Strengthening a unique rural inhouse service

PROJECT BRIEF

The Challenge

To help strengthen the organisation’s in-house service team in order that it could meet demand from its growing housing portfolio and provide a more effective service to the thousands of residents.

Key objectives were:
- Reviewing the housing association’s in-house repairs service.
- Develop proposals that would grow the service and keep operations inhouse: there was a clear desire to minimise external contractor support.
- Ensuring the service could cope with the unique characteristics of the Housing Association’s operation in Scotland: its homes are spread across a wide geographical area, and it’s local housing sector was suffering from shortages in both labour and skills.

Key Service Provisions

Procurement
Asset Management
Direct Labour and Repairs
Contract Management
Strategy
Commercial insight

Key Facts

4,000 homes.
£1 million annual spend on repairs budgets.
A portfolio of housing spread across a wide, rural geographic area.

OUR METHODS AND OUTCOMES

Creating a map for success

We used our expertise to:

Conduct an in-depth review of the existing in-house service team’s performance.
Undertaking a detailed commercial assessment of the neighbouring labour market to closely map the ambitions of the Housing Association with what was achievable given the shortages in key skills in the local environment.

PROJECT SUCCESSES

Produced a detailed series of options for the Housing Association which included options for change, cost and customer analysis, and a route map to achieve an improved in-house service.
The depth of analysis allowed the landlord to make informed strategic decisions about future service provision, avoiding potential risks around growth that local labour and skills shortages could cause.
Produced a final plan that laid out a roadmap to an improved, expanded service that was better able to cope with change.