By John Doyle, CEO, Voicescape.

2021 has been another year that has stress-tested the social housing sector to the limit – whether that’s financial, operational, or from a resource perspective.

The combination of budget shortfalls, shifting economic conditions, Covid-19 recovery, an increase in demand for services, and a greater reliance on self-generated income rather than Government funding, has created a ‘perfect storm’ for social housing income teams – and there’s no immediate signs of this abating.

With the emergence of a new variant, and the reintroduction of more stringent restrictions, the sector looks set to face further challenges as we enter 2022.

The reality is organisations face the unenviable task of collecting more revenue with fewer resources from people with less money – all while protecting resident wellbeing and safeguarding the vulnerable.

Communities and households have seen unemployment rise from an average of 3.8% in 2019 to 5.2% at the height of the pandemic. Whilst unemployment has fallen with the easing of lockdown restrictions, it remains at 4.2% as of October 2021.

Against that backdrop, it’s clear income collection in 2022 will become even more difficult and leadership teams will need to look at innovative and disruptive ways to help them achieve challenging commercial goals next year.

What is clear is that effective engagement with residents will form the foundation of any income collection or debt recovery strategy in the coming 12 months, supported by technology and innovation.

In a recent study by the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, 16% of participating councils were in the process of experimenting with predictive analytics, using machine learning to develop algorithms that can, to a certain extent, predict resident behaviour.

The application to revenue collection is an obvious one and, based on a resident’s previous behaviour, a decision-support system of this sort could calculate the level of risk associated with the case and the most effective intervention to gain engagement.

It’s vital for the sector to understand and act on the voice of the tenant in order to achieve success.

Therefore, the concept of empowering engagement, supported by technology, will be vital in the next 12 months, as leaders look to build the next-generation of services needed to effectively collect revenue and recover debt, whilst supporting colleague and resident wellbeing.