Throughout its history, the UK has been at the forefront of social housing policy and initiatives. Yet to maintain itself there, it is time to look around at a number of other leading nations and regions, and how they have looked to tackle some of the most difficult demand and supply issues in different ways.
LESSONS FROM ABROAD
The Autumn Budget laid out a clear position – we need more social housing, we need to fund it more innovatively and we need to work with all organisations better to deliver this. This builds on a growing platform of policy in this area and a newly reformed Homes England.
In response, we have carried out a series of international reviews to understand how other like-countries have kick started their social housing agenda and what that means for commissioners and providers in the UK.
In a series of short research articles looking at New Zealand, Ireland and Canada, our Public Sector and Housing team will distil the lessons for the UK and look at how this suggests the need for a new toolkit for engaging customers, managing supply, and operating models to deliver on this vision.
ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF CHALLENGES FACING SOCIAL HOUSING CLIENTS GATE ONE CAN OFFER A VARIETY OF SUPPORT
ASSET-RELATED
CUSTOMER-RELATED
Volume of housing stock
Affordability of housing
Adding socio-economic value
Customer
experience
ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF CHALLENGES FACING SOCIAL HOUSING CLIENTS GATE ONE CAN OFFER A VARIETY OF SUPPORT
Volume of housing stock
- Need to offer more housing for tenants
Adding socio-economic value
- Providing additional tenant support and services
- Change priority to max value to the community
Affordability of housing
- High cost of rented/social housing for tenants
- Cost of maintaining aging housing stock
Customer experience
- Ease of serving customers
- Digital customer access channels
WHERE GATE ONE’S PROPOSITIONS CAN HELP CLIENTS:
STRATEGIC ADVICE
OP MODEL TRANSFORMATION
CULTURE CHANGE
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
WHERE GATE ONE’S PROPOSITIONS HELP SOCIAL HOUSING ORGANISATIONS:
STRATEGIC ADVICE
OP MODEL TRANSFORMATION
CULTURE CHANGE
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
READ THE ANALYSIS
From improved digital engagement to supply-side interventions, our analysis from New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada describe areas of interest for further improvement in social housing in the UK.
MANAGE SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Applying market-led thinking to build a competitive and varied market for the provision of social housing
DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
Using digital interfaces to enhance the tenant experience, improve tenure and better match supply to demand
COLLECTIVE PROCUREMENT
Building collective purchasing arrangements to capture economies of scale and improve capacity building
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY MEASURE
Building a government statistic to consistently measure housing affordability across time, tenure and geography
LESSONS FOR THE UK
While context is key, our analysis of what other economies are doing has shown a number of interesting avenues for the UK to drive innovation and transformation across the social housing sector.
NEW ZEALAND
- Making wholesale changes to a social housing market that’s not providing outcomes that the government seeks takes a long time, and is exceedingly expensive.
- However, governments should use their unique position to leverage sustainable housing provision from alternative providers
IRELAND
- Empowering social housing tenants to choose where they live, and making it easier for them to move for job opportunities, creates efficiencies across the whole market.
- Enhancing the experience with a purpose-built digital platform multiplies those efficiencies.
CANADA
- Building collective purchasing arrangements for social housing providers help to drive down costs for landlords and tenants.
- Leveraging those collective models can provide opportunities for more effective capacity building.
MEET SOME OF OUR TEAM
UMBAR SHAKIR
DIGITAL LEAD
Umbar is head of digital at Gate One and leads our work in the housing sector. She has been consulting for 17 years and has been delivering better customer and employee experiences in the housing sector since 2012. She helps housing organisations get value from their digital transformations and make better sense of their data.
GRACE BLUNDELL
PRINCIPAL
Grace has a strong track record of strategic design and programme delivery in complex operation and asset-intensive environments. She is experienced with working closely with senior leaders to lead large-scale change in organisations across central government, health, and housing organisations, as well as in the private sector.
If you would like to speak to Gate One about how we can support you with your transformation journey please contact Umbar Shakir, Digital lead, on umbar.shakir@gateone.co.uk.
OUR HOUSING NEWS & INSIGHTS
Delivering transformation across the public sector has never been so complex. Our team of public sector change leaders share their lessons and insights about how to do that. These include: