Lockdown diaries: Dolphin Living’s Olivia Harris

Olivia Harris is chief executive of Dolphin Living and chair of Westminster Property Association. She shares a day in lockdown, shielding with her family and bringing forward new developments to support key workers in London. It is 28 July and I am in my fifth month of lockdown. I wake at 7am. My daily commute used to involve a lot of walking and I was inspired by taking part in LandAid’s Steptober last year, so I’m using the commute time to exercise and walk. By 8.30am I’m at my desk (aka the kitchen table) eating breakfast and checking e-mails. Due to my husband not having a spleen (he ruptured it horse riding as a child) he is classed as extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 and we are shielding, so contact outside of my immediate family is limited. I can count on one hand the number of people I have met up with since lockdown began, with interactions usually restricted to a socially-distanced walk. This means as a family we are very much each other’s lifeline and mealtimes are the centre of that. Early on in lockdown we used to be joined for breakfast by our teenagers, but now they’re on school holidays they don’t surface until much later on. I share the kitchen table with my husband, so there’s a significant amount of juggling to accommodate each other’s Teams/Zoom calls. It’s quite nostalgic as we last shared an office over 20 years ago while training as accountants at Lewis Golden. Now I work for a Dolphin Living, a charity which owns, manages and develops affordable housing for key workers who have been priced out of central London. When lockdown first hit, our immediate focus was on adapting our property management services while ensuring both staff and tenants remained safe. Now the focus is on letting newly completed homes and bringing forward a new development while continuing to adapt the management of our homes and design parameters. The pandemic has shown how much we rely on certain workers, many of those who earn modest income. Pictures of crowded Tube trains highlight how housing for such workers near their place of work is essential to the health and wellbeing of our city. We need to provide more affordable housing for a broader definition of key workers. My first call of the day is to prepare for a meeting with the charity’s trustees. I speak to the management team and we familiarise ourselves with the new software for board papers. Key items on the agenda are the redevelopment of the New Era estate, for which we obtained planning consent for 199 homes on 1 July; lettings updates on two developments of 135 flats in Maida Vale and Hackney that completed during lockdown; and, of course, rent collection. At Dolphin rents are set by reference to local incomes; affordability is paramount and the link to market rents is broken in the locations in which we operate. Our affordable rents are on average 59% of local rent. During the pandemic, rent collection percentage has remained in the high 90s and commercial rent only comprises about 1% of our rent roll, so cash inflows remain near budget. The New Era redevelopment is a significant opportunity for Dolphin to deliver new homes in Hackney and something the board needs to devote time to. I have a brief update with Charles Begley, executive director of the Westminster Property Association. We discuss the impact of recent national planning announcements on the Westminster City Plan, which is under consultation, and how WPA might respond to this and whether there is anything more we can do to support Westminster City Council and our members in the opening up of offices, retail and leisure. Like clockwork the rest of the family appears at lunchtime. After a brief battle to get everyone to turn off their screens, we manage some conversation with the teenagers. Shielding will be paused from Saturday (2 August) and so we will be able to go out a bit more, but with the threat of a second spike looming and the high risk for my husband, we will continue to be extremely careful. September will bring more challenges as schools return and Dolphin’s central London office reopens, and this creates uncertainty as to how we will manage as a family. We try not to discuss it too much and instead focus on the good weather and time together. Then it’s back to e-mails, dealing with some leasing issues on one of our recently completed developments in Maida Vale and checking in with the team, including discussions on what the team want from a return to the office and what this will look like. Staff have said they would like to return to the office and mix this with working from home. The question is what that balance will look like and whether we can fit the whole team in the office by changing meeting rooms and breakout space into desk space. The virtual board meeting starts at 3.45pm. It begins with an economic update from our investment advisers, then a series of AGM meetings, before the normal board meetings. First a meeting for the subsidiary Registered Provider of Social Housing, then for the parent charity. As ever, the trustees are challenging yet supportive. Thankfully there are no surprises, however the discussion generates ideas on design considerations post-Covid, business plan modelling and advice on the redevelopment of New Era. The meeting finishes at 6.30pm. In “normal” times, management and trustees would have a glass of wine together after the quarterly meeting. Instead I have a glass of wine with my husband and play cards while our teenagers cook dinner. To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette