Housing boss urges firms to embrace digital technology
Organisations should embrace digital technology, such as video calling, to communicate with their customers, according to the boss of a Shropshire housing association.
John Green, chief executive of Shropshire Rural Housing Association, was speaking at the Tenants Voice Conference, organised by Shropshire Council and the county’s housing providers.
The event - which was held online on January 25 and 26 - was the first conference dedicated to social housing tenants, and involved a variety of discussions about the issues surrounding housing in Shropshire.
One of the key points up for debate was how housing providers communicate and engage with their tenants, and how tenants can influence the work of the housing provider.
Shropshire Rural Housing Association owns and manages more than 300 homes across the county, and chief executive John Green said the rural nature of the association’s communities presented different challenges.
“We have a specific role to provide homes in rural areas, which makes us quite different to other housing groups,” he said.
“There are a number of challenges associated with that, for example the size of many rural communities means you often have a very small cohort of tenants to work with, which means it’s difficult to hold large-scale community engagement activities.
“On the flip side, it does give us an opportunity to do some very focused, direct work with smaller groups of tenants, and making the most of that is key.
“One of the most exciting opportunities for all of us is the huge growth in digital communication we have seen in recent years.
“We wouldn’t have held a big online conference like this two years ago, for instance, and the question is how do we make the most of this digital technology to help connect tenants in more isolated areas?
“We acknowledge that some tenants are unable to use computers or have limited internet access, so we know digital communication is not appropriate for absolutely everyone, and we need to ensure we offer them alternative options.
“But the very fact that we have applications like Zoom and Teams gives a really effective way of talking to our tenants.
“Through necessity, the majority of people have embraced this digital technology, and we will be working carefully with our tenants to support them because it is a great opportunity.”
