case studies
A selection of the work that sits behind the practice. Each engagement below is drawn from direct experience in UK affordable social housing. They illustrate how we work, the problems we are built to solve, and what good outcomes look like in practice.
Data-Led Asset Investment Strategy
Asset Performance Modelling | Investment Strategy | Options Appraisal | Regulatory Engagement | Client-Side Leadership
context
A south coast unitary authority managing a housing portfolio of around 16,000 homes was operating under significant regulatory scrutiny following identification of serious underperformance against the Decent Homes Standard. The portfolio was structurally complex, with a high proportion of ageing high-rise blocks, properties of non-traditional construction, and homes with poor energy efficiency. It faced a projected investment shortfall of approximately £75 million against what was needed to bring all sustainable stock up to standard.
The authority's existing approach to asset investment had been largely programme-driven and reactive, without the data infrastructure to prioritise spend strategically, model asset performance at a granular level, or demonstrate a credible, evidence-based improvement trajectory to the Regulator of Social Housing.
challenge
At the point of intervention, fewer than half of the authority's homes met the Decent Homes Standard, making it the lowest-performing local authority nationally on this measure. Investment decisions had historically been made without a systematic assessment of asset performance. There was no model to grade stock by viability, no mechanism to weigh People, Property, Finance and Market factors against one another, and no process for identifying which assets warranted continued investment versus alternatives such as remodelling, disposal, or tenure change.
The authority urgently needed a structured, data-led approach that could inform a credible multi-year improvement plan, satisfy an active regulatory relationship with the Regulator of Social Housing, and provide the evidence base for difficult but necessary decisions on poorly performing stock.
approach
Working alongside a specialist housing consultancy, I began by commissioning and implementing a strategic asset performance model calibrated to the authority's specific stock profile. The model drew on upwards of 80 datasets spanning tenancy data, repair and void history, planned investment forecasts, energy performance, and financial indicators, all held at individual property level. For the first time, the portfolio could be ranked and graded rather than treated as a uniform whole.
Alongside the modelling, I commissioned individual viability assessments for a tranche of the most problematic properties, applying net present value analysis across multiple scenarios, including continued social rent, affordable rent, market rent, and disposal. The intelligence gathered was used to develop an outline Asset Investment Strategy framework structured around five strategic priorities, including a dedicated commitment to data-led investment decision-making and explicit options appraisal for poorly performing stock.
The outline strategy was taken through internal governance, including a formal briefing to the Cabinet Member for Housing, and the regulatory improvement trajectory was embedded in the framework as a measurable commitment to the Regulator of Social Housing.
outcome
The asset performance model gave the authority a consistent, multi-dimensional view of its portfolio at individual property level for the first time, replacing ad hoc judgement with structured, evidence-based prioritisation.
Decent Homes compliance, which had sat below 50% at the point the work commenced, improved to approaching two-thirds of the stock within approximately eighteen months. This was supported by a clear, board-approved improvement trajectory, formally briefed at Cabinet Member level and published through the Forward Plan.
The viability modelling work equipped decision-makers with NPV-based options on a tranche of poorly performing assets, enabling difficult but defensible choices on disposal and remodelling.
capabilities demonstrated
Strategic asset performance modelling
Investment prioritisation and options appraisal
Regulatory engagement and improvement planning
Housing asset management strategy development
Client-side programme leadership
Building a Compliance Monitoring and Reporting Framework
Building Safety | Performance Reporting | IT Implementation
Context
A metropolitan local authority in southern England, managing a significant social housing stock, was facing sharply escalating regulatory pressure. The new Consumer Standards, mandatory Tenant Satisfaction Measures, and the Building Safety Act had together raised the bar from periodic assurance to continuous, evidenced compliance.
An independent review had found compliance management operating in silos. Accountability was split across multiple service teams, there was no master dataset, and key risk areas were tracked through locally maintained spreadsheets. No performance reporting framework existed that gave the organisation a coherent picture of its safety obligations. At the same time, the authority was embarking on a significant procurement and implementation of a new compliance and asset management IT system.
Challenge
The core problem was not a lack of compliance activity. Inspections were being carried out, servicing programmes were running, and risk assessments were being commissioned. What was almost entirely absent was the infrastructure needed to know whether any of it was complete, accurate, or on time.
Performance data was spread across at least three separate systems, none validated against a master record, with known discrepancies between them that remained unresolved. Board-level reporting was either absent or drawn from locally held spreadsheets that no one could independently verify. With more than a dozen high-priority recommendations spanning six statutory risk areas, and no designated accountability for any of them, the authority faced a genuine risk of regulatory compliance failure.
approach
Working as the senior officer leading the response to the review, I translated the recommendations into a structured improvement programme with named owners and delivery timescales.
I led the client-side procurement and implementation of a new compliance IT system, shaping its configuration around the authority's specific statutory obligations rather than vendor defaults. Alongside this, I established a single validated master dataset as the authoritative record of all assets, replacing the fragmented, spreadsheet-driven approach that had made reliable reporting impossible.
Drawing on that stable data foundation, I designed a compliance performance framework spanning all six statutory risk areas, with agreed KPIs, targets, and data sources. I introduced a monthly board-level reporting pack that gave the organisation, for the first time, a single integrated view of its building safety position.
outcome
The framework, underpinned by the new IT system, delivered near-total compliance rates across the majority of statutory risk areas. Gas safety across approximately 8,500 properties, legionella across nearly 4,000 dwellings, and lift and electrical inspections across the communal stock were all tracking at or close to full compliance on a rolling monthly basis.
A regular board-level compliance pack, aligned to the regulator's Tenant Satisfaction Measures and covering all six risk areas, replaced a patchwork of unvalidated spreadsheets. Elected members had, for the first time, a reliable and auditable view of the authority's building safety position.
The authority entered the new regulatory inspection regime with compliance evidence that was continuous, system-generated, and independently verifiable.
Capabilities demonstrated
Compliance framework design and governance
IT procurement and system implementation, client-side lead
KPI design and board-level performance reporting
Data governance and master dataset strategy
Regulatory readiness across Consumer Standards and the Building Safety Act
Making the Case for Change
Business Case Development | Investment Appraisal | Programme Sponsorship
context
A mid-sized council housing provider in southern England, responsible for a stock of more than 10,000 homes, was operating its asset and compliance management functions on a set of systems that were either at or approaching end of life, with no viable development roadmap from incumbent suppliers. The authority was simultaneously facing tightening statutory obligations under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act and the Decent Homes Standard, and a growing awareness that its digital infrastructure was exposing it to compliance and reputational risk.
Replacing the core systems was operationally urgent. However, the investment required sat outside existing capital budgets, making a robust, evidence-led business case the essential first step.
challenge
The authority needed to secure approval for a technology investment programme in a financially constrained environment where the funding had not been planned for and would represent a pressure on the Housing Revenue Account.
The case had to satisfy multiple internal gatekeepers, including finance, IT, programme governance, and senior leadership, each with different evidential requirements. It had to demonstrate value against a credible do-nothing alternative that carried its own escalating risks. Without a structured, costed, and evidence-backed submission, the programme risked stalling at the point of approval rather than the point of delivery.
approach
I structured the business case around the independent discovery outputs, using the findings from the earlier technology review as an evidence base rather than relying on internal advocacy alone.
A formal options appraisal set out the do-nothing position with explicit risk quantification, making the cost of inaction as visible as the cost of investment. Financial modelling was developed iteratively across capital and revenue lines in close collaboration with finance business partners, ensuring the submission met the technical requirements of the authority's programme governance framework.
The case was refined through multiple review cycles with IT, PMO, and senior leadership before being presented for formal approval at board level.
outcome
The business case was approved at board level, securing capital funding for a technology investment programme approaching £650,000. This was a commitment that had not featured in the authority's original capital programme and required a new budget allocation to be formalised alongside the approval process.
Approval was achieved within approximately eight months of the initial discovery exercise completing, moving the authority from a position of unplanned risk to a funded, governed programme of work. Procurement for both system components commenced immediately following approval, with the authority entering the market with a clear requirements framework already in place.
capabilities demonstrated
Business case development and investment appraisal
Options analysis and risk quantification
Financial modelling across capital and revenue lines
Stakeholder management and governance navigation
Programme sponsorship in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment
mapping the digital gap
Digital Needs Assessment | Requirements Definition | Technology Strategy
context
A stock-retained local authority in southern England, managing a large housing portfolio, had been operating its asset and compliance management functions across a patchwork of ageing, siloed systems for over a decade. The primary asset management platform had reached end of life with no development roadmap. Statutory compliance records were distributed across multiple systems and spreadsheets, with no single authoritative source.
Facing tightening regulatory expectations under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act and the Consumer Standards, the authority needed to act. However, it had no clear picture of what a replacement digital estate should look like.
challenge
The immediate problem was not a technology shortage but a clarity shortage. The authority had no structured picture of its own requirements.
Compliance and asset data was dispersed across more than four separate platforms and an extensive network of spreadsheets, with staff relying on manual workarounds to compensate for missing integrations and unreliable data. Without a defined requirements framework, any procurement exercise risked replicating the same fragmentation in a new set of systems.
approach
I commissioned and directed an independent technology discovery exercise, engaging an external digital advisory firm to conduct structured requirements gathering across the asset and compliance management function.
Working with frontline staff and service managers through SWOT analysis workshops and user story interviews, the engagement surfaced the full extent of process fragmentation, missing integrations, and data quality failures across the service. Requirements were structured using an agile EPICs framework, grouping related user needs into discrete, prioritisable capability themes. This enabled the service to articulate what it needed without getting lost in system-level detail.
The discovery produced a validated requirements set and a clear recommendation that a single-platform solution would not meet the authority's needs, directly shaping a two-system procurement strategy.
outcome
The discovery exercise delivered a validated, board-ready requirements framework and technology map, giving the authority the evidence base it needed to proceed to procurement with confidence.
The finding that a single platform could not serve both asset management and compliance management functions, reached through structured analysis rather than supplier-led assumption, avoided a procurement that would have failed to address the most critical service gaps.
The requirements outputs fed directly into a business case that secured capital approval for a technology investment programme within approximately three months of the discovery completing.
capabilities demonstrated
Digital needs assessment and technology discovery
Requirements definition using agile EPICs methodology
Stakeholder engagement and workshop facilitation
Technology strategy and procurement preparation
Programme sponsorship and advisory oversight
Specifying a Digital-First Stock Condition Survey Programme
Procurement Specification | Digital Integration | Performance Framework Design
context
A south coast unitary authority managing a large social housing portfolio was at a critical juncture in its asset management approach. Years of fragmented surveying activity had produced inconsistent methodologies, variable data quality, and significant gaps in component-level condition information. This left the authority poorly positioned against the compliance obligations of the Building Safety Act, the Decent Homes Standard, and the Regulator of Social Housing's evolving Consumer Standards.
The authority was simultaneously midway through a major digital transformation, implementing new housing management, compliance, and energy assessment platforms. Any future survey programme needed to feed directly into those systems from day one.
challenge
The authority had no reliable, whole-stock condition baseline to work from. Previous survey datasets were inconsistent in methodology and incomplete in coverage, making it impossible to model long-term investment need or demonstrate compliance with statutory standards with confidence.
Commissioning a new programme at pace, with a target throughput of up to 850 surveys per month at peak, risked perpetuating the same data quality problems unless the specification demanded something fundamentally different. The challenge was to write a procurement document that made digital integration and system-ready outputs enforceable contractual requirements.
approach
I began by establishing digital integration as the foundational design principle of the specification. All survey outputs were required to be structured for direct upload into the authority's housing management, compliance, and energy assessment platforms, with no manual reformatting permitted under any circumstances.
I then defined a comprehensive mandatory-field framework, covering standardised file formats, photo-referencing protocols, and naming conventions, all aligned to the validation rules of the target platforms. To make these requirements genuinely enforceable, I built a performance framework around them, with measurable KPIs covering data accuracy, mandatory-field completion, appointment-kept rates, and resident satisfaction, each linked to service credit deductions for non-compliance.
The specification covered the full range of surveying activity the authority needed and included a structured eight-week mobilisation pathway, with IT integration testing and pilot surveys as gated milestones before full programme go-live.
outcome
The specification provides the basis for a successful procurement, delivered by a specialist surveying contractor with an eight-week mobilisation window as stipulated.
The digital-first framework will ensure that survey data will be structured for direct platform upload from the first submission, eliminating the manual reformatting burden that had undermined the authority's previous surveying activity and compromised its condition dataset.
The resulting programme will deliver approximately 5,500 surveys per annum across the portfolio, producing a component-level condition baseline that directly supports investment planning, compliance reporting, and energy improvement targeting.
capabilities demonstrated
Procurement specification and contract design
Digital integration and data standards
Performance framework development
Regulatory compliance alignment
Strategic asset data management
work with us
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