Housing associations

How OCL Reclad and its trusted supplier – Valcan, combined specialist delivery and product expertise to improve facade fire performance while preserving the character of an occupied residential building, in the heart of London.

For housing providers, a recladding project brings responsibilities that reach well beyond the external walls. Residents need to continue living in their homes, existing defects may only become apparent once work starts, and replacement materials must suit the building as well as the brief. At Inglewood Mews, these challenges made collaboration between OCL Reclad, Valcan and the wider project team central to delivery and project success.

Anti-social behaviour is one of the most difficult and persistent challenges faced by social housing providers.

For residents, the consequences can be profound. Persistent noise, intimidation, harassment, drug-related activity, damage, nuisance or the regular presence of unwanted visitors can affect not only quality of life, but a person’s sense of safety in their own home.

For housing professionals, however, there is another problem: evidence.

With the latest Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) guidance placing greater focus on Falls Between Levels, now is the time for housing providers to review their opening window safety measures and assess what the updated guidance means, and is having a restrictor fitted adequate.

The HHSRS provides a useful reminder that housing safety is about identifying and managing risk, rather than simply ticking off products or features. HHSRS covers 21 potential hazards, including Falls Between Levels: falls from one level to another, such as through a window where guarding or edge protection is too low or defective.

Premiere Kitchens has invested £3.25m in new manufacturing equipment for its Gloucester factory to give housing providers greater certainty across planned works, new-build and fast-moving void programmes.
For social landlords, manufacturing capacity matters most when it removes risk from a programme. A kitchen arriving late can hold up several trades, extend a void period and adding cost before a property is ready to let.

Tough metal pipe boxing from UK Boxings is installed in a diverse range of social housing projects to conceal exterior services, such as gas supply and low carbon distributed heating pipework as well as pipes and systems associated with ground source or air source heat pumps.

The social housing sector is presenting an ever growing list of challenges to providers. Increasing demands from building safety standards, decarbonisation targets and consumer regulation mean that budgets are being stretched further than ever before. The recent end of ECO4 funding and the introduction of new regulations such as Awaab’s Law only scratch the surface of considerations landlords across the UK will now need to consider as part of their wider business strategy.

IVC Commercial exhibited at Manchester’s Housing 2026, showing providers, builders and specifiers how its sheet vinyl floors can meet the demands of affordable housing.

IVC Commercial exhibited at Housing 2026, showcasing its dedicated social housing collections that are affordable for providers and developers, and which have the ability to improve lives for tenants.