This workshop takes a practical look at how arrears are prevented, managed and resolved across the tenancy journey. Rather than focusing only on debt recovery once arrears have already built up, the session explores how services can create stronger foundations from the start of the tenancy, identify issues earlier, manage accounts more purposefully and sustain better outcomes over time.

The workshop will consider how income teams can strengthen expectations around rent, improve consistency of approach, make better use of customer information, prioritise workload more effectively and hold conversations that lead to realistic agreements. It will also look at how services can reduce avoidable demand, improve follow-up, maintain useful case records and build a stronger evidence base for decision-making, performance monitoring and continuous improvement.

The emphasis throughout is on practical operational improvement rather than theory. Delegates will be encouraged to reflect on how their own services currently operate, where inconsistency or avoidable pressure may arise, and what small changes could improve income collection, tenancy sustainment and customer engagement.

The workshop is suitable for income officers, housing officers, team leaders and managers who are involved in rent collection, tenancy sustainment, arrears prevention, account management or service improvement.

What the workshop will cover?

The session will explore:

• How arrears develop across the tenancy journey, from pre-tenancy through to live tenancy management and the end of tenancy
• How clearer expectations, stronger payment culture and better customer information can reduce avoidable arrears
• How to design more consistent income management approaches across teams, policies, processes and performance measures
• How to manage live accounts more purposefully, including early intervention, follow-through, realistic arrangements and case reviews
• How prioritisation and Pareto thinking can help teams focus effort where it is most likely to make a difference
• How to structure income conversations using light-touch negotiation principles without making conversations feel scripted or process-led
• How to secure more realistic promises to pay and support agreements so they have a better chance of holding
• How better recording and evidence can support continuity, proportionality, legal readiness, performance improvement and service learning.

By the end of the workshop, delegates will be better able to:

• Recognise where income management outcomes are shaped across the tenancy journey
• Identify opportunities to improve prevention, early intervention and account management
• Reflect on whether current activity is genuinely changing outcomes or simply maintaining process
• Strengthen conversations so they lead to clearer expectations, realistic agreements and more purposeful follow-up
• Consider practical ways to improve consistency, evidence, case quality and service learning within their own organisation.

Bob Heaney, Social Housing Income Specialist and Trainer

Bob Heaney is an experienced housing professional, business trainer, and energy consultant, with a specialist focus on income recovery, rent collection, and tenant engagement in complex cases.

With over a decade of frontline experience, Bob has worked directly with tenants facing high-level arrears, non-engagement, and financial crisis – supporting sustainable payment plans while also managing litigation and enforcement where necessary. His approach is rooted in the belief that well-supported tenants, clear communication, and practical negotiation lead to better outcomes for both landlords and residents.

Bob grew up in social housing in Glasgow’s East End, and combines lived experience with professional insight drawn from years of housing practice, behavioural training, and business consultancy. This gives him a rare ability to connect with housing teams and tenants alike, translating complex challenges into workable strategies.

His training style is straight-talking, motivational, and grounded in reality. Drawing on principles from behavioural science, negotiation frameworks, and motivational interviewing, Bob helps income teams improve performance under pressure – whether managing current tenancies, recovering historic arrears, reducing evictions, or navigating welfare reforms as well as undertaking court action and evictions.

Bob has supported housing providers through the uncertainty of the pandemic and the shifting landscape of legislation, helping teams stay focused on what works. He has delivered workshops for local authorities, housing associations, and private sector organisations, equipping staff to have more positive conversations about rent, manage arrears assertively and empathetically, and reduce the need for court action.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and believes passionately in delivering social housing services with a business brain and a social heart.