The Social Housing Round Table
The Social Housing Round Table
Podcast Description
Join Matthew Baird for a free, weekly networking forum discussing anything and everything in Social Housing with a different guest speaker each week.
The idea?
To challenge the mindset that the sector can’t be changed with small steps as well as large ones whilst giving everyone a free voice for change.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast covers critical themes related to social housing, including tenant engagement, diversity and inclusion, mental health, technological solutions, and sustainable practices. Episodes dive into specific topics such as ethnic minority representation, leveraging technology to reduce isolation, and the complexities of managing work in progress (WIP) repairs in social housing. Notable episode examples include discussions on the 'Table Principles' for tenant engagement and a comprehensive look at data ethics in creating mixed communities.
Join Matthew Baird for a free, weekly networking forum discussing anything and everything in Social Housing with a different guest speaker each week.
The idea?
To create a community from the conversations that matter.
Efficiency and productivity often get used as interchangeable terms in housing. According to Rob Fletcher, Director of Digital, Data and Technology at Codi Group, Wales’ largest housing association, they are not the same thing at all — and understanding the difference matters more than ever, given the financial pressure the sector is currently under.
In this episode of the Social Housing Round Table, part of the Data and Technology stream, Dave Loudon, trusted advisor to the Round Table, guest hosts a conversation with Rob exploring whether housing organisations are operating as efficiently as they could be, and whether technology is genuinely the answer many hope it is.
Rob unpacks why operating margins across the sector have fallen sharply in recent years, what genuine process standardisation looks like in practice, and where the real efficiency gains are hiding — not in flashy pilots, but in fixing the repetitive, high-volume processes that quietly drag on services like repairs, voids, and compliance every single day.
The conversation also tackles one of the sector’s most persistent problems: data collected for its own sake, rather than to actually help residents. From IoT sensors that generate oceans of unused data, to a passionate contribution from a participant on the lack of any shared data standard between the country’s 317 councils and 1,600 social housing providers, this session does not shy away from naming where the sector is falling short.
Technology, Rob argues, is never going to be a silver bullet. But used well, on top of strong data foundations and well-designed processes, it can be a genuine accelerator.
Big thank you to Alertacall Ltd and REACT App by CMSG for sponsoring The Social Housing Round Table, without them, none of this would be possible.
Disclaimer
This podcast’s information is provided for general reference and was obtained from publicly accessible sources. The Podcast Collaborative neither produces nor verifies the content, accuracy, or suitability of this podcast. Views and opinions belong solely to the podcast creators and guests.
For a complete disclaimer, please see our Full Disclaimer on the archive page. The Podcast Collaborative bears no responsibility for the podcast’s themes, language, or overall content. Listener discretion is advised. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for more details.