HACT has launched the latest version (v3.4) of the UK Housing Data Standards, which it says will ensure housing organisations listen to the comments and concerns of residents.
In light of increased scrutiny on the social housing sector, Version 3.4 of the Standards will help residents’ voices to be heard by their housing providers, according to the charitable trust.
Michael McLaughlin, digital lead at HACT, said: “The latest version of the UK Housing Data Standards focus on resident feedback and customer complaints.
“Developed by the sector for the sector, this free resource will enable social housing organisations to make sure that every contact counts.”
He continued: “Our relationship with our residents has never been more important, or more under the spotlight.
“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 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.
As well as announcing the launch of this latest version of the UK Housing Data Standards, HACT has revealed 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.
Barry McNulty, director of analytics at Hyde, said: “We believe that the regulatory returns data standard will result in efficiencies for our business, as well as for other social housing organisations,.
“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.”
Richard Sample, IS data analytics lead at Hyde, said: “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.
“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.”
The 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.
The latest version (version 3.4) of the UK Housing Data Standards is available from the HACT website.
Image: PhuShutter/Shutterstock
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