SOCIAL HOUSING

Lessons from abroad

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

100%

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

100%

OP MODEL TRANSFORMATION

100%

CULTURE CHANGE

100%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

100%

WHERE GATE ONE’S PROPOSITIONS HELP SOCIAL HOUSING ORGANISATIONS:

STRATEGIC ADVICE

100%

OP MODEL TRANSFORMATION

Title

100%

CULTURE CHANGE

100%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

100%

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

MORE LESSONS FROM NEW ZEALAND

DIGITAL EXPERIENCE

Using digital interfaces to enhance the tenant experience, improve tenure and better match supply to demand

MORE LESSONS FROM IRELAND

COLLECTIVE PROCUREMENT

Building collective purchasing arrangements to capture economies of scale and improve capacity building

MORE LESSONS FROM CANADA

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY MEASURE

Building a government statistic to consistently measure housing affordability across time, tenure and geography

MORE LESSONS FROM NEW ZEALAND

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.

DIGITAL IN HOUSING

MEET SOME OF OUR TEAM

JAMES SWAFFIELD
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC SECTOR LEAD

James leads our Government and Public Services team at Gate One. He joined Gate One in 2015 after having worked across policy-making and consulting for the last 12 years. James specialises in large scale strategy development and delivery, having worked in central and local government, third sector organisations and business that provide public services.

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
MANAGER

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: