Josie Parsons, Chief Executive Officer at Local Space The HIP

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.

We also asked Josie:

● What is intermediate housing?
● How does the process work for families who know they’re going to become
homeless?
● How has Local Space grown over the last few years?
● What difficulties in recruiting staff has Local Space faced?
● How to retain and develop talent.
● What advice would you give to those looking for a leadership role in the
sector?
● What are the solutions to the lack of available housing for those with
unmet housing needs?
● What has caused the increase in homelessness and what could the
government do to fix it?

An incredibly insightful episode and not one to be missed!