18 October, 2021

Ensuring residents’ voices can be heard

The latest version (v3.4) of the UK Housing Data Standards, which HACT launches today, will ensure that residents’ voices can be heard by social housing organisations.

“The latest version of the UK Housing Data Standards focus on resident feedback and customer complaints,” explained Michael McLaughlin, Digital Lead at HACT. Developed by the sector for the sector, this free resource will enable social housing organisations to make sure that every contact counts.

Our relationship with our residents has never been more important, or more under the spotlight, he continued. The data we collect from these interactions with our residents has to be consistently collected and collated, otherwise we will never be able to realise the possibilities inherent in big data.

The shift towards digital delivery over the past 18 months has emphasised how critically important these interactions with our residents are. With this new version of the UK Housing Data Standard we will be able to realise the value of this data for the benefit of residents, communities and our businesses. We will be able to pinpoint the root causes of service delivery failures more efficiently, improving business insights and increasing customer satisfaction.

The latest version (version 3.4) of the UK Housing Data Standards is available for free from the HACT website. The UK Housing Data Standards have been developed in partnership with OSCRE, the experts in data standards, along with over 70 organisations from across the social housing sector.

Those organisations involved in the development of this version of the UK Housing Data Standards were B3Living, CHP, Derventio Housing, Gateway Housing, Gentoo, Home Group, Housemark, Housing Solutions, Hyde, Kingdom HA, Kingston Housing, Lewisham Homes, Linc Cymru, Lincolnshire Housing Partnership, L&Q, Magenta Living, Morgan Sindall, MTVH, Network Homes, Peabody, Platform, RHP, LB Greenwich, settle, SFHA, Southern, Stonewater, Thirteen, West Kent HA and Yorkshire Housing.

As well as announcing the launch of this latest version of the UK Housing Data Standards, we are also excited to be able to announce that Hyde, Home Group and Housemark have signed up to support the development of the next two use cases. These will focus on regulatory returns and the environment.

“We believe that the regulatory returns data standard will result in efficiencies for our business, as well as for other social housing organisations,” said Bary McNulty, Director of Analytics, Hyde. “The process of developing each use case also provides us with an opportunity to learn from others, as well as to share ideas and insights about how we collate and process data for regulatory returns. We have been a long term supporter of the UK Housing Data Standards and are keen to develop both new use cases with colleagues across the sector, as well as with HACT and OSCRE.”

“At Home Group understanding and managing our data is very important and using the data standard has become an integral part of this as we develop more digital offerings,” said Richard Sample, IS Data Analytics Lead. “The regulatory returns element of this is very important to us as we strive to improve our data management everyday and the importance of getting the returns right is always of the highest priority. Working with other housing providers over the last few years has allowed us to learn and share best practice, further enhancing our offering to our customers. Furthermore working with the regulator will give us more insights into what is expected and what we can all do to improve the quality of the data shared.”

Let's talk

If you would like further information about the UK Housing Data Standards and how you can get involved, contact HACT Digital Lead, Michael McLaughlin.

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