The Social Housing Podcast: Recent Episodes
Voicescape
The Social Housing Podcast will be a series of interviews with thought leaders in the Social Housing industry, providing them an exclusive platform to speak about topics important to them, while shaping the conversation around landlords and tenants.
In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome Hannah Harvey, Chief Operating Officer at Saffron Housing! Our host Peter Hudson dives into the challenges faced by housing associations with Saffron, and whether enough is being done to help support tenants.
In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome Jonathan Cocker, Chief Information Officer at Platform Housing! Our host Lewis Murray dives into the challenges faced by IT with Jon, as well as the importance of data and whether we're utilising it effectively.
Make sure to subscribe and drop a comment with your thoughts!
In this episode of The Social Housing Podcast, Claire Heyes (ex-CEO of Corgi) discusses the issue of no access across the sector.
Claire believes the six key factors contributing to no access are:
👉 Human
👉 Economic
👉 Logistical
👉 Technical
👉 Political
👉 Legal
And during this conversation with our CEO, John Doyle, she talks about each of these factors and how as a sector we can start to improve no access rates.
In this episode, John Doyle (CEO of Voicescape) sits down with Jeremy Squire to discuss how they're helping social landlords solve the scheduling problem for their operatives.
During the conversation they discussed:
✅ The challenges FLS are helping social landlords solve.
✅ Their proposition for social landlords.
✅ The compliance challenges across the sector.
For many Landlords, the pandemic has shifted the way in which they engage with their residents.
With the courts closed and job loss at an all time high...
The "enforcement" approach became quickly redundant, post March 2020.
Residents were struggling more than they EVER had before.
And Landlords like Bournville Village Trust realised the "collecting with care" approach was exactly what residents required.
A care approach that focused on:
✅ Supporting residents to help pay the rent.
NOT...
❌ Enforcing them to pay the rent.
In this episode of 'The Social Housing Podcast' Stephen Lawrence sat down with Gareth Sinnett to discuss how BVT have implemented this "collecting with care" approach.
During the conversation, Stephen & Gareth discussed:
✅ The Homeless Prevention Fund and how this helped reduce BVT's higher level debt cases.
✅ Pre-tenancy support and the importance of getting tenants setup on the right foot from day one.
✅ Why BVT have created the "energy advisor" role for tenants.
Do we have a “Pandemic of Disrepair?” 🤔
Over the last few months, there have been an increasing number of TV programs criticising the sector on the state of repairs and prevalence of disrepair claims.
But what is the 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 picture?
i.e. not the “mass-media” picture but the picture from those who’re actually on the ground dealing with the reality of the situation.
Well, for this week's episode of The Social Housing Podcast - we’ve brought on someone who knows that ‘reality’ better than anyone else.
Russell Thompson FCIOB, Managing Director of Places Management at Places for People.
During the conversation, Lewis Murray & Russell Thompson discussed:
✅ The effect lockdown has had on repairs and “the repair lag” that it’s created.
✅ The ‘fabric first approach’
✅ Competing priorities; the need to build new homes as well as renovate old stock and achieve the Government's net zero and zero carbon targets.
Like every Housing Association over the last 18 months...
Platform have been faced with some monumental challenges.
❌ Backlogs of repairs.
❌ Backlogs of voids.
During this podcast conversation, Lewis Murray is joined by Marc Mayall (Operations Director at Platform Property Care) to discuss Platform's road to recovery post-pandemic.
Discussing areas and topics like:
✅ How Platform are tackling their backlog of repairs/voids.
✅ How Platform developing their apprenticeship program and why Marc believes that will be one of the key's to that road to recovery.
✅ How Platform are gearing themselves up to provide a top-tier service for customers in a post-pandemic era.
Transformation, change and continuous improvement are words and phrases that are often over-used in the social housing sector, which to many observers suffers from a high degree of cultural inertia.
And so for this weeks podcast I/we wanted to bring on a guest (Executive Director of Business & Improvement at Thirteen, Heather Ashton) who represents an organisation within the sector - that's truly innovative at its CORE.
...and also an organisation that focuses on walking the walk, not talking the talk.
During the conversation, myself/John and Heather discussed the following:
✅ How Thirteen is structured at a senior level to manage change.
✅ How Thirteen have embraced the home, hub & roam model throughout the pandemic + their future plans around their staff's working flexibility.
✅ The risks that come along with these post-pandemic organisational changes and how Thirteen are managing them.
𝘗𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴...
It’s May 2020, the courts are closed and you’ve got 1,000’s of council tax defaulters.
Where do you even start with trying to recover that debt? 🤯
Tough question, right?
Well, that was exactly what challenge the team at Middlesbrough Council were faced with this time last year.
So… how did they overcome it?
Well, in this week's episode of The Social Housing Podcast - Peter Hudson is going to be exploring that very question with both Mark Symmonds & Janette Savage from Middlesbrough Council.
Are RSL's part of the solution to the housing crisis or part of the problem?
That's the question I wanted to discuss for this weeks episode of The Social Housing Podcast.
And the best person to help me answer that question:
Gerraint Oakley, Executive Director (Growth & Development) at Platform Housing.
During the conversation we discussed:
✅ How the commerciality element within the sector is about being better, more efficient and driving profit so we can build more properties and deliver more services to support people.
✅ How the large surpluses HA's sit on - still requires a different type of skill set to use the profits effectively.
✅ The issues surrounding planning reform; namely things like Greenbelt which Gerraint thinks needs to be reviewed.
The episode will going live this Wednesday at 10am - click the link in the comments to either subscribe on Apple Podcasts OR follow on Spotify so you don't miss it!
Let's jump back 16 months for a minute.
It's March 2020 and the world is descending into what feels (and is for a lot of people) - a state of chaos.
Virtually overnight...
Unemployment has gone through the roof and claims for Universal Credit are higher than they've ever been.
For HA's and Landlords, like Citizen, this spells out serious trouble
"How are we going to service this debt, when so many of our tenants are facing such financial adversity?"
...was the question being asked by many HA's/Landlords up and down the country.
But for Citizen Housing, this created the 'perfect' environment for the introduction of proactive engagement technology/processes.
A perfect environment... that over the last year has led to their UC based arrears performance almost mirroring their general needs based arrears.
And so for today's podcast conversation, Lewis Murray explores exactly how Citizen have been able to achieve that as well as how they've been able to recover over £600k in former tenancy debt in the last year.
He's joined by Darren Newton & Paula Jenner, who've both been involved in the rollout of this "proactive engagement" program.
There's an abundance of software/technology available to housing providers nowadays:
✅ Housing management systems.
✅ Debt/rent collection softwares.
✅ Customer experience platforms.
...and while all of this tech is great and very useful.
If you're unable to tie all of these systems together.
And get them to speak to one another 🗣
You're likely:
A) Making the customer journey more complex and difficult than it was before you actually implemented the tech 🤦♂️
B) Not getting a "full picture view" of your tenancies because everything is operating in silos rather than together as a WHOLE.
A.K.A. You're doing digitalisation NOT digitisation.
Easy trap to fall into but a giant "inefficiency beast" if left alone.
❌ Poor customer communication/service = Poor reputation.
If housing providers have learned anything over the last 12 months...
It's the importance of quality communication with tenants.
Communication that's:
✅ Proactive.
❌ Not reactive.
✅ Gentle.
❌ Not forceful.
✅ 24/7.
❌ Not 9-5.
And a shining example of a housing provider with that quality communication is Citizen.
Which is why for the upcoming episode of The Social Housing Podcast - we've brought on Steve Hayes...
(Head of Comms at Citizen)
To breakdown how they've proactively engaged with their 30,000 residents over the last year - by thinking more like Amazon rather than a "traditional housing provider"
The last 12 months have not exactly been easy for those working in rent collection.
😣 Pandemic
😣 Job Loss.
😣 Financial Difficulties.
These are ALL things tenants have had to contend with over the last year.
Moving "paying the rent" down the priority list for more than a few people.
Yet...
Housing association - Homes in Sedgemoor - don't seem to have let ANY of that phase them.
With current rent arrears being at just 0.9% 🤯
(No... that's not a typo)
In this episode, John sat down with Ian Richards, who is the income team leader at HIS to breakdown EXACTLY what they've put in place as an organisation - to be able to achieve those kind of numbers.
If you work in income collection - you don't want to miss this.
Question: If the community in which your tenant's live lacks; funding, community organisations/support groups, free access to sports & leisure centres... what impact will that have the long-term sustainability of your tenancies? 🤔
Not great, right?
Look... if there's ever been a more important time to make sure the community in which your tenant's live is supportive & helpful - it's NOW.
But how do you help build a thriving community that's setup for long-term success?
Well, in today's episode of The Social Housing Podcast - Matthew Buckham from Sovereign Housing sat down with John Doyle to discuss how Sovereign are improving the areas/communities surrounding their tenant's by supporting the supporters i.e. the local community groups/organisations.
In this episode, John Doyle, sat down with Alistair McIntosh who is the CEO at HQN (Housing Quality Network)
When the Social Housing White Paper was released back in November - eyebrows were once again raised as to why there was such a dominant theme of home ownership
...with many in the sector suggesting that including an entire chapter on the theme of home ownership, added more fuel to "stigma fire" for social housing residents.
So then... why would the Government include it? 🤔
Well in this episode of the social housing podcast, John Doyle asked that very question to Alistair McIntosh (CEO of HQN)
And Alistair definitely didn't hold back in expressing his opinions, on the topic!
Definitely not a conversation to be missed :)
In this episode, John Doyle, sat down with Matthew Gardiner who is the ex CEO at Trafford Housing Trust.
Why... despite high landlord satisfaction scores is there still a trust problem for tenants? 🤔
It's a tough question, right?
Surely if the "satisfaction scores" are positive... there's nothing to worry about?
Yeah... well not quite according to Matthew Gardiner.
Over the course of this conversation, John & Matthew discussed:
✅ Why there is a trust problem/the root causes
✅ Why "making mistakes" & being "transparent" can help rebuild that trust factor
✅ Sustainability within the sector & why it's in the best interest of both Landlords & Tenants.
Hope you enjoy :)
For our first guest of 2021, we've got someone who has dedicated her entire career to helping give Tenant's a voice.
From Grenfell's impact on the Green paper to the value for money impact of Resident involvement...
Leslie Channon describes her journey through the housing sector & how events like Grenfell impacted the direction of her own career, as well as how it ultimately raised the voice of the Tenant.
Jayne Adamson a.k.a "the tenant support superhero" 🦸♀️
Is our guest for this episode of The Social Housing Podcast.
Here are some of the topics discussed in the podcast:
✅ Her journey through the housing sector from the age of 16.
✅ How herself & believe housing have built a 16 person team of volunteers to help deal with incoming suicide calls, since the beginning of the pandemic.
✅ Her thoughts going into 2021 & the challenges that she expects housing associations to face next year.
Nick Atkin, CEO of Yorkshire Housing, is widely considered as one of the sectors most innovative thinkers.
And living through a time like we are now - innovative thinkers like Nick - are the ones that will help pave the way post pandemic.
The conversation touched on lot's of different topics within the sector, including the following:
✅ How the pandemic has caused major shake-ups in how Housing Associations operate & what that means going forward.
✅ How retail & office space could be part of the key to building more social housing + the problem that also presents.
✅ Nick's views on the classic "9-5 work model" & how Yorkshire Housing are adapting it with their "Home/Hub/Roam model"
✅ How technology can be an enabler, for housing associations.
- many more!
From being homeless herself to now helping the homeless.
Lara Oyedele is an example of someone who deeply understands the social housing sector.
As a board trustee at Hope Housing in Bradford - she helps people dealing with homelessness get off the streets and start their journey to finding a safe place to call home.
Her conversation with John Doyle, CEO of Voicescape, was a deep dive into how she got into the social housing sector as well as learning about her creative approach to providing affordable homes in the Bradford region.
In this episode of The Social Housing Podcast, CEO of Voicescape, John Doyle sat down with the Mayor of Greater Manchester - Andy Burnham.
Their discussion touched on lot's of different subjects across the sector, including the following:
✅ Andy’s mission as Greater Manchester Mayor & what he’d like to see happen in the North.
✅ What Andy would like to see from the newly-released Social Housing White Paper.
✅ Andy’s thought’s around GMSF.
✅ How Andy’s “A Bed Every Night” scheme has HALVED the numbers in rough sleeping.
If you enjoy the episode, we would really appreciate if you could leave a review because it helps others find out about it :)
What is the social housing podcast about?
The Social Housing Podcast will be a series of interviews with thought leaders in the Social Housing industry, providing them an exclusive platform to speak about topics important to them, while shaping the conversation around landlords and tenants.