The public at large believes that housing inspections should be in the hands of local councils – at least, according to this survey.
Conducted by the APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) reported that 59% of the public are in favour of Building Inspections by local councils, while 23.4% support private inspections.
According to APSE chief executive, Paul O’Brien, the public clearly supports the role local councils play in keeping residents safe.
O’Brien believes that even though most inspections are being carried out by private companies, the fragmented housing market needs to be looked at again, where the role of local councils can be rehashed – in order to better ensure safety of the communities they serve.
The survey asked 1,634 participants, where support for local Building Inspectors was the highest among Conservative voters – 63.9%. More than 82% of participants, strongly supported the idea of giving local councils more powers to take landlords to task and more than 83% said that they wanted stronger interventions by the Government.
While the results of this survey certainly revealed a strong desire by the participants, at least to have more powers given to local councils to deal with housing issues – it may not necessarily be a perspective universally shared, as project demands can differ greatly which require different levels of support throughout each stage.
Local council building inspectors and those working for private companies must essentially comply with the same criteria for building regulations, ensuring that your project also does the same.
So, if you pop online to search for either a private housing inspector / building control inspector or a local authority housing inspector, you will see that both are in line with the same set of practices, rules, standards, and what have you. Both must sign on to, the build’s technical drawings and make site visits at fixed intervals throughout the project.
Why choose a private housing inspector?
Choosing a private housing inspector will provide you with a very hands-on and highly dedicated service in most cases. They will visit you at every stage of the project, which can be useful for large, complex and challenging builds. You might even handpick a private inspector who has specialist experience, which can indeed be very useful of there are unusual aspects to your project which may require niche experience and knowledge.
Why choose a local authority housing inspector?
Similar to a private housing inspector in many respects, a local council inspector will cover a smaller geographical area, but this can be an advantage depending on your project – they may have more detailed knowhow on the local area and surroundings, along with any geological or ground issues which may need to be considered.
A local council inspector is given power of enforcement by the Government to resolve housing issues, which you won’t find with an independent or private inspector. So, if you run into any problems with the build, they can help you resolve them quickly. The same can’t be said for a private investor, as they will inevitably hand over the matter to a local council inspector in this case, because rules, regulations and standards require them to do so.
You can, however, make it even easier on yourself:
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Today’s facility managers find themselves in the midst of many challenges, including regulatory and compliance hurdles, resource scarcity, and burnout. Resource constraints, for example, which affect time management, materials delivery, and budget planning, pose major obstacles, all the while demanding highly prudent allocation without operational efficiency taking a hit.
Technology is rapidly expanding into all spheres of life, and this is especially true of industries. In the property management sector, for instance, one is surrounded by disruptive technology which is improving ‘quality of life’ for not only property and facility managers but also tenants.
The property and real estate sector has traditionally been associated with stacks of paperwork, manual documentation, and physical blueprints. However, all that is changing quickly as the idea of paperless building operations is steadily gaining momentum.
If we go back a few years, the property management sector was a bit slow to adopt new changes, especially those revolving around technology and automation. But in the present day, it has taken a dramatic step forward.
In a 2021 survey where 2,000 UK adults were surveyed who had rented a home over the last 5 years – 66% of them had experienced some kind of disrepair issue, while 26% of Housing Association Properties tenants were not happy with the quality of repair and maintenance during their stay.
Everyone wants nothing more than to have secure, safe, and decent housing. Unfortunately, the housing supply in the UK has been unable to keep up with the surge in demand over the last couple of years. This has made accessing housing of any kind rather difficult for individuals and families alike, especially those from low-income households.
Tenant experience is an important metric to understand when it comes to property and facilities management – it describes how your tenants interact with the properties they live in. The quality of these interactions along with the amenities you offer can have a major impact on your ROI.
If you recall the government’s 2019 election manifestos, all the main parties committed to boost housing supply in England. The Conservative manifesto, in fact, pledged that the number of homes being built will continue to increase, targeting at least 300,000 affordable homes by the middle of 2020.
The property management industry has been traditionally shy and somewhat hesitant to embrace new technological trends. The word “automation” would make everyone from real estate agents to property managers cringe with disapproval – as if impending doom and job insecurity was right around the corner.
Data standardisation refers to using consistent methods for collecting data, although this is a very basic and somewhat generic description of what it truly is. If we delve in deeper, data standardisation is the process used for transforming data to fit a constrained and predefined set of values – ultimately, relying on uniformity to improve efficiencies.
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