Scotland’s Housing Network Prospectus
Benchmarking Value for Money in New Build Housing Background With restrictions on investment income and ever present demand to increase new build housing supply, it has become more important than ever to ensure that new build housing built by social landlords is controlled within strict cost limits and is still of the best quality possible and environmentally sustainable.
However, to date there has been no tool available to social landlords to enable them to assess the VFM of their projects or to benchmark results and exchange good practice with other developing landlords in a systematic way.
New Build VFM Framework Within this context we have designed a tool to enable members to learn from one another and to facilitate continuous improvement in development. The resulting Development Indicators tool was developed in collaboration with a working group consisting of our members (both HAs and LAs) with a remit to review existing approaches to comparing new build development costs and value for money for investment in new build housing. The unique indicators which emerged involve data collection in relation to;
• Time it took to build new housing • Costs and funding sources • Quality of development which is informed by quality standards as well as feedback from comprehensive user satisfaction surveys. Our data collection format is aligned with the new Scottish Government on line investment data collection called HARPS system so key information about the project is typically easily available in landlords’ records.
The framework is marketed as a stand-alone toolkit – separate from other ‘core’ services. To distinguish it from other services it will contain the following elements: • A dedicated web area on the members’ website • A separate data collection spreadsheet • Questionnaire templates for the post occupancy survey element
• Individualised feedback to each landlord submitting data • Access to results comparison using our powerful and interactive business intelligence tool
We can facilitate a VFM in new build assessment session at members’ offices for an additional charge.
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To find out more about our services and how we work with our members please contact us on 0131 466 3710 or info@scotlandshousingnetwork.org