In an increasingly complex landscape, where consumer and compliance standards have been thrust into the spotlight, Gary Haynes of Voicescape discusses the issue of no-access and why reducing no-access rates and increasing tenant engagement through innovation are more important than ever.
The driver for tenant safety, welfare and wellbeing is a shared responsibility – a responsibility that sits across three parties.
On the one hand, you have the Government. It has a vital role to play as the guardian of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 – legislation which has armed the Regulator of Social Housing with stronger powers and the ability to issue unlimited fines for non-compliance by social landlords.
On the other you have social housing providers. Arguably, their responsibility is greater. They have a duty to develop innovative methods of compliance that flex with the ever-evolving landscape and failure to do so carries significant fines.
Between the two sits the tenant. Engaging with them throughout the entire process is absolutely crucial – not only to ensure that providers remain faithful to the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, but to ensure that the welfare and wellbeing of tenants remains front and centre.
The issue of no-access
Creating an effective relationship between the three stakeholders is essential when it comes to the issue of no-access – an increasingly difficult challenge and one that if left unresolved carries unquantifiable risks. Why? Because failure to gain access to tenant properties at the time of gas and electrical safety check appointments has the potential to create significant knock-on effects.
Whether it’s inefficient use of time and resources spent on wasted visits and rescheduling, or increased vehicle fleet costs – the numbers are significant. Not to mention the problem of missing deeper tenant issues. Accessing properties enables providers to identify and flag more vulnerable customers, as well as other property-related issues that go beyond the ‘big six’ of asbestos, fire doors, gas, electricity, stair lifts and lifts.
The exact cost of no-access varies from organisation to organisation. But what is clear is that it can trigger an unwanted domino effect – from money spent and time wasted to an inability to go above and beyond for tenants.
Simply accepting no-access is not sustainable. Instead, the sector needs to look at how to reduce no-access rates in an innovative way. Working smarter is key, harnessing new systems, data, and automation is vital. Stronger engagement with residents is also crucial, in order to prioritise gaining the first-time access providers need to maintain compliance, ensure safe homes, and drive down costs. But how can that be achieved?
Finding a middle ground
If the end goal is to ensure tenants are safe and satisfied, there is a strong argument for engaging with them before access – not just after.
While better communication with residents may increase the chances of gaining access to their property, it’s not always possible when the volume of appointments outweighs the resources available to different housing associations.
As such, many social landlords adopt a more prescriptive approach to housing maintenance, informing tenants of a specified date and time for appointments, usually communicated through letters or text messages. The onus is then placed on the resident to make themselves available accordingly. This carries with it both pros and cons, but what is the alternative?
The consultative approach – a collaborative one, where housing associations ‘consult’ with tenants to find a date and time that is convenient for them. This is a two-way interaction rather than the one-way communication associated with the prescriptive approach, but it too has pluses and negatives – the latter being that it requires more staff and can be more cost intensive.
Finding the middle ground between the two approaches is the ideal. By combining the approaches through the implementation of automation technology, data analytics, and behavioural science principles, it simplifies a previously manual, complex, and laborious process of engaging at scale. Not only does it support a more efficient, resident-focused appointment-booking approach, but it can also help to align with new consumer standards, which call for the use of data to design services around customer needs.
The importance of tenant satisfaction
Central to any approach is tenant engagement. Providing individuals with a choice is a more effective method of engagement than offering no choice, especially in situations where it could lead to inconvenience. Offering tenants a choice around maintenance visits demonstrates that they are valued and have a voice. Resolving appointment conflicts becomes easier, leading to increased efficiency for both providers and customers.
By consulting with tenants through the use of technology, maintenance visits become a negotiation should the tenant need them to be. Instead of taking ‘shots in the dark’, social landlords can send engineers to properties with a greater likelihood of access. In turn, this reduces excessive cost (an average of £75 per missed visit as well as the added postage and other ancillary costs), together with the waste of resources that is associated with booking, confirming, and rescheduling missed appointments.
By giving tenants a choice and putting more power in their hands when it comes to appointment booking, it provides tenants with newfound flexibility and control. It also empowers providers with increased first time access rates, better tenant engagement, and greater cost-efficiency.
What’s more, the quality of the landlord-tenant relationship has a potential knock-on effect when it comes to tenant behaviours and service demand – not just for compliance, but for rent payment, ASB, and overall engagement too.
As regulatory pressures and penalties heighten around non-compliance, it’s clear that improving tenant safety through engagement has become ever-more critical for the social housing sector. By giving customers a voice and allowing automation to drive process efficiencies, social housing providers will be better positioned to meet compliance obligations and focus on more meaningful interactions with customers – all the while providing sustainable, safe, and well-maintained living environments for communities.
Gary Haynes is Managing Director at Voicescape – the UK’s leading software provider of engagement solutions to the social housing and local authority sectors.