As I sit down to write my annual round up and look ahead to 2020, I have been reflecting back on our 20^th year in business working with some of the leading Social Housing providers.

Highlights of 2019

We have continued to add to our portfolio of clients in the sector, working as strategic advisors to some fantastic registered providers across the UK including Karbon, Newlon, GreenSquare, CHP, Rooftop and Grand Union.

I ran a session with Glenn Harris, CEO of Midland Heart at the Housing Finance conference in March, on how housing providers can unlock the biggest value drivers and demonstrated our VFM online scenario planning tool.

I was thrilled that 2019 saw Vantage crowned Consultancy of the Year at the prestigious Northern Housing Awards.  The judges said that they were looking for real innovation and Vantage were ahead in terms of the value add we bring to our clients. This is a real credit to all of our staff at Vantage.  We were very chuffed, especially as Liverpool FC went on to win the Champions League final in Madrid shortly after!

We completed our work helping the Pobl group to transform their assets service, saving over £1m per annum and creating a modern and efficient in-house R&M operation.  You can read the case study here. 

In October, for the third year running, we published our annual Financial State of the Sector Report FY18/19 highlighting a number of financial challenges across the Top 123 providers analysed including a reduction in operating margins and 6.8% increase in repairs costs.  You can download the full report here. 

Biggest challenge for the Sector 

As the year draws to a close, it is impossible to avoid the news and the political uncertainty that comes with it. This will clearly have an impact on the sector and managing any fall out, particularly around staffing and the supply chain, will be challenging.

Whilst there are some RP’s who are really ahead of the pack in terms of service delivery and smart working, there are still opportunities for further efficiencies and areas where savings can be made.  We are finding Robotic Process Automation a real driver in transforming outdated and manual processes that can sap resources.

Finally, the demand for affordable housing is still huge and delivering the number of houses that the sector has promised to build, is a challenge.

Most looking forward to in 2020

We are hosting a CEOs roundtable with the CEO of the Social Housing regulator, Fiona MacGregor on 21^st January 2020 to tackle some of the challenges the sector faces going forward and we hope you can join us at that.  You can book via this link.

As ever, we will be exhibiting at National Housing Federation Finance Conference in March 2020 with a focus on robotic process automation and will have some interactive elements! I am looking forward to catching up with new and old friends there.

All the best for 2020,

Tony Bryan