this responsibility with meeting the new demands of tomorrow’s customers as the basis of our next five year plan.

A changing customer base, political changes at local and national level, plus global economic changes and technological changes will all challenge us but I believe firmly that we are up to the task. I will ensure we retain our long term commitment to our residents and to meeting housing needs through tough market conditions.

Our mission will remain creating places where people want to live, and I believe that will continue to mean that we need to strike a balance between quality homes, quality services and building new homes and communities for the future.

David Montague
Group Chief Executive
London & Quadrant Housing Trust

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