It’s baffling, isn’t it? You go to see a housing association and they tell you how hard it is to get social rents to stack up. And they’re right. Then you read the new Shelter report which says social housing pays for itself. And they’re right too. How can this be?

Breaking Bad was a classic box set, wasn’t it? The hero of the hour was Walter White. He spent a lot of his time looking after huge piles of cash. My goodness, we do need him back, don’t we? Housing associations have exactly the same problem as he did. (Though I hasten to add that the money has come from bonds not drugs.)

The HQN VfM Metric Model, produced for members of the Housing Finance Network by Lead Associate Ian Parker, is a resource that organisations in the housing sector can use to benchmark their data against other registered providers and how it can help you to prepare for inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing.

I’m Jane Atherton and I’m excited to have been invited to lead on HQN’s new Leadership and Organisational Development Hub.

Do you have gaps in your organisation that need filling as we enter 2019? Would you like to reach a massive audience of housing professionals? Then post your job vacancies on HQN’s website!

Last week’s Shelter commission report on the future of social housing featured a number of sound bites about how many homes England should build to meet housing need, and how much it would cost to make these genuinely affordable.

You’ve got to be on top of VfM. Ask anyone that’s been through an IDA. It’s top of the agenda.

HQN Chief Executive Alistair McIntosh and a crack team of HQN associates have pooled their knowledge to create a checklist aimed at helping the sector prepare for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.