The housing sector has been accused of not digitising data fast enough and, compared with other sectors, the pace of change from paper-based and/or fragmented processes to digitisation has been slow. However, since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, there has been a sea change in attitudes, with digitisation being driven by regulatory requirements.
The main force behind this has been the post-Hackitt report legislation, culminating in the Building Safety Act 2022, with a standout regulation from the act being the ‘mandatory digitisation of building information for higher risk residential buildings (HRRBs)’. This rule, combined with Hackitt’s ‘golden thread of information’ requirement throughout the asset’s entire lifecycle, has proven to be particularly effective in driving change in the way building information is produced and stored to ensure compliance.
The need for digitisation
This means that it’s become almost impossible to stay compliant without using digital tools to collate, store and manage building information. It’s shifted the dial, with complete digital data across an asset’s whole life now a necessity, not merely a ‘nice to have’.
It’s compelled housing providers and asset owners to pay more attention to this vital, potentially lifesaving requirement. Assuming the mantle of the ‘responsible party’, they’re now fully aware that there will be legal and financial ramifications associated with missing or unusable documentation, as well as the lack of evidence to show that buildings are being managed and maintained with health and safety in mind.
However, it’s not just regulatory pressures that are influencing housing providers’ appetites to migrate information online; many understand it as a critical duty of care to protect their residents. Having preventative measures to mitigate risk must be central to everything they do, and many now appreciate that digitising information is one way of helping to achieve this.
Fundamentally, everyone has the right to live in safe and secure accommodation and a key part of this is having correct, comprehensive and up-to-date building information, particularly around fire prevention and safety protocols. Digitising in the right way can make it accessible for all key stakeholders, including emergency responders and residents.
Better maintenance
Housing providers are also realising that bringing information online helps them to maintain their properties better and to higher standards. A good example of this is digitising the building manual which has been built out during the construction phase. Having the building manual online and in one place, where information can be easily accessed to make decisions, can help achieve better management of estates.
Another secondary influence is found on the operational front, improving the way housing providers manage multiple assets and standardise daily processes. It’s well-known that digital technology is proven to reduce many of the administrative headaches associated with owning, managing and operating housing estates, particularly through automation. This is particularly true for essential yet repetitive processes such as inspections, which demand meticulous attention to detail but are prone to human error.
Common data environments
We’ve direct evidence that housing provides are increasingly seeing the value in digitising their building information, through an uptick in enquiries about our ‘golden thread’ common data environment.
A common data environment establishes a single-source-of-truth, with templates to bring the right information together and provide a clear audit trail in a centralised platform and dashboard. It can reduce the fragmentation associated with building information, where documents are stored in different systems and in different formats, and brings consistency to disparate processes.
Housing providers are increasingly finding that a common data environment is a more attractive option than other data management because:
A common data environment helps to manage building information across multiple assets to support safety and legal compliance.
Data is available in a single location, making it far easier to search for what you need and pinpoint any missing information.
It standardises processes and templates in one location, preventing incompatibilities or unnecessary duplications.
Information can be updated in real-time, and evidence compiled of work done, with a clear audit trail of changes.
Information can be made accessible to the Building Safety Regulator and inspectors, supporting the road to compliance and saving resources.
In short, a common data environment empowers housing providers to better serve their residents without overcomplicating the process.
We’ve come a long way since 2017 but we need to push further and build on the gathering momentum. CDEs, like ours, not only represent a tried, tested and true way for housing providers to guarantee their data is complete, correct and compliant, but also to definitively show they are actually doing the right thing for their residents.
Maria Hudson is the chief marketing officer at Zutec.
