What will you learn?

Bob will provide you with a toolkit of resources and best practice examples.

He’ll take you through the FTA process ensuring you …

• Understand the causes of FTA and the impact on the business and customers
• How to prevent/pre-empt the build up of FTA’s (includes actions at end of tenancy, notice, death etc.)
• Dynamic case management: tracking, prioritising, managing the “hard” cases efficiently
• Tools for tracing, low cost debt collection, and working with agents and courts
• Work effectively with the Courts as part of the FTA recovery process.

How to measure success, use data, plan follow up so collections continue steadily.

Who should attend?

Everyone involved in the prevention and collection of former tenant rent arrears, those advising residents on money management and benefit: income and rent arrears officers, housing officers, contact centre staff, estate and neighbourhood management staff, support workers, welfare benefit and debt advisers, and financial inclusion officers.

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.