How to have a Good Working Relationship with the Housing Regulator
Ultimately, the Regulator of Social Housing and social housing providers want the same things. That’s why most providers welcome the prospect of a regulator with stronger powers and the emergence of proactive consumer regulation. If there’s a good and positive relationship between providers and the regulator, it means everything’s operating as it should.
The common aim is for all residents to live in good quality, well maintained homes and that residents should have an effective voice. So, maybe the place to start preparing for a new regulatory regime is to focus on the reasons why those objectives might not be being met at the moment.
Asset Management
Knowing whether you’re meeting the objective of ensuring everyone lives in a decent, well maintained home is the same question as, ‘how well do you know your stock?’
If there are gaps in asset management data then you can’t really be confident. It’s also hard to plan preventive maintenance programmes to reduce the number of responsive repairs and potential complaints.
The regulator is likely to exist on exemplary record keeping.
Communication
Safety compliance or consumer standards failures often turn out to be communication failures. Faults and complaints are received, logged and then lost in the system or not properly escalated. Either that or operatives are given incomplete information and are unable to complete the repair.
With paper-based and manual systems there’s a greater risk of miscommunication or missing the fact that the repair is still outstanding.
It’s far more watertight if operatives’ work schedules are automated and they can update a central asset management system via mobile devices before they leave the premises. The repair is then ticked off or automatically returned to the repair order workflow as appropriate.
Engagement
The regulator will expect you to have effective processes for consulting with residents and acting promptly on their concerns and comments. It may be worth getting an independent view of how well this currently works.
Judgements will reflect how residents feel about the level of engagement and responsiveness, so it’s worth having an unbiased view of where you currently stand.
The key is to start building robust systems and processes that focus on prevention rather than cure. In our experience this is also the route to delivering significant cost savings and delivering more without increasing the budget.
To find out more contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]) or visit our resource centre.
