Housing Plus Group are a 12,000-property landlord formed by a merger between Severnside Housing in Shropshire and South Staffordshire-based Housing Plus. Managing over 25,000 customers and more than 500 employees, the Housing Plus Group (HPG) provides homes and care services throughout Shropshire and Staffordshire.

GOALS

Standardise the process of gas servicing across all properties through a merger of two housing associations and have complete visibility of all work conducted at their properties, with assurance of 100% compliance.

Ensure all gas work is safe and carried out consistently to the highest possible standard whilst always Operating to the highest levels of regulatory compliance.

BACKGROUND

Leading up to the implementation of Gas Tag, HPG had been working through a merger. They were looking for a way to manage gas servicing simply and safely. Previously, records from both merging associations were kept on a combination of document management software, spreadsheets and data that was collected from two separate contractor-controlled systems.

Director of Property Stephen Collins spotted an issue in their processes and says: “Although we had total trust in our contractor, and our multiple document management system, we believed that this didn’t allow us to operate at the highest levels of understanding and knowledge.

We know the highest levels of compliance comes from obtaining full visibility of all work completed at our properties not just gas servicing.”

“We wanted a system that ensured that all gas work carried out in our customers’ homes was undertaken to the highest standards. It’s our obligation as a landlord to make sure that all our properties are safely and regularly checked by qualified, competent gas safe engineers. Before Gas Tag this required multiple people and detailed audits.”

PAST ISSUES

In the past HPG didn’t have real time data on the works carried out in their properties. Repair work relied on the contractors advising what they had done and when they had done it. HPG monitored this activity through independent audit inspections. Alongside this, there was a significant administrative burden to ensure that there had not had been any cases of overcharged works or cases of the same parts or wrong parts being replaced multiple times which greatly inconvenienced their tenants and residents.

The process of generating and auditing valid Landlord Gas Safety Records was onerous with identified issues taking longer to resolve. The use of Gas Tag allows for immediate resolution of these Issues.

The focus on achieving 100% gas compliance and safety meant that a manual process of competency checking and maintaining up to date records took up a lot of time, a process which is now fully automated using Gas Tag.

Soon after the merger, HPG retendered its Gas Servicing and Maintenance Contracts and moved all its properties (including non-gas) onto the Gas Tag system. This allowed for a seamless and effortless contract mobilisation.

IMPROVEMENTS

Bringing gas in to one place

• Gas Tag has helped Housing Plus Group through a challenging period by centralising the gas works from the two merging associations, with different systems and processes, in to one independent,easily accessible portal.
• Previously, managing servicing was done through systems not specifically designed for that kind of work. HPG now have a complete picture of a property from servicing, repairs, no access, appliance condition including images captured in the field.

Stronger asset management and investment planning

• Using Gas Tag, HPG now has an easily accessible, accurate, real-time list of appliances and their performance. The asset management team can now make more informed decisions regarding procurement of appliances and parts.
• Asset Manager Dan Timmis said: “Not only does Gas Tag give us assurance that things are being done the right way, extending the life time of our stock, but it also provides a full picture of each property. This data helps us with our planned programmes and allocation of budget.”

Real-time valid gas safety records

• The current process with Gas Tag ensures that engineers take the right steps throughout servicing and complete the job correctly. When the job is finished HPG now receive a valid gas safety record as soon as the work is complete, allowing them to have complete visibility and removing the potential for records to be changed.

Removing duplicate jobs and reducing cost

• The engineer visiting the property can see which works have been completed by the previous engineer and can make a better-informed decision on what needs to be done.

RESULT

With Gas Tag’s technology, Housing Plus Group has now achieved the pinnacle of gas safety and are leading the social housing sector with best practice.