The Social Housing Compliance Challenge: Inspections, Staffing Pressures and the Need for Audit Trails
The Social Housing Compliance Challenge: Inspections, Staffing Pressures and the Need for Audit Trails
Social housing plays a pivotal role in the UK’s property market. There is no doubt we need to build more of it, and the existing stock needs to be better maintained but much of the focus falls on the tenants, and quite rightly so.
Public exposés following the tragic Grenfell fire and the death of toddler Awaab Ishak have led to legislative changes. Awaab’s Law – already in force in the social housing sector and a future compliance requirement in the private rental market – is now instrumental in response and remedial timeframes concerning serious hazards.
Additionally, The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and amendments to The Fire Safety Act 2021 have drastically changed the industry’s approach to inspections and risk management, especially in multi‑occupied high-rise buildings.
Safer social housing is what everyone is striving to achieve. Extra compliance is a good thing. Extra inspections are essential. Extra transparency, accountability and evidence are vital. But what is needed, more than ever, is extra support for those who are delivering housing services.
We have an exceptionally talented but increasingly small pool of social housing professionals tasked with one of the most important jobs in property. Yet across the country in borough departments and social landlord offices, staff are desperately trying to prioritise tasks, support tenants and create a bullet-proof audit trail. That’s a lot of plates to spin.
There have been several articles in the trade press that highlight the growing pressures social housing teams find themselves under. The phrases ‘firefighting’, ‘under resourced’ and ‘overstretched’ are conspicuous in their frequency.
The results of a survey by Inside Housing and WeThrive, looking at staff wellbeing in the social housing sector, recently made headlines. Respondents came from housing associations, charities, local authorities and accommodation providers, representing a variety of job roles and ranks.
When asked to name their top three concerns from a people perspective, 58% said it was mental health and wellbeing. This was followed by employee retention (52%) and recruitment (46%).
Worryingly, 36% of survey respondents said they were currently experiencing more than 20% annual staff turnover, with 16% experiencing more than 30% turnover. Why are social housing staff leaving? While pay and rewards were cited as the top reason, burnout was the second most common reason (40%), followed by dissatisfaction with the sector. These findings were also reflected in UNISON’s Housing Worker Survey 2024–25, which highlights stress and recruitment challenges across the sector.
Summing up the crisis, one respondent said: “It is hard to find really good frontline staff who are driven, customer-focused and have a high output. We expect a lot from day one, [but] there is no spare capacity.”
Another survey, from October 2025, also served to underline the crisis being felt across the social housing sector. UNISON’s Housing Worker Survey 2024–25, which reveals stress, recruitment challenges and high turnover among housing workers, highlights the scale of worker pressures within the sector.
It came as no surprise that this survey also uncovered a recruitment crisis, with over half of employers struggling to fill roles. Staff turnover issues are real – nearly two-thirds of housing workers were looking for another job, and more than half were considering leaving the sector altogether.
The disparity between levels of resourcing and the gravitas of social housing management is of concern. Teams are clearly stressed and stretched thin, resulting in disjointed structures, a lack of capacity and growing backlogs that have pushed many organisations into being reactive, rather than proactive, when it comes to checks, inspections and compliance.
Property management requires a huge hands-on effort and one aspect that can fall down the priority list is keeping immaculate audit trails. Response times, inspections, tracking, logging and report creation are critical as the social housing sector moves deeper into an evidence-based, compliance-driven realm. After all, if there’s no proof that an inspection or visit happened, did it happen at all?
It is arguable that collating proof and correct documentation is just as demanding as visiting tenants and maintaining properties. It’s especially tough when portfolios span thousands of properties, multiple stakeholders are involved and prescribed response times are laid out in law.
The surveys we have cited, together with our open dialogue with local authorities and landlords, tells us more support is needed in a time of radical resourcing challenges and heightened liability. Yes, there is a place for AI but social housing, however, is a human endeavour and AI can’t undertake the most critical tasks. Viewber therefore is a fantastic partner, giving total coverage for parts of property management that tech can’t fulfil.
Property managers recognise our strength in undertaking visits and inspections that form part of a watertight accountability exercise. For example, a Viewber will inspect and photograph a property, then create a report. That report will be uploaded to Viewber’s central dashboard, providing a clear, time-stamped audit trail the property manager can rely on. Desk time preserved. Compliance box ticked.
When you partner with Viewber, you gain an experienced property network, offering professional visits and clear audit trails that can be relied on. As a resourcing partner, Viewber helps employees regain control and be proactive, with the confidence to forward plan – even if there’s a staffing crisis happening in the background.
The Viewber network comprises more than 7,000+ people covering every UK postcode. As such, we offer a truly scalable service designed to cope with even the biggest portfolios and intensively managed homes.
Viewber is here to support all social housing managers, whether you manage in-house, via an agent or through a platform. Get in touch if you need assistance.
