Identifying business opportunities for a social housing group in the Midlands.

Examples of our Work - Government and Local Authority Market Research

Background

An Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) was set up by a Midlands Council to manage, maintain and improve its council houses and estates.  The organisation is non-profit making and does not pay dividends to any shareholders.  It is 100% owned and controlled by the Council.

PCP was commissioned to help this ALMO to identify areas in which they could develop business amongst both existing customers and the general public.

Objectives

• To establish the current market position of this ALMO.

• To examine traditional perceptions of council housing.

• To examine the potential opportunities if a wider range of services were offered to existing customers.

• To examine the potential opportunities if existing or new services were offered to home owners or tenants with a private or social landlord.

Methodology

A several-stage programme of research was conducted over a period of c6 months:

• Desk research was undertaken to review existing information held by the organisation, including past research undertaken. This helped to ensure that key areas of interest were covered and that there was no unnecessary duplication of existing information.

• Five focus groups were held with current tenants. One discussion was held amongst tenants of each of 4 local offices, comparing satisfaction levels and perceived importance of services by area within the city. A separate discussion was held amongst Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) tenants to check whether their attitudes and requirements differed in any way from those of other tenants.

• A series of 7 face-to-face depth interviews was held to explore possible partnerships with social and private landlords and with the local University. A further interview was conducted with a representative of the Council to establish their reaction to different ways in which the ALMO’s services might be developed.

• Structured interviews were held with 300 existing tenants and 100 leaseholder/right-to-buy tenants to quantify their perceptions of the organisation, the likely level of interest if new services were offered and the price they would be prepared to pay for them.

• Structured interviews were held with 200 home owners to check their likely reaction if offered repair, maintenance and other services, either under the name of the ALMO itself or as a private property management company. 

• Structured interviews were held with 50 University students to check their views on their current accommodation, any requirements not currently being met and their attitude to the concept of living in accommodation provided by the ALMO.

Outcome

A presentation and detailed report was issued summarising the key findings. Attitudes and profiles were obtained for all key groups. The other Housing Providers identified several respects in which they would be interested to work in partnership with the ALMO.

The report included estimates, under agreed assumptions, of the likely number of users which each of a list of possible new services might generate, differentiating between existing tenants and general residents. An estimate was made of the revenue which each potential new service might be expected to generate.

On completion of the research, the ALMO agreed to present to the Council proposals for the development of several of the more promising extensions to the services.