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We run a Customer Hubb, which stands for Help Us Be Better, where a community now consisting of over 1,100 customers can come together to ask questions, give feedback on our services and share advice – a simple, effective way for customers to get involved in a way that suits them. Our Scrutiny Panel provides a more structured level of feedback, most


recently involved in reviewing our approach to managing ASB and improving our communication on rent and service charges. We also introduced the ‘Friends of the Scrutiny Panel’ for those who can offer help but cannot commit as many hours. Facebook Live events focussing on specific topics such as damp and mould


have been viewed thousands of times, while customers are also kept up to date with changes, services and useful information through our online quarterly newsletter and Customer Annual Review. Due to being a national provider, our team of Mobile Associates carry out


scheme inspections and visits to our communities throughout the year, which means we can keep in touch with customers on a more local level too.


MAJOR PROJECTS At Stonewater, we’ve committed to providing energy efficient homes that contribute towards the Government’s net zero targets, as well as helping the social housing sector lead the decarbonisation agenda. Customers need to live in warm, comfortable, efficient and affordable homes, all of which are linked to the home’s sustainability and quality. Sustainability and retrofit ambitions have always been high on our agenda –


in fact, our campaign to raise the profile of decarbonisation in housing was shortlisted for the PR Week Awards for Public Affairs Campaign of the Year in 2021. Aſter piloting a retrofit project to ensure it gave the results we expected, our


full retrofit programme, using the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, now sees us working with contractors across the country to install low carbon options. Tis includes alternative heating systems, such as air and ground source heat pumps, better insulation to walls and roofs, and making use of new smart technology. We’re currently retrofitting almost 500 homes with a mixture of loſt


insulation, new windows and doors and air source heat pumps across Herefordshire, Bournemouth, Wiltshire and West Sussex. While in Oxford, 60 homes are being upgraded with solar panels as part of the Energy Superhub Oxford. Once complete, these homes will fully meet our net zero standard. As one of the largest social housing providers in the country, we see an


opportunity not only to improve our own homes but to influence sustainability and best practices in the sector. In 2023, Greenoak Housing Association became part of the Stonewater Group, combining our resources and a shared passion for sustainability. Together we launched the Greenoak Centre of Excellence, a central point of


shared learning, with an aim to solve climate issues. Focussed on collaboration across the housing sector, customer feedback forms a core part of this project and in tackling the issues we are facing. Continuing this approach of engaging with customers to increase


sustainability and improve homes and financial situations, we also launched a sustainability customer training programme. We now have 16 customers, some of whom have a passion for sustainability in their personal lives, some who work in the sustainability sector and some


“After piloting a retrofit project to ensure it gave the results we expected, our full retrofit programme, using the government’s


Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, now sees us working with contractors across the country to install low carbon options.” Nicholas Harris, chief executive at Stonewater


who are just keen to find out more, learning together about decarbonisation, what creates greenhouse gases, domestic energy efficiency and the benefit of green spaces to the environment. Stonewater has also supported two reports by the Institute for Public Policy


Research (IPPR), most recently a short report titled GreenGo: Unlocking an energy efficiency and clean heat revolution, which sets out how retrofit programmes can solve many of the challenges facing the sector. Tis year, we’ve retained our SHIFT Gold Accreditation, an independent


sustainability standard, for the third year running. Trough our various projects and programmes, we improved our overall score and increased our average EPC ratings alongside the number of existing homes rated above a band C, thanks largely to our retrofit programme.


THE SOCIAL HOUSING ACT We welcomed the white paper, as well as the Social Housing Act, as a way of ensuring all housing providers adhere to regulations and remain focussed on customers. Our job is to deliver continually improving and responsive services directly


and through our partners, provide greater accessibility and support using technology, and build and improve more homes. Te last few years have proved challenging for the sector, with tragedies


bringing to light stark issues in social housing, combined with increasingly squeezed funding and resources. However, there are no excuses for customers not being safe in their homes


and neighbourhoods, not having their complaints or issues dealt with promptly, and not feeling that their voices are heard. We’ve introduced various initiatives and projects to ensure we truly listen to, and act on, the needs of customers while continuing to provide high-quality new and existing homes. We recognise that understanding customers and listening in the widest sense


is essential to delivering a modern, successful organisation. Making a difference to the lives of communities is why many of us chose to work in the sector, and we want to get it right and make a positive difference – the Social Housing Act will support the sector to do this.


DATA MANAGEMENT & AI SOFTWARE In many ways, the number and geographic spread of our homes make little difference to our data management – the data is centralised, whether that is our housing management system or our new Azure Data Platform. Everyone in the sector realises the challenges we face in rising to maintenance


issues. We need to be innovative in the way customers can log repairs above reactive notifications into our call centres. Our priority is to make it easier for customers to report repairs – and we’ll soon have an innovative reporting web app to support that as we know 90% of customer usage is on phones.


18 | HMMDecember/January 2025 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


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