Rural Housing Association Named Amongst Top 30 UK Digital Housing Providers

Rural Housing Association has been recognised as one of Housing Digital’s “Top 30 Digital Housing Providers” in the UK, for our use of technology as a means of maintaining continuity of service and supporting our service users throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  From the outset of the pandemic Rural Housing’s IT Team quickly adapted the organisation’s IT systems to enable staff to work remotely, rolling out specially designed phone apps for all staff to ensure communication between staff and tenants was not disrupted.  Alongside updating IT systems to work effectively from home, our IT team launched a new website replete with both a tenant and staff portal, expanding the range of services available on digital platforms.

Rural Housing Association also successfully acquired funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to launch a Tenant Panel Digital Connections initiative, which will ensure we as an organisation can maintain our communication with rural residents throughout the pandemic (and beyond) using digital platforms. The use of digital technology as a means of engaging rural residents enables those residents who are unable to leave their homes to actively engage with our staff team, as well as develop connections with other residents in rural areas, helping tackle issues such as rural isolation and loneliness.

Entries were judged by a prestigious panel of industry experts including Eamon McGoldrick, MD, National Federation of ALMOs; Caroline Gitsham MBE, Business Consultant for Innovation, Change & Transformation; Brian McIntyre, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Homes England; Phil Morgan, Independent Consultant for Tenant & Resident Involvement; Gillian Stewart, CTO, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government; Andrew van Doorn, CEO, HACT; Mike Brogan, CEO, Procure Plus; & Bethany O’Malley, Digital Manager, CIH.

What the Judges had to say

“Not only did Rural Housing Association make a seamless transition for staff through the COVID-19 pandemic, they managed to launch a new website and customer portal, which shows great achievement and has clearly had a very positive impact on tenants and customer.”

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