Housing Management in a Time of Change

Abstract

Whatever the fate of the organisations managing social housing, there can be little doubt that they have experienced unparalleled change in the decade spanning 1986-96. Government policy, as detailed in Chapters 1 and 2, has been designed not only to influence housing policy and practice, but to reshape the entire face of the rented housing sector. The effect has been the promotion of new structures and organisational types (see Chapter 8) and the modernisation of long-established ones, sweeping styles, cultures and attitudes into a new era. The bedrock of change has been the imposition of a series of key private sector concepts into the public sector environment. These have included competition, performance expectations, quality assurance, customer care, and the separation of the strategic role from that of provider. Certain elements of this largely enforced change have been widely welcomed, while others have been contentious, often generating significant resistance.

‘The housing service now faces the challenge of change. Change is both necessary and inevitable and it will not arise simply because of government policy but also through the changing expectations, demands and needs of the customers it serves. The challenges will arise on every front — the structure of the organisations, the attitudes underpinning them, the qual ities and qual ifications of staff, the roles to be undertaken, and even the type of organisation in which they work and people to whom they are responsible.’

(Provan and Williams, 1991, p. 225)