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Social landlords looking at mapping assets with GPS for more efficient investment
Social landlords in the North East Housing Partnership (NEHP) are looking into mapping members’ assets information with GPS to more “efficiently and effectively” invest in homes.
Paul Fiddaman, the group’s chair, told Inside Housing that members are looking into the possibility of using the satellite technology to help “visualise where there are concentrations of different organisations with similar profiles of investment”.
The NEHP, which has 17 members including housing associations, councils and ALMOs, was set up last year to increase affordable housing delivery and work collaboratively across a range of topics for the region.
The group is focused on four key themes: regeneration, development and placemaking; net zero and sustainability; employability and social inclusion; and health, care and homelessness.
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Mr Fiddaman said that several members in the partnership are intending to pilot “something collaborative” around the procurement of a programme in the third wave of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.
Alongside that, the NEHP has an innovation forum called the Social Housing Innovation North East.
Mr Fiddaman, who is also chief executive of Karbon Homes, said: “One of the things they are looking at is whether it’s possible to map everybody’s asset information onto GPS.
“The idea behind that is that it will help us to visualise where there are concentrations of different organisations with similar profiles of investment.
“And that should be really useful in pulling together that programme at scale. And that means you can then, instead of doing 100 homes and then [another landlord] doing 100 homes, we can pool that together on a neighbourhood and there is real efficiency in terms of set-up and overheads and all of that that the supply chain will tell you adds cost to the process.”
Mr Fiddaman said the conversation is “live now” and the intention is that members will be able to pilot the plans following the allocation for wave three of the SHDF.
“We should be able to mobilise in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.
He added: “It feels like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? It’s such an obvious thing that we’re not all buying the same things from the same people. So if we can find a way to do that more effectively, and more efficiently, why wouldn’t you?”
Mr Fiddaman, who is group chief executive of Karbon Homes, recently joined the board of A2Dominion as the landlord continues to address its non-compliance with the regulator’s governance standards.
Leazes Homes revealed that it would join Karbon as a subsidiary following positive feedback from residents and staff in May this year.
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