The Social Housing Podcast

In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham joins Gary Haynes to discuss the biggest changes in housing policy over the past five years, the role of devolution in driving regional growth, and why Manchester continues to outperform much of the UK. The conversation explores the future of social and affordable housing, homelessness, Housing First, the risks of...

In our latest episode,  we’re joined by Suzanne Adams, a strategic leader with nearly three decades of experience in social housing, to explore how automation and emerging AI technologies are reshaping the sector. Drawing on her work leading digital transformation at Southern Housing, Suzanne shares practical insights into how housing providers can move from manual, resource-heavy processes to int...

In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome Hassan Bahrani, Director of IT, Cyber and Data Security at Thirteen Group, and Nick Atkin, CEO at Yorkshire Housing! Our host Gary Haynes explores the relationship between AI and its involvement within social housing and opportunities for the future.

In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome James Woods, CEO of Citizens Advice Doncaster! Our host Carly Harling explores the different levels of support that Citizens Advice offer and whether housing associations are utilising it enough the way that they should be!

In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome Dave Loudon, leading sector consultant and owner of Digital Bark! Our host Peter Hudson dives into the challenges faced by the sector today and why we need to prioritise digital transformation...

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, we're delighted to welcome Ian Wright, the CEO of the Disruptive Innovators Network! Our host Peter Hudson explores the importance of communicating effectively with your tenants with Ian, as well as some interesting anecdotes during his time at DIN! Make sure to subscribe and drop a comment with your thoughts!

In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome Tom Robins, the CEO at Switchee! Our host John Doyle dives into the importance of customer centricity with Tom, as well as all the fantastic work Switchee are doing with the ongoing issue of damp and mould. Make sure to subscribe and drop a comment with your thoughts!

In this episode of the Social Housing Podcast, we're delighted to welcome Matt Baird, owner of the Social Housing Round Table! Matt is a leading recruitment specialist in the social housing sector and we hear his take on all things staffing, recruitment, skills and bringing in new ways of thinking.

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...

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 r...

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 T...

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 t...

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 tr...

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...

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...

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...

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 di...

❌ 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 th...

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 re...

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....

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...