1. Guy Daly and Kevin Gulliver
Value for Whose Money? Housing Perspectives on VFM, Social Value and Social Accounting
Guy Daly and Kevin Gulliver
HOUSING STUDIES ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE APRIL 2014

2. Value for Whose Money? Introduction Aims of the paper
Evolution of value for money
Conceptualising social value
‘Measuring Up’ VFM and social value
A Housing Association case study
Conclusion

3. Introduction Austere times: But value for money
social landlords are increasingly having to provide improved value for money as part of the government's public debt reduction strategy
But value for money
amounts to much more than cutting costs and/or services
‘Big society’ and ‘localism’:
social landlords are aiming to increase and measure the social value of their activities

4. Aims of the paper
The paper aims to synthesise key elements of the value for money (VFM) and social value agenda to gauge how social landlords are delivering and accounting for social value generation
The paper presents findings from a recent social accounting and audit exercise with a major housing association group in the Midlands.
The paper finally draws some initial conclusions about how and for whom social landlords are creating social value
with a retrenching local state and public sector
with a growth in needs within the communities that social housing providers tend to operate

5. Context Value for money (VFM)
Austere times and reductions in expenditure
Social housing
Benefits/welfare reform
Local government

6. Evolution of value for money (1)
The three Es
economy, efficiency, effectiveness
CCT and, later, Best Value
Quality marks
Citizen’s charters
John Major’s apostrophe
Stock options appraisals in social housing

7. Evolution of value for money (2)
Gershon review 2004
produce and/or improve efficiency in social housing
£325 million
effectiveness of procurement
reduce back office and transactional costs.
reductions in capital works.
creation of group structures and mergers
counter productive
narrow focus
insufficient attention paid to ‘public values, equity and social good’
stifling of innovation and creativity
Mullins (2010)

8. Evolution of value for money (3)
Housing Corporation’s Operating Costs Initiative 2006
Housing associations’ league table of economic performance
Again, mergers and reductions in management costs
Bigger groups, less community focused?

9. Evolution of value for money (4)
Coalition Government
Austere times
Reduce costs
Cuts in welfare
Cuts in capital programmes
Subsidising demand rather than supply
Social housing
VFM standard
Board responsibility

10. Conceptualising Social Value (1)
“(Our) approach is to maximise VFM in the context of the sector’s social purpose and operating environment…. Housing associations are social businesses that exist to produce social value in a broad sense…But whilst associations undoubtedly provide social value, it does not follow that they provide VFM. Like any system of production, the delivery of social value is not always as economical, efficient and effective as it might be.” Nat Fed and Housemark: Social Hearts and Business Heads Smedley (2012)

11. Conceptualising Social Value (2)
Competing interpretations of value
Some value/values easier to measure than others
Various approaches
SAA
SROI
CSR
Promotion of SROI (as opposed to SAA) potentially one dimensional

12. ‘Measuring Up’ VFM and social value - A Housing Association case study
Human City Institute analysis
April 2010 to March 2012
Medium sized HA
3,500 properties
Social enterprise
£30M turn-over

13. Case Study (2) Hybrid Methodology Gulliver and Prentice (2013)
Environmental Scanning
Social Auditing and Accounting
Social Return on Investment and Social Value
Community Impact Analysis
Value for Money
Customer and Stakeholder Involvement
Stakeholder Oversight and Co-Production
Gulliver and Prentice (2013)
Gulliver (2014)

14. Measuring UP – 5 Steps
What are the housing association’s mission, corporate objectives and activities – its ‘Governance Statement’?
What is the context within which the housing association tries to realise its mission, meet its objectives and deliver its services?
What resources are brought to bear and what are the housing association’s totality of activities?
How can the results of the housing association’s work be evaluated in terms of social value created and direct and indirect impact on communities and local economies?
How can the outcomes achieved by the housing association be quantified, summarised and presented?

15. Measuring Up – Case Study Findings and outcomes
Social audit balance sheet
Aligned to and development of
updated values and mission of the HA
Social investment strategy
Aligned to tenant and community priorities
A return to (and on!) social value(s)
£ stretch
Local employment
Local social enterprises’ support
Return of investment back into the HA
Not cost cutting but social value creation

16. Conclusion – Value for whose money?
Who defines value?
How should value be measured?
What is the purpose of VFM
Cost and expenditure reduction?
Or social value to/for tenants and communities?
Final thought
If VFM is about reducing costs/expenditure
Who benefits?