{"id":597813,"date":"2023-01-15T14:50:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T20:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/15\/housing-clients-and-contractors-need-to-rethink-their-relationships\/"},"modified":"2023-01-15T14:50:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T20:50:34","slug":"housing-clients-and-contractors-need-to-rethink-their-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/15\/housing-clients-and-contractors-need-to-rethink-their-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing clients and contractors need to rethink their relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Wayne Gales is chairman of JV North and chief executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The position the housebuilding sector faces today is a culmination of austerity, Brexit, COVID-19 and economic turmoil caused by the poorly considered fiscal policy from Liz Truss\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The UK financial market shifted seismically and at pace last autumn, and interest rate rises won\u2019t help construction but it was felt necessary to curb inflationary pressure.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the affordable housebuilding sector has a long history of adapting to such challenges and capitalising on opportunities. So how it responds in 2023 will be key.<\/p>\n

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\u201cContractors want to work with organisations they feel valued by and who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them \u2013 not just when things are going well, but also during challenging times\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Continued financial support from the government via its Affordable Homes Programme will help us\u00a0 continue building and play an important role in supporting economic growth.<\/p>\n

But equally important is the need for a new approach to social housing client-contractor relations.<\/p>\n

Simply recognising that times have changed sends a strong message. We need to evolve our offer to reflect the challenges that all stakeholders (the social housing providers, the contractors and the consultants) are facing.<\/p>\n

Contractors want to work with organisations they feel valued by and who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them \u2013 not just when things are going well, but also during challenging times.<\/p>\n

Clarity is, therefore, more important than ever, so that all parties have clear and reasonable risk and reward boundaries and understanding.<\/p>\n

We need to look beyond narrow economics and consider broader long-term value. It starts with a change of culture, with affordable housing providers treating contractors as valued, key partners or \u2018part of the team\u2019, instead of the traditional client-supplier relationship that invariably focuses on cost.<\/p>\n

Driving prices too hard will only serve to consign contractors to financial breaking point \u2013 and there\u2019s no value in that.<\/p>\n

We also need the courage to commit to collective, calculated risk-taking at different stages of the construction process.<\/p>\n

The days of fixed-price schemes at a time of high inflation will be few and far between, if at all, so flexibility will be of paramount for both parties if we are to keep building much-needed affordable homes for rent, rent-to-buy and shared ownership.<\/p>\n

Understandably, there is a collective nervousness due to rate rises; supply-chain and demand-driven prices; and a weak pound.<\/p>\n

As the financial squeeze tightens, retaining capacity and talent can be helped by the long-term pipeline that homebuilding-registered providers experience.<\/p>\n

JV North \u2013 a consortium of 12 housing association and local authority members that has built around 10,000 homes by pooling grant bids, running a framework and sharing best practice \u2013 designed a \u00a3560m contractors\u2019 and consultants\u2019 Building Back Fairer framework in 2021 to ensure they felt valued and recognised as key, long-term delivery partners.<\/p>\n

Late last year we also held a framework engagement day to discuss opportunities, better understand the challenges, explore how to work together more effectively and share market intelligence.<\/p>\n

Feedback from contractors was excellent and we are being flexible by separately running tenders for smaller schemes and MMC on our new Dynamic Purchasing System portal.<\/p>\n

Put simply, without contractor partnerships we can\u2019t build the quantity and quality of greener, cleaner, more efficient homes we want and need to.<\/p>\n

And given the cost of living crisis, this is more important than ever.<\/p>\n

Of course there\u2019s no easy answer. But if all stakeholders see the bigger picture, are willing to have open conversations, are prepared to listen \u2013 and you also have a long-standing relationship \u2013 then that is a better place to be.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n Contributor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wayne Gales is chairman of JV North and chief executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust The position the housebuilding sector faces today is a culmination of austerity, Brexit, COVID-19 and economic turmoil caused by the poorly considered fiscal policy from Liz Truss\u2019s government. The UK financial market shifted seismically and at pace last autumn, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":597814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29320,22731],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-597813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-clients","8":"category-housing"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}