Homes for Haringey Company Review - assessing the company use as a vehicle for Temporary Accommodation

The Assignment

31ten were commissioned by the London Borough of Haringey to undertake a strategic review of their wholly owned subsidiary Homes for Haringey (HfH), assessing its effectiveness in delivering TA, whether the company offered value for money and options for financial sustainability, and if alternative models should be considered. The review also considered its governance arrangements and alignment to the Council’s housing strategy.  

Alongside this review, 31ten assessed opportunities for MTFS savings which included advising on Alternative Delivery models such as long-term leases, enhancing their purchase programme, renegotiating leases and making greater use of their company structures. These included the development of savings proposals for approximately £5.58m.

The Role

Over a 3 month period, working with the Council’s members and senior officers, 31ten identified 5 key workstreams for the Council. These were:  

Assessing the value of money for delivering short-term Private Sector Lets through Homes for Haringey, compared to delivering the same service through the Council. We developed a model identifying the key differences between the delivery routes and worked closely with key stakeholders to build a compelling analysis for the company.

Considering Subsidy Control implications of the proposed delivery arrangements and the steps required to ensure the Subsidy Control Act were followed. By using our three-step approach of Review, Assess, Demonstrate, we were able to quickly identify the subsidy control implications and set out a clear and easy to understand step by step guide for the Council to document its subsidy.

Potential optimisation strategies for delivery of TA through Homes for Haringey but also wider options for the Council to consider. Linking with our work with the Council on MTFS savings, we were able to identify a range of options to improve both the Council and Company’s financial position, ensuring the Council achieve the best value for money-balancing risk.

Stakeholder engagement across the Council and the Company to ensure a wide range of stakeholders were engaged and their opinions of the future role of the company reflected in our findings. This stakeholder engagement consisted of our tailored housing company survey as well as one-to-one interviews with key stakeholders, allowing us to capture detail as well as breadth.

A governance review of Homes for Haringey and a set of recommendations of what good governance looks like and how the Company and Council need to structure their relationship to ensure it is followed. Through which we set out the key next steps for the Council considering not just Homes for Haringey but its wider set of companies.

Our work concluded with a series of recommendations centred around Value for Money and Governance.  We set out some clear actions that would drive improvements and efficiencies in the way the Council and the Company interact, the resourcing and key roles they should have in place to ensure sufficient oversight and scrutiny.   

We also designed a high level training programme to support the Governance Recommendations, focused around the roles and responsibilities of different groups including a Shareholder Committee, Management Agreement and reporting requirements and development of the Business Plan.  

Key Outcomes

There were a number of key outcomes from our work:

Clear understanding of the role of a wholly owned company in the delivery of TA: By demonstrating its role and the value for money that it provided, the role of the company could be easily understood by stakeholders allowing focus to shift towards how the company fits into the Council’s strategy. 

Identified the need for a clear TA strategy: Whilst Homes for Haringey provided a benefit it needs to be assessed against the range of delivery options. A clear TA strategy would allow the Council to create the right mix of solutions to manage demand and risk.  

Clear governance recommendations: A set of proportional best practice governance recommendations which when put in place would enable a clear understanding of the company’s role, both for Directors and the shareholder, and continue an aligned relationship to deliver the Council’s TA aims. 

Clarity for the council on the Subsidy Control position and clear guidance on taking forward the appropriate assessment under the Subsidy Control Act 