ARCH has been participating in a project led by the National
Housing Federation to help improve how social landlords collect and
use data about the condition of their homes and the needs of
residents to improve the quality of homes and services delivered to
residents. The NHF has recently published the outcome of some of
this work in a report,
"Knowing Our Homes: Making Every Contact Count".
Drawing on case studies from 11 social landlords and a broader
review of sector experience, the report presents best practices
from across the sector. It suggests how landlords can make
the most effective use of every interaction with residents to
collect, check and make the best use of data on house conditions
and residents' needs and circumstances. It stresses that
trust is essential to residents' preparedness to share data with
their landlord and the importance of explaining why data is needed
and how it will be used and kept safe. Actionable insight is
the key objective, rather than collecting more data without a plan
for how it should be used.