Asset Management Challenges: Voids

The final article in our short series looking at asset management challenges for social housing providers focuses on voids. Or, more specifically, how to minimise them.

Voids represent lost revenue – something no social housing provider can afford right now. An inefficiently run voids service is also a good way to drain cash out of your organisation.

So, the first question is how accurately you can calculate the real cost of your voids service and whether the data is available in real time?

Are Voids a Priority?

Given the significance of voids – not just on revenue, but on housing waiting lists – it’s surprising that they don’t always get a high priority.

When was the last ‘root and branch’ review of voids operations carried out? How is voids planning done: on a whiteboard, T Cards or a spreadsheet? Maybe these aren’t the ideal approaches when there are so many better digital alternatives.

Challenges

Voids management can become complex. Defining, agreeing and scheduling the work needed involves several parties and plenty of moving parts. Ideally, you want the requirements to be agreed well in advance so that everything, including labour and materials, is queued up ready to go as soon as the home is empty.

It can be possible to shorten void periods by agreeing with the new residents that some works will be completed after they move in. But this isn’t always the best way to achieve high customer satisfaction levels.

In fact, it’s often better and more efficient overall to load more operations into the void period, including scheduled upgrades, safety compliance checks and uprating home insulation to at least EPC level C.

Data-Driven Solutions

This all takes a lot of coordination. Not just of people, equipment and materials, but of data. And to maintain data integrity, the updated property condition information following the void period should be uploaded in real time to a common data environment.

More than once in this article we’ve talked about digital technology and systems. Modernising the systems you use to manage compliance, stock condition, work schedules and voids has to be the starting point for addressing all asset management challenges.

Osborne has a strong track record of reducing voids including a 22% reduction in turnaround times in a single year across multiple contracts. To find out more contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]) or visit our resource centre.