Cutting-edge technology serves up home improvements | Project Scotland

A company helping housing associations across the country to alleviate their properties of damp and mould has told Project Scotland that its main objective is to no longer be in existence.

“That would mean that the housing crisis has been solved,” Usman Ashraf, head of commercial and business development at SureserveAsset Services, explained. “We’re a long way away from that, however.”

Through its use of cutting-edge technology combined with a holistic approach, Sureserve Asset Services is working with a number of housing associations across the UK to bring properties into liveable conditions – including a sizable number of pre-1919 properties in Glasgow city centre.

Among the innovations in use is the Giraffe360 camera, which combines visual, spatial, and data elements of properties to intuitively understand conditions within the building and create a 3D model of the property – featuring embedded thermal images alongside relevant data.

Environmental sensors provide real-time monitoring of a range of different environmental factors in properties including temperature, humidity and CO2 to provide a holistic understanding of the conditions.

The environmental data collected is supplemented with predictive AI technology, which is capable of flagging potential environmental risks, which Sureserve Asset Services explained can make it easier to manage an entire portfolio of properties. Issues such as susceptibility to damp and mould can be identified, and insights into how a property’s energy consumption can be optimised can also be provided.

Furthermore, the firm’s digital twins technology can identify the most energy efficient settings for properties, with simulations and analysis allowing clients to asses various settings which can be configured to activate automatically when certain environmental conditions are met.

The data is presented via a virtual interactive map, with Sureserve Asset Services explaining that presenting properties in a geographical context – as opposed to in rows and columns – can lead to easier identification of patterns.

The final condition report, which is created within 28 days, is presented in 11 distinct sections, which helps ensure clients are fully equipped to take care of their property and protect their investment, with it being backed up by a series of recommendations from the business based on data and tailored to each individual property.

“By monitoring with technology, you can get data sets that specifically show how a property is performing,” Usman explained. “Without that, you’re making an assumption. What we want is everybody to see what that data is and put measured selections for what exactly is required to make that property up to a good standard.”

Sureserve Asset Services has secured a place on the Procurement for Housing Social Housing Emerging Disruptors Framework (PfHSHED), which is an acknowledgement of both the innovation and potential of the firm’s solutions, as well as the company’s main route to market and a way for many of the housing associations it will work with to find them.

Not only have the solutions impressed housing associations, but also tenants as well. Usman explained the tenant journey is ‘always number one’ when utilising the technology. “We’re generally really liked by tenants because of the amount of information we can gather effectively, in an efficient manner, (and) without the need for going back,” he added.

A particular hit with tenants has been the infra-red panels. Discreetly fitted to ceilings and/or walls, the innovation can be painted over and delivers a heat similar to that of the sun on a hot summer’s day – as Project Scotland experienced first-hand during a visit to a trial property.

“With infra-red we can heat rooms rather than the entire property,” Usman added. “An air source heat pump would have to heat the whole house to be effective, whilst with infra-red panels you can do that room-by-room, which is important as unfortunately in social housing there’s always a cost-of-living crisis.”

The inability for many to adequately heat their home is a real driver in the upsurge of damp and mould being found in properties, Liam Keeble, technical services manager, explained, before telling of the desire to rectify this. “The whole team has the same drive; it’s a commercial enterprise, but we want to feel like a social one.”

In the year ahead, Sureserve Asset Services is looking forward to continuing its work in Scotland having recently taken on an additional 20 properties for a prominent social housing provider in Glasgow as part of a trial. The firm also has hopes to make further inroads into the English market, with the ultimate goal of putting an end to poor living conditions.