Regional focus: East of England Jobs
Richard Gelder, Business Director of Hays Social Housing, provides an insight into the East of England housing job opportunities for social housing professionals.
The social housing market is buoyant throughout the UK. Various projects and government policies are having an effect on the current social housing market and have done for a number of years. These include: stock transfers, new initiatives, Decent Homes, ALMO’s, Best Value and Choice-based lettings.
Average house prices in the East of England are eight times the average income and for every affordable house built, three are sold under Right-to-Buy legislation.[1] For example, in Thurrock, the local authority housing stock diminished by 1,707 over the ten year period 1995-2005.
The region has suffered from not enough affordable housing being built to make up the stock, coupled with a rising population. Plus, it has been subject to a knock on effect of rising house prices in the South East and London, with the high prices extending their reach further into the East.
When new figures were released last year, it highlighted that 6,800 people in the Eastern region were living in temporary accommodation – double the figure given in 1997 – with Essex reporting the region’s highest numbers. At the time, the homeless charity Shelter suggested that an average of 8,000 social homes needed to be built each year up to 2021 in order to solve the crisis. However, since this it appears that although social housing activity has stepped up pace, it isn’t yet meeting these targets.
In addition to these pressures, Cambridge is being billed as the ‘Silicon Fen’, a hub for high tech companies and the Regional Economic Strategy for the East of England that proposes job growth of 421,000 for the region.
As a result, the government and local authorities have had to look closely at the housing strategy for the area and consider carefully how they can ease this burden. Cambridge is one city which has come under close scrutiny where it was decided that 50,000 new houses need to be built over the next 15 years. Plans are already underway for three sites around Cambridge where 16,000 houses will be built by 2021, 6,000 of which will be affordable housing.
Decent Homes activity in the area continues to remain a strong focus and an increased budget intended to enable local authorities to meet this target, has led to a growth in opportunities for industry professionals. This is true across a number of fields from facilities managers, maintenance surveyors, to trades and housing managers and is expected to continue to at least the 2010 deadline.
In a similar vein to many regions across the UK, salaries are steadily increasing in the East of England. For example, a housing assistant in a generic role can expect to earn around £14,000. Regeneration officers can expect to earn around £26,000 and a maintenance surveyor can command a salary from around £22,000.
Employers are increasingly finding that they have to re-consider their salary bandings and packages – particularly within local authorities, so that they can keep up with the competitive salaries and attractive packages of the housing associations. It is also requiring employers to re-evaluate their recruitment practices in order to attract the best talent.
Roles currently in demand across the East include senior management and director levels which require a strategic understanding. This is a result of the skills shortage – there are so few professionals possessing senior levels of experience that they are facing some of the largest salary increases for housing roles, of around 4%. This is compounded by so few professionals possessing qualifications, which often makes it harder for employers to have confidence in recruiting new staff and faith in their competencies – particularly vital when employing senior level staff.
Overall, the East of England has a number of difficulties with regards to dwindling housing stock combined with an increased need for housing and professionals to support this growth and development. On a positive note, this means that plenty of opportunities exist for social housing professionals in the area and salaries are rising as a result.
For further information please contact Hannah Keeble, Manager of Hays Social Housing, on 01603 625 264 or visit www.hays.com/socialhousing.
