Our sector faces a daunting set of challenges including ageing infrastructure, rising living costs and residents with complex needs, all while being scrutinised by new regulatory standards. Can technology help find solutions?
Our homes and communities have an impact on our relationships, employment prospects and educational outcomes as well as our mental health. Every home should be a safe, comfortable place where a household can thrive.
However, the economic climate is putting social housing providers under increased pressure in their mission to support people and their homes.
A testing environment
The fuel poverty crisis is one of the key challenges for the sector. The government estimated that almost nine million households in England could be classed as fuel poor in 2023 – that is when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income on energy to heat a home. That’s around double the fuel-poverty level of 2021.
When people can’t afford to turn on the heating, it places their properties at greater risk of damp and mould, and puts people’s health and wellbeing at risk too.
Another pressure point for housing providers is the country’s ageing properties. The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe, and older properties are often poorly insulated and expensive to maintain.
At the same time, demand for social housing is outstripping supply and we are seeing a worrying increase in over-occupation of homes. Data from the English Housing Survey showed a 31 per cent increase in the number of over-occupied social housing properties over the past decade. Large households in small homes present another risk factor for poor quality accommodation.
In today’s difficult social and economic landscape, there’s no easy fix.
The impact of a new regulatory regime
It’s against this challenging backdrop that the Social Housing Regulation Act has been introduced, giving greater powers to regulators than ever before to hold housing providers to account.
The new regulations aim to tackle the worst practices in social housing, to fix historic problems and prevent them happening again. These are essential and widely-welcomed goals, but could the prospect of unprecedented scrutiny from regulators be adding to the pressure for housing providers?
It’s certainly the case that a visit from the regulator will be more than a simple box-ticking exercise. Housing providers will need evidence that their processes work, complaints are resolved and tenants feel valued and engaged.
One of the ways to tackle the current housing challenges and meet new regulatory requirements is for housing providers to ensure their IT systems are helping them deliver better services.
Technology to relieve the pressure
Technology can help housing providers improve social housing. However, there can be a temptation for organisations to avoid making major changes to their technology at the same time as entering into a new regulatory regime.
The paradox is that if housing providers delay making this transformation then they will neither meet the regulations nor achieve better outcomes for their customers.
In fact, in these changing times it’s more important than ever for housing providers to ensure their systems can help them provide safe, comfortable homes and support their tenants.
Know your customers and their homes
An effective approach to data housekeeping is a good place to start.
Social housing residents have a wide range of priorities and needs, from people who need minimal support through to customers with extremely complex health issues and vulnerabilities. Data can help housing providers know their customers better, but only if that data is accurate and accessible.
A customer’s circumstances have a major influence on the type of property which will be a safe, good quality home for them. That’s why it’s so important to be able to join up data on customers and data on assets to get a clear view of what makes a good home for each household.
Alison Handley, director of strategy, planning and change, L&Q, said, “It’s vital to be able to draw together data on residents and their homes to enable predictions and early interventions. For example, we’ll be able to forecast when a resident is likely to fall into rent arrears or when a growing family will need to move into a different home, and as an organisation we will be much better placed to reach out and proactively offer support.”
By breaking down the silos of customer and asset data, housing providers can offer more personalised support and make a genuine difference to people living in difficult situations.
Anticipate issues and resolve them early
There’s no magic wand we can wave to rejuvenate the country’s housing stock. However, technology can help housing providers to pre-empt property issues before they happen rather than waiting for problems to arise.
Swift action keeps properties safe and in good condition, but unless customers alert their housing provider to a broken light fitting, failing boiler or condensation, these issues might go undetected until it’s too late.
Some housing providers are using technology to spot where problems are likely to arise so they can step in and take action. For instance, predictive analytics based on asset data and household characteristics can identify which properties are most likely to need attention.
Steve Tucker, managing director, Sutton Housing Partnership, said, “The holy grail is to be able to merge data on assets and tenants. Take a problem such as damp and mould – the combination of a poorly-insulated home with a family living in some degree of poverty makes it more likely that the property will not be adequately heated and damp and mould will form.”
Housing providers are likely to remain under pressure for some time yet, but developments in technology are allowing them to provide earlier and more targeted support, which in turn will enable them to meet the new regulatory requirements.
This is a pivotal moment for social housing, with new opportunities to raise standards for residents and their homes.
To find out more about how housing providers are navigating the new regulations while improving support for residents, download our white paper ‘Better homes for better lives: how technology can transform social housing’ from nec.e.necsws.com/better-homes.
Kay Aston is head of product at NEC Software Solutions.
