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Nottingham's Decent Homes impact to be assessed (Nottingham Trent University release)

Nottingham Trent University has joined forces with Nottingham City Homes to look at the impact of the government’s 'decent homes' scheme on the city.

The collaboration will be carried out as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP); the first public sector KTP for the university.

Nottingham City Homes (NCH) is responsible for the day-to-day management of around 29,000 rented and leasehold homes on behalf of Nottingham City Council. It provides a range of services including repairs and maintenance, tenancy management, rent collection and tackling anti-social behaviour. It is also responsible for delivering ‘decent homes’, known in Nottingham as the Secure Warm Modern programme. This aims for all social housing to meet a national minimum standard by 2013.

KTPs are sponsored by the government and research councils and encourage businesses to use the knowledge, technology and skills available within the UK’s knowledge base. This £127,000, two-year project will concentrate its research on the Secure Warm Programme and the effect this work has on the local community. The project will benefit from a grant awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Technology Strategy Board.

As part of the KTP, the team from Nottingham Business School will collect and analyse data and information from a range of sources. This will then be used to create a system which allows NCH to assess the outcomes of its work and the wider reaching social and economic effects.

The KTP was initiated by Dr Néstor Valero-Silva, principal lecturer in Human Resources Management at Nottingham Business School, and Amanda Schofield, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Nottingham City Homes.

The university team working on the KTP will include Professor Alistair Mutch, professor of Information and Learning and expert in managing information and knowledge in organisations, as lead academic, and Dr Valero-Silva as academic supervisor. Academic support will be provided by Dr John Buglear, programme leader for Information Management and Systems.

Dr Valero-Silva said:

For NCH, it isn’t about just installing the right amount of windows to reach targets, it’s about how their work really affects people. For example, if they fit new insulation in the houses of elderly people, will this improve their health in the winter and, in turn, save money for the health services? Will improving houses increase the self-esteem of the people who live there and improve communities?

Possible outcomes of this KTP could include the development of a computer system or database, or the setting-up of community groups. However, our main aim is to empower NCH. We won’t just be giving them a system; we’re working closely to transfer knowledge so they can use it in their future decision making.

Amanda Schofield added:

We chose to work with Nottingham Business School because of its wide range of expertise and its focus on applied research to meet the needs of organisations like ourselves. Through this KTP we can evaluate the effectiveness of our expenditure, look closely at what we’re doing and decide where we go from here. It can help us better understand our communities and the impact the Secure Warm Modern programme has on them.

Knowledge gained from the partnership will also be transferred back into the university to inform research, develop case study material for use in teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including the ESRC accredited Doctorate in Business Administration, and produce academic and professional publications.

KTPs are coordinated through the university’s Business, Innovation and Creation team, which helps businesses find a route into the expertise and resources of Nottingham Trent University. For further information contact Nicola Moules or Andrea McCluskey by email at: business.info@ntu.ac.uk

 

For more information on what we are doing at Nottingham City Homes, look at the Secure Warm Modern part of our website. You can also call the SWM team on 0300 333 8100.

(Tue 5 January 09:00:00 GMT)

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