By Alistair McIntosh, HQN CEO

The RSH is looking for five new board members. Will this mark a sea change for housing or is it to be more of the same? Let’s hope the RSH seizes the day and appoints people who will help us recover our reputation. And we certainly need that after the fire at Grenfell, the death of Awaab Ishak and the many examples of poor service exposed by Kwajo Tweneboa and the Housing Ombudsman.

“Constructive challenge” is what the RSH says it wants to see. How should that play out?

Firstly, we need strong tenant voices at the top table. Kwajo may or may not want to apply, but someone with his sort of clout would be a good reality check for the RSH. And what about making sure there’s a shared owner on board too? There are many thorny issues with this type of housing. It’d be a big help if the RSH board showed that it really grasped the problems with leases, build quality and service charges.

Could we get a housing worker on the board? Maybe a call handler that deals with the frustrations of tenants on a daily basis? What about appointing one of the can-do problem-solving area mangers I meet on my rounds? You could go for one of the young leaders that HQN works with. This would certainly make sure the board had a practical edge and at the same time boost its energy levels.

At the other end of the spectrum, of course, you need an old hand that knows how to turn a failing landlord around. Make sure there’s a board member that leads a council housing service. It’s a completely different job to running an association as the finances are so tight.

Will we get a push for Wes Streeting-style league tables in housing? How would the RSH board handle this? On the face of it, the RSH could pump out tables showing landlords in order of satisfaction and inspection grades. To do so, they would have to iron out a few wrinkles. The way we gather satisfaction data ought to be consistent. Also, the RSH must beef up how it does inspection. They spend only a few days on site at major landlords, not even visiting estates. Kwajo’s main gripe about the RSH was that they never ever went to the estate he lived on. So, that needs fixing. HQN learns a lot by walking round estates and talking to people that have not been handpicked.

Let’s go back to the future. Why did the last Labour government bring in inspection for housing? Satisfaction surveys don’t tell the whole story. Some landlords are doing a more difficult task than others. There’s one way and one way only of testing out if a landlord is doing the best it can do given the circumstances. It’s called shoe leather! So, the RSH needs to get its steps in.

But even if the RSH tightens the rules, are league tables always a good idea? In the Francis Report into Mid Staffordshire Trust, he condemns “an institutional culture which ascribed more weight to positive information about the service than to information capable of implying cause for concern”. Would the imposition of league tables for housing lead to gaming? Will the RSH decide that this is already going on with satisfaction surveys?

Part of the point of a league table is to relegate those at the bottom. The ferry service in Scotland is in freefall. Politicians sack top officials on a more or less weekly basis. Yet the service never gets any better. In fact, it’s now difficult to find candidates for top public sector jobs in Scotland. Who needs that grief? Let’s not repeat that mistake.

But the big deal is that the RSH has ordered every landlord to do a stock condition survey. There’s simply not enough money to pay for the works that follow. Nor is there anything like enough cash to sort out decarbonisation.

Now, coming up with a strategy for plugging this gap is exactly what a good board at the RSH should be doing. Will league tables help? Yes, they could drive improvements but only if every landlord is in a position to win. Winning in the eyes of tenants means better, safer homes with reliable managers. And that means we need more subsidy. Over relying on rent increases walks us into the cost-of-living hikes that Trump used to skewer Harris.

It’s a tough task but I know one thing – relying on the Rolodex of continuity candidates won’t get us where we need to go. The RSH must take this opportunity to freshen up, but without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It does many things well. Now it needs to make the same impact on service that it does on finance.