Article Written by Sean Cleary, Assistant Director – Homes and Commercial Services at Cambridge City Council.
Across social housing, we are being asked to achieve more from every pound we invest. We are managing ageing homes alongside increasing expectations around building safety, damp and mould, energy efficiency, decarbonisation and the quality of residents’ homes. Against that backdrop, the old saying “buy cheap, buy twice” has rarely been more relevant.
For me, this is about moving the conversation from initial cost to whole-life value as the lowest-priced solution at procurement stage is not necessarily the lowest-cost solution for the landlord. If a component has a shorter lifespan, requires more maintenance, performs poorly or has to be replaced prematurely, the initial saving can disappear very quickly. Add repeat visits, scaffolding, contractor costs, disruption and the impact on residents, and a supposedly inexpensive decision can become a very expensive one. This is where a whole-house approach becomes important. We cannot continue to look at roofs, windows, heating, ventilation, insulation and building fabric as completely separate interventions. They interact.
Improving insulation or installing new windows, for example, changes how a property retains heat and manages moisture. Without considering ventilation and how residents actually use the home, an intervention intended to improve energy performance can potentially contribute to other problems. Understanding the home as a complete system allows us to make better investment decisions and, importantly, avoid solving one problem while inadvertently creating another.
Nationally, that requires good asset intelligence and longer-term investment planning. We need to understand not only the condition of our stock today, but what interventions are coming, how they interact and what they will cost over their full lifecycle.
Cambridge illustrates that challenge particularly well. We operate in an expensive housing and construction market, with significant demand for affordable homes and finite resources available to maintain and improve existing stock. That makes getting investment decisions right first time even more important.
My experience of managing housing repairs, planned investment, compliance and wider operational services has reinforced the importance of connecting those decisions. What we specify through planned works ultimately affects responsive repairs, compliance, energy performance, resident satisfaction and future investment requirements.
Value for money therefore cannot simply mean buying at the lowest price. Sometimes spending more today is the more financially responsible decision if it provides greater durability, better performance and lower costs over 20 or 30 years.
Ultimately, a whole-house approach is about stewardship. Social landlords are looking after homes that need to serve communities for generations. Our investment decisions should reflect that responsibility: buy well, understand the whole asset and invest for the long term.
Sean Cleary is Assistant Director for Homes and Commercial Services at Cambridge City Council, with extensive experience leading housing, commercial services, assets, compliance and operational infrastructure.
His role spans the management and improvement of council homes and assets, alongside the delivery of major projects and services across the city.
With responsibility for more than 7,500 homes and major capital and commercial programmes, Sean brings substantial first-hand expertise in the challenges facing local authority housing, asset investment and long-term service delivery.