Sam Simmons of Social Enterprise UK says the aligned missions of housing associations, and charities and social enterprises can lead to fruitful working partnerships.  

As austerity continues to bite, many social enterprises and charities find themselves scrambling for new sources of finance to make then sustainable. Government contracts and donations continue to shrink, and the hard task now is finding the pots of cash that do exist. For social sector organisations struggling to deliver their mission while keeping their heads above water, scouting out new business and entering different markets is a daunting prospect.

But one opportunity is sitting with its door wide open. Housing associations are a hugely important part of the social economy, and with a combined annual spend of £13bn, working with them is an opportunity not to be missed. Often charities and social enterprises in their own right, housing associations work for community benefit, put local people at their heart of their work, and are in a strong position to tackle some of the UK’s most pressing social problems.

Untapped market

Despite this, the extent to which the social sector has tapped into this market is minimal. The Green Light Report published by the National Housing Federation revealed 69 per cent of housing associations spent less than £50,000 a year with social enterprises, and highlighted the difficulty that both sectors have engaging with each other.

"[Housing associations and social enterprises] are both working for the benefit of the community and in many instances, its poorest residents. They should make perfect partners in this endeavour, but often struggle to engage with each other”, explains Mark Richardson, author of the Green Light report.

For charities and social enterprises working together with housing associations is a neat fit. As well as their models and values being aligned, their objectives are frequently similar: the Green Light Report noted housing associations’ main motives for wanting to do more business with social enterprises was to create employment for their tenants (91 per cent), deliver wider community benefit (78 per cent), and improve service delivery for their tenants (69 per cent).

Shared objectives

For the minority of housing associations and social enterprises already working together, the upshot of these partnerships is clear. Bounce Back is a charity and social enterprise that provides painting and decorating services to a number housing associations using a workforce made up of ex-offenders. The partnerships they’ve formed are most effective because both organisations’ objectives can be achieved simultaneously. As part of the service housing associations provide, they have to procure painting and decorating services. But when Bounce Back carries out the work, housing associations are also supporting ex-offenders among their residents with employment opportunities, and they can indirectly reduce the likelihood of crime experienced in and around their housing stock.

In another similar case, Business in the Community, a charity that uses business to support communities across the UK, are referred disadvantaged tenants by housing associations as part of the Ready for Work programme, which has supported more than 2,600 people into employment.

But these partnerships are not exclusive to one type of social enterprise or charity working in a specific sector. In the healthcare landscape, two charities and two housing associations have joined forces to provide early stage intervention services for people coping with mild depression, obesity and anxiety. Understanding that housing is crucial to an individual’s health and wellbeing, The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, Murray Hall Community Trust, Accord Housing Group and Black Country Housing Group have combined their support to provide patients with a better package of health care. As well as drawing together services to provide effective treatment, partnering up has helped smaller charities and social enterprises deliver contracts which they may have had difficulty securing if they had gone it alone.

Barriers to access 

However, as Bounce Back’s Victor Roffey points out, there are still barriers to overcome to improve the working relationship between housing associations and social enterprises: “The problem we have experienced is accessing the housing associations’ decision makers. On the one hand the housing associations have been good in letting an ex-offender organisation carry out contractual work on their stock. On the other hand they’ve been slow to recognise the further potential and even slower to communicate directly with us as a social enterprise.”

Delivering the best quality of service that works for housing associations, social enterprises and the vulnerable people that they support will rely on a greater understanding from all parties about what they can offer each other. For housing associations, getting directly involved with social enterprise during procuring and commissioning processes, supporting them to become more stable, setting up new social enterprises or involving more social enterprises in their supply chains are just some of the steps they can take. While social enterprises and charities can encourage housing associations to bridge the gap by demonstrating the value they add, and actively seeking out the opportunities in their areas where working together could help both organisations achieve a greater impact.

With all this in mind, strengthening the relationship between both sectors will bring a vast number of benefits. The forms that these partnerships can take are boundless and certainly present a huge opportunity for most types of social enterprise and charity – from those that provide traditional services like decorating, cleaning and catering, to those that specialise in employment and community services for residents. The challenge for both sectors is joining the dots between services so that we can meet shared objectives, save costs and most importantly deliver the best support possible for communities. For that to happen, championing each other’s work and collaborating at every opportunity is crucial.

In light of this, Social Enterprise UK is hosting its first conference with the National Housing Federation on 23 April to support greater partnership working between social enterprises and housing associations.

Sam Simmons is external affairs officer at Social Enterprise UK