CHIC CHAT




What's Happening at CHIC?

 
Annual Report
 
Though we all faced challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, CHIC had a successful year supporting our members and partners. We have highlighted all of the positive outcomes from 2020/21 in a concise report for all of our stakeholders. Click on the link below for a digital copy our Annual Report.
 
 
The report includes performance statistics including our average fees and savings, the launch of our three new services - Facilities Management, Technology Solutions and Decarbonisation & Renewables, our Dynamic Purchasing System and the CHIC Order Management System (COMS).
 
 
 
New Services + Products
 
In the last edition, we announced our three new services as shown above. We continually review and update our services, all supported by underlying frameworks, contracts and DPS solutions, to respond to the requirements of our growing membership.
 
 
Decarbonisation & renewables
Find the solutions you need to help reduce your carbon footprint
 
As the housing sector moves towards the 2030 EPC C target and then progresses to the 2050 zero carbon objective, having a range of innovative advisors, suppliers and contractors will be increasingly important for CHIC’s members.
 
 
 
 
Technology Solutions
Smarter Asset Management Through Technology
 
CHIC recognises that there is an increasing range of smart technology solutions available to our members, to help them deliver great services for their customers. CHIC aims to provide a service that will enable members to access the technology products they need, to make asset management smarter.
 
 
 
 
 
Facilities Management
An essential part of ensuring the upkeep of homes, buildings and neighbourhoods.
 
CHIC’s frameworks and DPS allow our members to effectively manage their assets and estates, ensuring functionality, comfort, safety and efficiency of the built environment.
 
 
 
 
 
These services join our existing suite, all to offer members an asset management one stop shop.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We also updated the descriptions and FAQ’s for all CHIC's services. Click HERE to download our full brochure.
 
 
 
CHIC Products
 
CHIC recognises that we have an extensive list of services and underlying 'products' to offer and it can sometimes be confusing trying to find exactly what you need. As a better way to categorise member options, CHIC has developed CHIC Products. It is now easy to decipher which route to market best suits your requirements, now simply grouped by the related asset management and development works.
 
The CHIC Products below are now live on our website.
 
• Building Safety
• Compliance
• Consultancy
• Decent Homes
• Facilities Management
• Fire Safety
• Legal Services
• Major Works
• Merchant Services
• Minor Improvement Works
• Newbuild & Development
• Planned Materials
• Planned Works
• Telecoms
• Zero Carbon
 
You can search on the website by service, product or key words and find exactly what you need.
 
If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please get in touch with one of the member services team.
 
Stephen Sharman
Head of Member Services (Midlands & South East)
ssharman@chicltd.co.uk
 
Victoria Speakman
Head of Member Services (South West & Wales)
vspeakman@chicltd.co.uk
 
Joanne Heyes
Head of Member Services (North)
jheyes@chicltd.co.uk
 
 
 
Housing 2021 - Manchester
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The CHIC team had a great time showcasing our new services at Housing 2021 earlier this month. We greatly appreciate all of the prospective and current members and supply chain partners who visited our stand during the event. The live demonstrations of the new CHIC Order Management System were received enthusiastically by attendees, who were impressed by the latest features.

We also had a great turnout to the speaking sessions. CHIC team members John Fisher and Luke Hurd had the pleasure of being involved in informative sessions on the Unlock Net Zero stage. CHIC is a founding sponsor of UNZ.

If you were at Housing2021 and didn’t get to speak to a member of the team, or you would like a demonstration of COMS, please send an email to aprice@chicltd.co.uk who will make the necessary arrangements.

 

Procurement

CHIC has recently completed the procurement of our 8 year Digital Asset Delivery Framework for advising, capturing, creating, hosting, and maintaining Digital Assets in respect of the built environment for our members.

Our ambition with this framework was to provide an environment where members can host digital data in one location.  We therefore sought ready-made Digital Asset Management products that comply with the existing records management lifecycle, have enforced metadata standards and sharable internally and externally in a secure and controlled manner with anyone with an internet capability that has a requirement to view or use our data.

We are committed to not only ensuring ‘a Golden Thread of information’ about each of the Higher Risk Residential Buildings (HRRB), public buildings and large venues across our members asset portfolios but also providing support and assistance to them in their journey to get there. Our members key deliverables from Digital Asset Delivery are building safety, intelligent asset management, and future emissions reduction.

We have developed a solution that allows us to manage this content through its lifecycle more effectively and to integrate it with existing systems.  It reflects the trend towards more mobile and flexible working, geared towards internal and external collaboration, and contributes to our commitment to make data open and accessible.

CHIC’s multi-provider framework can deliver our members the following support and services to enable them to transform their physical portfolio into a true Digital Asset – delivering huge value to all relevant users.

The Framework Agreement establishes partnerships with several providers that will have the in-house capability to complete any or all the following categories that we believe will deliver a comprehensive solution to our members.

 

The framework will consist of six Elements, as follows:

  • Element 1 – Digital Advocate
  • Element 2 – Digital Capture
  • Element 3 – Digital Asset Creation
  • Element 4 – Digital Asset Collation
  • Element 5 – Digital Twin Platform
  • Element 6 – Member Specific Development

 

The following organisations are available to access under the above Elements.

PCSG Ltd (Elements 1, 4, 5, 6) - A leading digital built-environment consultancy, always working towards their vision of infinitely smarter futures, unlocking value and building resilience into their projects and day-to-day operations.

Murphys GS (Elements 2, 3) - Captures, collates, verifies and governs geospatial data, providing critical surveys and data their clients need to work with confidence and maximise efficiencies across the project lifecycle. They provide certainty through a combination of three core strengths - people, process and technology.

Vantage UAV Ltd (Element 2) - A Global Drone Services and Solution Company providing viable functional data which allows clients to make informed decisions in a quicker, safer and more efficient way. They allow social landlords to be able to gather detailed building information on their stock to inform what remedial work may be required.

Illumar Ltd (Element 4) – Their housing data enterprise provides a centralised digital hub for data preparation, automation and validation creating a unified data layer - single version of the truth in respect of the data held by individual housing providers. The system provides cleansed data for the creation of Statutory returns and MI reporting.

Panacea Software (Elements 4, 6) - Their award-winning online software offers flexible and intelligent solutions to streamline project management, account management, procurement and reporting.  It improves customer service delivery and gets rid of those low-value, time-consuming tasks so you can focus on your work priorities.

The Framework will provide national coverage across the United Kingdom (UK).  If you would like to find out more, please contact jfisher@chicltd.co.uk

 

 

Staffing

We are pleased to welcome two new members of staff that have joined our team this month.

Joanne Heyes - Head of Member Services (North)

Joanne joins us from Alocura Limited and will be responsible for supporting all of our members in the North of England. She brings previous consortium experience and is looking forward to catching up with old contacts.

Biyageh Barry – Procurement Manager

The latest member of the procurement team, Biyageh has extensive experience in managing large procurement projects. He strengthens our procurement capability, to support members in delivering a range of framework procurements and call off contracts and DPS mini-competitions.

John Fisher, Chief Executive said “CHIC is delighted to welcome Joanne and Biyageh to the team. As CHIC grows we need to recruit experienced staff and continue to provide members with the high levels of service they expect. We now have a complete and appropriately skilled team to move CHIC into its next phase of service development.

 



News from the Sector

Michael Gove replaces Robert Jenrick as housing secretary
 
Prior to this appointment, Michael was previously Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office from February 2020 to September 2021.

Following the mix-up of roles across Government and some speculation about the rushed ‘billion-pound housing scandal’ last year overseen by Robert Jenrick, Michael Gove was confirmed in the top job at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

He will also take on "cross-government responsibility for levelling up" and retains his ministerial responsibility for the Union and elections.

Read More

 

 

More than one in six social homes said to be “uneconomical” to upgrade

A major annual Housing Sector Survey published to coincide with the Housing 2021 conference earlier in the month has revealed some interesting findings around stock investment, with a third of landlords willing to consider selling off inefficient homes due to high retrofit expenses.

138 social housing providers took part in the pool which found that 30% expect the need to increase spending in current stock to affect their development programmes.

It also revealed a shift in priorities within asset management. 85% more respondents believed the building safety and zero-carbon agendas are a top priority compared to the 2020 survey.

Respondents also revealed an expected average cost of £20,600 per home to achieve net zero in existing stock, but 37% of providers have not yet factored these costs into their business plans and almost half say that financial capacity is the biggest constraint on achieving net zero.

Read More

John Fisher, Chief Executive of CHIC echoed the message that “We shouldn't invest a penny in poor housing if it’s not where people want to live” at the Net Zero session discussing the procurement and skills challenge. He also revealed how “The housing sector is data rich but intelligence poor" and without effective use of intelligent data, RPs’ aren’t going to be able to achieve the ambitious decarbonisation goals.

John explained that landlords need to really understand which housing is worth investing in – to achieve low carbon homes that people want to live in and be prepared to see the scale of regeneration increase over the next three decades.

 

 

£270m Green Heat Network Fund has been announced as part of a bid to heat more homes from green sources

The Government’s heat network pot will now, for the first time, only fund heat networks using low-carbon technologies such as heat pumps, solar and geothermal energy.

The fund replaces the Government’s Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP), which provided more than £165m of funding for schemes across England and Wales.

Heat networks ensure heat is distributed to individual homes or workplaces from a central source via pipes, avoiding the need for homes to have their own energy-intensive source of heat generation, such as gas boilers, and play a major part in the plan to transition into net zero by 2050.

The Committee on Climate Change has estimated that around 18% of the UK’s heat supply will need to come from heat networks if the Government is to meet its 2050 net zero target. There are currently around 14,000 heat networks in the UK, which provide heat and hot water to around 480,000 customers.

Read More

 



News from the Supply Chain

Climate change and decarbonisation are often described as the biggest challenges faced by our planet, with changes required in many aspects of daily life to reduce carbon emissions and waste. Large changes to the way we provide domestic heating and hot water will be needed to achieve the ambitious government targets of Net Zero by 2050.
 
The big question for many social housing providers is how to go about reducing carbon emissions and increasing the energy efficiency of existing properties.
 
 
Heat Pump Technology
 
With the government targeting a heat pump installation rate of 600,000 units per year by 2028, it’s clear this technology is seen as a solution for existing properties as well as new build homes.
 
This is why at Ideal Heating, we have launched our new domestic heat pump range for new build, social housing and retrofit homes.
 
With options to suit households of any size, the Alfea Heat Pump has been expertly designed to provide optimum comfort, reliability and efficiency. The flexibility the Alfea affords is unrivalled in the market. It combines a quiet, compact heat pump, an industry leading hot water cylinder – with the fastest reheat times on the market - and a simple and easy to use thermostat.
 
The compact outdoor unit can be located up to 30 metres away from the building, whilst design elements of the indoor unit, including an integrated buffer tank and expansion vessel, help to save space inside.
 
 
 

Hydrogen

The UK government is supporting trials in both hydrogen heating systems and the electrification of heat. However, if and when 100% hydrogen does arrive, it is likely to be rolled out on a regional basis from the mid-2030s onwards.

However, a 20% blend of hydrogen mixed with natural gas may arrive sooner as a stepping stone to 100% hydrogen. Current Ideal domestic boilers are ready to run safely on a 20% hydrogen blend with no technical adjustments, look out for the ‘Ready for 20% Hydrogen’ icon across the Ideal domestic boiler range website and social media:

 

Choosing the Right Heating Partner

What is certain is that there are no one-size-fits-all heating solutions for existing dwellings. Embracing a range of technologies depending on the property will be the key to success. It’s also important to choose the right partner to help you navigate the decarbonisation of social housing.

 

For more information, please get in touch:

Mob: +44 (0) 7583 044745

Email: alanna.hayward@groupe-atlantic.co.uk

Web: https://idealheating.com/contact-us

 



CHIC Conference & Exhibition

CHIC’s annual conference has now been well attended by our members and partners for over a decade, viewed as a great pool for knowledge and networking with like minded individuals from the housing sector.
 
 
 
 
We have shaped our conference around the following three key objectives.
 
 
MEET
 
We have invited attendees from across the housing and construction sectors, from CEOs’ of Housing Associations to technology leads in innovative new products. We encourage networking in our exhibition hall and panel discussions with speakers throughout the day, to create business development opportunities, strengthen relationships and meet like minded people.
 
LEARN
 
The last few years especially have been a learning curve for all, with new rising agenda items like Building Safety and Decarbonisation. We have brought together a wide range of knowledgeable people who want to share with you what they know about essential developments, which can be implemented within your own organisation. Whether you want to update your asset management and development strategies, or just learn something new, this is the event for you.
 
SHARE
 
Best practice examples, years of experience, case studies and lessons learned by others. Our speakers, exhibitors and delegates can use our event as a way to network with the right people and discuss how to tackle emerging challenges. We all have different views and collaboration is essential if we are going to achieve our combined goals.
 
We’ve had a close eye on developments in the market and have listened to your feedback. Our content this year will be focussed on the major issues, challenges and updates from the sector that we feel our stakeholders want to hear about.
 
We will also be announcing our Trainee of the Year Award winners and runners up. If you have any nominees, please contact ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk .
 
If you haven’t yet registered you place, you can do so by clicking the link below:
 
 
 
 
With thanks to our sponsors…
 
Please note that exhibition spaces have now been fully allocated. If you would like to find out more on potential sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch at ccoulson@chicltd.co.uk.