In conversation with: social housing guru, Jonathan Gregory

As our standing in the social housing sector grows, Viewber is increasingly entering conversations about the challenges faced by this specific property sector. Ed Mead’s one-to-one with Jonathan Gregory – Director at JG Associates Ltd – provided eye-opening insights that have deepened our understanding of housing associations, and are helping shape our future services.

Jonathan works as a consultant in the social housing sector, with more than 20-years’ experience within housing associations, local authorities and arm’s length management organisations, plus another decade working in social and residential care before that.

Well placed to give an accurate snapshot of social housing today, Jonathan’s summary paints a picture of ever-increasing compliance combined with a workforce that needs expert management.

Property professionals are practically unanimous when it comes to the four largest areas of concern in the social housing sector:

• Covid recovery: Jonathan stresses that we are still in a recovery phase. Affected areas include resourcing, tenant wellbeing and service delivery, with some housing associations trying to grasp requests for remote working from staff.
• Fire safety: Grenfell has catapulted fire safety into the spotlight. The sector is working hard to comply with vital but challenging building and fire safety regulations, with a focus on retrospective improvements.
• Decarbonisation: housing associations have an enormous challenge ahead to decarbonise not only the properties they manage but also their service delivery and in-house operations. The retrofitting of energy efficient features is a notable area of concern.
• Tenant voice: introspective analysis of how housing associations engage with residents is required. Improved listening methods and communication channels are necessary to deliver a better service.

Speaking with Jonathan, it’s clear one theme unites all of the issues and that’s enough organised resources to address the points above. Take the matter of living conditions, maintenance and repairs – the difference between the PRS and social housing is stark.

Private tenants have a direct line to the people that make a difference and if they don’t, they have an ombudsman they can turn to and strengthening tenant rights under the Renters’ Reform Bill.

There’s also transactional confidence in the PRS – tenants choose where they want to live, pay a handsome monthly rent and demand a minimum level of accommodation in return. A leaky radiator? A private tenant will call the property manager or landlord directly – or even visit them in person – report the issue and expect a prompt repair. It doesn’t matter if the renter ruffles a few feathers at the lettings agency either, as most lets are on a short-term basis.

Social housing tenants, on the other hand, enter into a lifelong relationship with their housing association – sometimes a faceless organisation where you never speak to the same person twice. This long-standing affiliation with their landlord changes the dynamic upon which the relationship is based.

Jonathan believes social tenants may be more inclined to live with poor conditions – perhaps because they’re not paying a premium to rent – but it’s not just the condition of existing stock that’s a problem. Sometimes the tenant simply doesn’t know how to report an issue.

Jonathan says housing associations commonly assume they have all the right communication channels in place but many residents can’t effectively engage with their property managers – a notion that returns to the tenant voice challenge.

Even for property managers who have open channels of communication, there’s room for improvement when it comes to interpersonal skills, empathy and listening ability. For those tenants who do report issues, the level of action and outcomes can be poor. The message from grass roots, front-line staff – the people who raise issues on behalf of tenants – can be lost and some repairs are not seen through to completion.

The ability to lean in, listen and visit properties dials into another challenge identified in our conversation with Jonathan, and that’s tenant welfare – especially important as housing associations work with some of society’s most vulnerable people. A heightened degree of reassurance and hand holding is definitely required, with Grenfell prompting relations between the public and housing providers to slip to new lows.

On a practical level, Jonathan says complying with new fire safety and building regulations will shine a spotlight on gaps in resourcing. More staff than ever before are going to require new levels of accreditation, qualification and competence – that’s time spent learning, implementing and following up, with an upgraded skill set that reflects a new, technical level.

Speaking to Jonathan and our other housing association partners, it’s clear that departments currently have less people to cover the same ground, or the same workforce with an acutely increased workload. How resources are managed moving forwards is crucial, as is using talent to the best of its ability.

The good news is problem solving and collaboration is more prevalent in social housing than in the PRS. When one housing association tries a new method or finds a solution, both Ed and Jonathan agree they’re willing to share this with peers. We like to think Viewber is one of the sector’s shared solutions, as we’re working with an increasing number of social housing providers.

Jonathan says the extended hours that Viewber offers – evenings, weekends and Bank Holidays – combined with our affordable price point and nationwide coverage provides crucial ‘gap filling’, especially for property managers with highly dispersed portfolios.

Typically, housing associations and property managers book Viewbers to:

• Check the condition of properties and communal areas
• Undertake building inspections
• Carry out fire safety checks
• Compile reports on both vacant and occupied properties
• Conduct post-repair inspections
• Carry out tenancy verifications
• Make tenant wellbeing and welfare visits
• Accompany viewings
• Create floorplans and take photography to improve asset management databases and data integrity
• Hit decarbonisation targets buy reducing the distances employee’s travel
• Keep staff focused on pressing, skilled projects

If you are reviewing your in-house resourcing and would like help with on-site tasks that take employees away from their desks, talk to Viewber. We can share with you how we’re already helping peers in the social housing sector.

Catch up with Ed and Jonathan’s talk.