Building affordable homes is national priority – Ali Akbor

We take great pride in the unique role we play in supporting and revitalising local communities. It is sometimes not fully understood that housing associations do much more than providing first class affordable homes for people who need them most.

We are also heavily engaged in efforts to stimulate social and economic regeneration, improve life opportunities and address inequalities – all critical requirements for neighbourhoods to become truly sustainable.

My own association, Unity Homes and Enterprise, was established in the mid-1980s to address the needs of black and minority ethnic (BME) communities who were often living in poor quality, badly managed homes. Our primary focus was Leeds, but we have since expanded our operations to include other parts of West Yorkshire. We now manage more than 1,300 properties for residents from all communities and ethnic backgrounds.

Our not-for-profit subsidiary, Unity Enterprise, supports local entrepreneurial activity in three business centres close to the heart of Leeds. Over the last decade, Unity Employment Services has assisted more than 1,500 people into employment, training and volunteering. And our financial inclusion service provides tenants with ongoing advice and support relating to debt, budgeting and welfare.

A flurry of recent studies has shown that coronavirus is having a disproportionate impact on the most deprived areas, many of which suffered badly because of austerity measures introduced after the 2008 financial crash. BME people have been particularly adversely affected with men from black ethnic backgrounds twice as likely to die than white men, and south Asian men facing a mortality risk 1.5 times higher than white men.

The Chancellor has rightly found tens of billions of pounds to support businesses and workers through the pandemic. But worrying times lie ahead including a recession and a likely surge in unemployment.

History also tells us that those living in places with the highest levels of deprivation face greatest exposure to the worst health and economic consequences of such a scenario.

And through it all, the national housing crisis goes on. Boris Johnson was returned to Downing Street last December on a pledge to level up society. Areas of high deprivation should, therefore, be a funding priority as the nation emerges from lockdown.

We need investment to protect those families most at risk of being left behind and the building of genuinely affordable homes should be at the top of the Government’s post-pandemic to do list.

There was disappointment in the housing association sector following Rishi Sunak’s decision not to include this in last week’s mini-Budget statement.

Unity’s allocation under the current Affordable Homes Programme is 220 new properties, but I know we could build many more in the years ahead with increased Government support.

Unity has a policy of liaising with contractors to recruit local people to work on our construction projects, often on apprenticeships with the possibility of permanent employment after the initial scheme has been completed. This links back to our push to create and sustain life opportunities for people who simply need a chance to shine.

We cannot return to an era where communities are left behind socially and economically through no fault of their own. Austerity cannot be used as an excuse for health and financial inequalities ever again. Everyone surely has the right to live in a decent home and the chance to contribute to the economy.

I was deeply heartened in the early days of lockdown when emergency funding was found to take most homeless people off the streets to protect them from the virus. Dame Louise Casey has since been recruited to help Ministers draw up a long-term solution to rough sleeping. This is the type of socially responsible approach to an issue that our country will benefit from.

A major new drive to build the many additional affordable homes our country needs fits neatly into the same category. One must hope that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will see the wisdom of this when further spending announcements are made later this year.

Ali Akbor OBE is chief executive of Unity Homes and Enterprise.

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