Homelessness in the UK is on the rise. 8.5 million people within the UK currently have unmet housing needs. Local Space aims to provide a ready supply of homes to house homeless people within nine local authority areas across London and Essex.
In this episode of The HIP, our host, James Leighton speaks with Josie Parsons, Chief Executive Officer of Local Space. Josie started her career in finance before moving into commercial business and third sector business, mainly within the housing sector. She’s passionate about the industry and housing those in need.
Local Space is an innovative housing association with just under 3000 homes in its portfolio. The organisation stands out by offering homes that people actually want to live in. They provide temporary accommodation but with an average tenure of six years. Local Space also houses people from the homeless register rather than the housing register to speed up the process for those most at risk and aims to support people’s other needs such as social needs and health and safety.
We spoke about recruiting for Local Space. Josie explained how recruiting has proven difficult in recent times due to the skill sets required and the lack of candidates. We discussed the importance of training and developing staff to retain talent, as well as the difficulties people can face when seeking to retrain.
An incredibly insightful episode and not one to be missed!