Fifty Per Cent Is Knowing Your Residents

Wayne Davies arrived as Director of Asset Management at Birmingham City Council in February 2023 to an ombudsman intervention, a regulatory breach with the Social Housing Regulator, and decency recorded at 28% across a portfolio of approximately 58,000 homes. Over the three and a half years since, more than £600m has been invested in capital works, more than 30,000 stock condition surveys have been completed, and decency has risen to 45%. The trajectory agreed with the regulator runs to 100% by 2032. Capital expenditure is now budgeted at over £200m per year for the next seven years. 

The scale of the programme has required changes not only in investment levels but in the structures through which investment is delivered. 

Establishing the evidence base 

The first requirement, before any significant works programme could proceed, was reliable data. Stock condition surveys at a rate of 1,000 per month became a standing operational commitment, providing the evidence base for the Housing Revenue Account business plan and giving the regulator the visibility it required. Compliance data across 185 high-rise blocks and approximately 2,500 low-rise properties was consolidated into a single system. 

Contract structure and supply chain continuity 

Birmingham's previous contract arrangements had developed over time into a model that was difficult to sustain at scale. The council aborted an earlier procurement and restarted with a period of market engagement to understand what a contract model would need to offer to attract contractors capable of delivering at the required volume. 

The result is a 10+5 year term alliance contract with three partners, Equans, Wates Property Services and Mears. Shellforce, a window and door manufacturer owned by Birmingham City Council, operates as a formal alliance partner within the contract rather than as a separately managed supplier. 

The design addresses the structural instability of short-term contracting cycles. Continuity of workload allows contractors to invest in directly employed staff and reduce reliance on subcontract labour, sustain apprenticeship programmes and maintain supply chain relationships. At the investment volumes Birmingham is running, supply chain fragility creates programme risk. 

Fabric first and integrated investment 

Solar panels are now incorporated into every roofing programme as standard, regardless of grant availability. A roof installed today will remain for 70 years, and integrating solar panels at point of installation removes the cost and risk of later retrofit. 

The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund programme, a £25m grant contribution within a total programme of approximately £190m, enabled Birmingham to test monitoring technology and gather resident outcome data alongside energy efficiency measures. External wall insulation, new windows and improved ventilation directly addressed damp and mould in affected properties. Residents in completed blocks have reported reductions in heating costs and the elimination of conditions that had made their homes difficult to live in. 

EPC targets run to a minimum of band C by 2028, with a backstop of 2030 for properties where investment costs are disproportionate to outcome. 

Modular extensions and garage sites 

A persistent backlog of disabled adaptation extensions produced a practical problem: traditional build timescales were failing residents who needed ground-floor bedroom provision but did not want to leave their communities. A modular build approach, developed with a manufacturer in Tipton, delivered a bedroom and ensuite extension in 14 weeks from start to finish at a cost comparable to conventional wet build. 

The pilot, which began with three properties before expanding to six, is now moving into a second phase. Vacant garage sites across the estate are being prepared for full modular bungalows, designed around the requirements of specific families on the waiting list. This turns underused land, some of it previously associated with fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour, into new homes without requiring families to leave their areas. 

Resident engagement as investment design 

Patch sizes for housing officers have been reduced and investment in estate management and caretaking staff restored. Where these local relationships have been rebuilt, residents approaching major refurbishment programmes have a framework for what to expect and access to neighbours who have already been through the process. Residents from completed blocks now participate in engagement with blocks still to come. 

From a Healthy Homes Hub perspective, this is consistent with evidence that health outcomes from refurbishment, including thermal comfort, reduced damp and mould and better indoor air quality, are more durably sustained when residents understand both the works and the reasons for them. 

Investment specifications are adjusted in response to resident knowledge. Ventilation strategy for households with higher occupancy than standard specifications assume, communal area design informed by how residents actually use shared spaces, and security measures shaped around the specific concerns of ground-floor tenants all produce outcomes that uniform specifications would not. 

Knowing your homes accounts for half of effective asset management at this scale. Knowing your residents is the other half.  

Practical steps for housing providers 

• Set stock condition survey capacity as an operational baseline before committing to major works programmes. The Social Housing Regulator expects evidence of what landlords know about their homes, and the business plan requires it. 

• Review contract structures before the next procurement. Term alliance arrangements over 10 or more years allow contractors to invest in directly employed staff, apprenticeships and supply chain stability in ways that shorter cycles cannot support. 

• Integrate solar panels into roofing programmes at point of installation rather than treating them as a separate retrofit exercise. The 70-year asset life and the cost differential make this straightforward to justify without grant dependency. 

• Assess disabled adaptation waiting lists against modular extension options. Where traditional build timescales are failing families, modular delivery at comparable cost is likely to be faster and may reduce the number of households that feel compelled to move. 

• Convert vacant garage sites and underused land to residential use where feasible. Modular construction makes small-site development more practicable and keeps families in communities rather than adding to waiting list pressure elsewhere. 

• Treat resident engagement as a design input, not a communications function. Involve residents before specifications are fixed, and use the experience of residents from completed schemes to support those approaching major works. 

• Design ventilation and energy efficiency measures around actual household occupancy rather than standard specifications. Where households exceed the occupancy the design assumes, flex the specification accordingly to protect indoor air quality and thermal comfort. 

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