The tragic death of Awaab Ishak has rightly shocked everyone involved in housing into change to make sure we never see a case like it again.
Prevention vs. cure
While much of the focus, in particular from the government, has been on how housing providers react to damp and mould, Sovereign Network Group is focused as much on prevention; if we can prevent problems starting, it will do so much more to improve our customers’ experience.
The challenge is how to do this efficiently, effectively and without unnecessary disruption to customers across our 84,000 homes. The answer has to be investing technology and data, which offers a powerful start to understanding the complexities and factors at play.
Post-graduate research
In 2022, we sponsored a postgraduate student in data science to research our approach as we began the trial of IoT sensors in a mixture of 400 homes with complaints of damp and mould. This work was intended to determine what factors could indicate an issue ahead of the problems being experienced by the customer. Through this, the aim was to build predictive models to assess damp and mould risks in our housing stock that currently lack IoT sensors. The research also has the potential to open better preventative practices across the housing sector as a whole.
We already knew some of the risk factors for the presence of damp and mould, including building type, age, materials, EPC rating and geographic location as well as heating, ventilation and maintenance practices in homes. Many of these factors are picked up in our ‘homes and place’ standard and the asset grading we’ve completed on our customers’ homes against the standard, and that will influence our investment decisions. The study used these factors as well as data on repair times and data on previous repairs as key determinants.
Mould-risk trends
By analysing the mould-risk trend from July 2022 to May 2023, it became clear that the ‘homes and place’ asset grading of homes, environmental conditions and seasonal changes, the household composition, repair times and number of bedrooms all influence mould-risk levels.
In particular, three-bedroom homes, often with shared living spaces where individuals share a limited area, were a major risk factor because overcrowding can result in increased humidity. This became particularly critical for early intervention where there were larger numbers of children.
Short- and long-term approaches
From the research, we can see that with the right investment, damp and mould can be prevented in many cases. For us, our ‘homes and place’ asset grading has been proven as a tool for identifying problems and prioritising work to improve our customers’ homes through retrofitting or, if necessary, regeneration. However, this is work that will have to take place over decades.
In the meantime, we are continually looking to improve our regular maintenance and responsive repairs. We must also not shy away from working with customers by using open communication and promoting awareness of healthy-living practices, such as the timely reporting of repairs, as well as promoting heating and ventilation practices to work towards preventing damp and mould risks while supporting those struggling with the cost of living.
Collaboration
Tackling damp and mould absolutely must remain a leading priority for all housing providers. The use of sensor technology, while at an early stage, has proven its worth as a highly-efficient means of preventing problems through gathering valuable data to enhance knowledge of our homes, and we are looking to develop data- and intelligence-sharing across the housing sector to take a strategic approach to best practice.
This article was written by Jamie Joyce (senior insight analyst), Umay Gunduz (insight analyst) and Olafunke Oreyomi (data insight manager) from Sovereign Network Group.
