Grenfell: a game-changer for the voluntary sector?

Grenfell. It is a single word that will define our generation, though we can only begin to guess what change it will bring. [caption id="attachment_889160" align="alignright" width="150"] Antonia Swinson[/caption] My charity, the Ethical Property Foundation, works on the front line where property meets community, giving property advice to non-profits. Unsurprisingly, several clients are supporting the North Kensington community. Many charity professionals wonder whether the Grenfell Tower fire will prove to be a game-changing moment for our sector. It was big aid providers and local faith groups, irrespective of size and resources, that stepped into the vacuum left by hollowed-out local government and procurement processes. They worked alongside police and rescue services to prevent social unrest and rebuild local trust. Yes, Trust. It is that hidden high-value currency that markets only tend to start counting when it is lost. What we have learnt after Grenfell is that the knee-jerk, top-down assumption that “poor people” and those working with them are only good for poor property is no longer fit for purpose. We have arrived at a turning point where policymakers, decision makers and business leaders are shifting towards parity of esteem. Not before time. Undervalued by business, local authorities and government for its capacity to innovate and for its community knowledge, the voluntary sector is more than the sum of its good works. We are also about bottom-line benefits: delivering services effectively, finding great ways to do things cheaply, mitigating poverty, healing fragmented communities and building trust. We are the people who stop the bricks going through the shop windows. However, the property industry and investment community are keen on the top asset-rich 3%. Not to look beneath the wealthy few is to ignore the trends and needs that shape markets and deliver innovation and market intelligence. (NCVO Civil Society Almanac 2017) Ours is a vast and diverse sector, bigger than agriculture and overwhelmingly comprised of small, if not tiny, organisations, numbering over 160,000. Most of them rent their buildings, and rent is the second biggest budget item out of £43bn of annual expenditure for the sector. The sector employs over 850,000 people and contributes £12bn to the economy. In the past six months alone, The Ethical Property Foundation, through the National Programme for Property Education, has provided online support and advice clinics to 138 organisations in areas of deprivation. This has indirectly benefitted 271,000 people. Everywhere we encounter a huge hunger for property knowledge, as well as growing awareness that after staff, property is the most important means of mission delivery. Our latest research shows a rising interest in co-location and growing numbers of non-profit organisations leaving public sector landlords for the private sector. Could non-profit business hubs be the next growth market now that student accommodation has maxed out? No business is an island, and in this unequal country where one-third of the land is owned by aristocrats and one in three children live in poverty, business is seeking new mechanisms for engagement with the community. To meet this need, EPF has launched the new and innovative Fairplace Award, an ethical workplace accreditation that evidences commitment to people in the local workplace, to the planet and to the community outside the doors in a single comprehensive accreditation. The RICS recently announced its third Fairplace Award for its UK offices, following RBS, Sodexo and EMCOR. The big plus is that all Fairplace income directly supports the free property education and advice we provide to voluntary groups which are out there every day building trust in our communities. They are the local heroes that every business needs. The big change is that since the Grenfell Tower disaster, now we know it. Antonia Swinson is chief executive of the Ethical Property Foundation. On 13 September she will be speaking at EG’s Not Just Another Property Event, along with Alison Nimmo of The Crown Estate, M7’s Richard Croft, former England women’s Rugby international Maggie Alphonsi, and more. Click here to register your free attendance.