As social housing continues to increase, its data demands are growing. Figures from the Regulator of Social Housing show that the number of social homes in England has risen by 34,000 since 2022.[1] With more homes, comes more data, and an increased complexity of systems for providers as they juggle growth. By leveraging real-time data to its full potential, social housing providers can better meet the needs of social housing residents across the country.
The consequences of not taking advantage of real-time data include lower-quality risk management, less agile decision-making and potentially falling behind other housing providers harnessing it to full effect.
By investing time in gathering, updating and managing data correctly, social housing providers will experience three key benefits:
Operational efficiency via data centralisation
Data centralisation gives ownership to all teams within a business. It consolidates and stores data from different sources into one single location. It’s a major asset for social housing providers because it enables greater control over access to the data.
For social housing providers, data centralisation creates a single source of truth. What’s the effect of this? It creates transparency, improved decision-making, and operational efficiency.
Housing providers can eliminate duplication, data discrepancies and increase stakeholder awareness. It’s critical that stakeholders can more easily analyse the data and align it with their objectives.
By bringing all the data together, social housing providers can also access information quickly— paving the way for more efficient reporting and analysis—rather than having to navigate multiple fragmented systems.
Adopting an efficient data-led approach also drives results; data-driven companies are 23 times more likely to outperform their competitors.[2]
Improved visibility with real-time insights
Real-time data analytics provide instantaneous insights that can streamline operations and inform decision-making. Social housing providers need to understand any tenant-related issues, property maintenance, and inspections. With real-time data software, they can identify and resolve issues quickly, and optimise processes.
Imagine gaining valuable insights at the touch of a button. Your data can be easily accessible in a single platform that provides custom dashboards and reports. You can spot issues or gaps in your services before they become a problem and provide faster response times for tenants.
Enhanced decision-making for improved accuracy
For data to be effective in decision-making and informing business strategies, it needs to be accurate and high-quality. The benefit of real-time data is that it enables social housing providers to understand their tenants in greater detail and with a big picture of the here and now.
Real-time data gives social housing providers a more holistic view of their properties and tenants. This means they more easily identify improvement areas, define clearer objectives, and better understand key metrics related to repairs & maintenance, inspections, and resident satisfaction.
By having a more accurate picture of property management, an important outcome is an improvement in customer experience. In social housing, there’s always ongoing pressure to maintain high standards across a large portfolio of properties, among other challenges such as high inflation and a volatile market.[3]
What’s the next step?
Plentific is committed to driving innovation and operational efficiency for social housing. With an end-to-end property management solutions platform, Plentific serves all your property management needs to help you continually provide good value for tenants. If you want to take the next step and learn more about how Plentific can help your business, talk to us!
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Plentific's eBook Effective Data Management for Housing Providers explores how to manage ever-increasing amount of data in a way that streamlines processes and satisfies regulatory compliance.
References
[1] RSH annual figures show a net increase of 34,000 social homes | News | Housing Today
[2] Aareon_Data_Whitepaper_2021.pdf (housingexecutive.co.uk)
[3] RSH sets out key risks facing the social housing sector - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)