A staggering statistic is currently challenging social housing providers and landlords across the UK. 60% of landlords report that ‘no access’ to properties is a growing concern.
New research from the NFA (National Federation of ALMOs) has shown that many councils are having increasing issues of access to tenant homes.
This isn’t just an administrative hurdle; it’s a critical compliance and safety issue. New regulatory requirements – such as the duties outlined in Awaab’s Law – place increasing pressure on housing providers to proactively monitor and audit the state of their properties. Issues with access then become a serious barrier to ensuring safe and healthy homes.
How can you mitigate the risk of damp and mould or intervene in cases of suspected fuel poverty if you can’t get inside?
The answer is to use technology to gather vital data without needing a key.
The Gateway Connect – no appointment necessary
At Chameleon Technology, we understand that solutions for social housing must be both high-tech and human-centric. That’s why we engineered the Gateway Connect, a unique, plug-and-play home energy and environmental monitoring solution.
It’s designed for easy, non-intrusive tenant self-installation, and delivers the insights that landlords need. We’re leveraging our award-winning hardware and market-leading data know-how to provide a stable, end-to-end service with minimal disruption.
The Gateway Connect is posted directly to tenants, and all they have to do is plug it in to a regular wall socket. It then connects wirelessly to a home’s smart meter, transmitting essential home energy and environmental data via ultra-reliable 4G connectivity.
Landlords and Social Housing Provider Benefits
The Gateway Connect transforms the compliance landscape, giving you a powerful, remote data solution for property management:
The Control Centre: Access the Chameleon Control Centre platform for a view of your housing portfolio. This real-time, aggregated data stream helps you track critical environmental factors, like humidity and temperature, so you can spot damp and mould risk before it takes hold.
Compliance & Proactivity: Awaab’s Law and the Renters Rights Bills is driving a move from reactive repairs to proactive maintenance. By identifying properties with unusual energy usage patterns or high humidity, you can preemptively log issues, arrange data-led interventions, and demonstrate compliance with your statutory duties.
Fuel Poverty Intervention: Flag homes where energy usage is unusually low, to identify and intervene in potential cases of fuel poverty.
Tenant and Resident Benefits
The Gateway Connect is also an immediate win for your residents. As the company behind the popular ivie app, we know how important it is to engage with tenants. By offering them something of value for their day-to-day life, it makes them much more receptive of this new device in their home.
They appreciate the personalised value of the ivie app, which uses to the Gateway Connect’s data to help them lower their energy bills. A win for providers, and a win for tenants!
Personalised Insights: Tenants can see their home energy data in the free ivie app, with real-time energy usage, costs, temperature, and humidity data feeds.
Saving Energy & Money: The app provides actionable, tailored advice on where they could be saving energy. It helps them understand and manage their bills, pointing out how to avoid wasting money around the home.
Data Doesn’t Lie: Tenants are more protected when there is real-time data about the state of the property. This drove the need for the likes of Awaab’s Law. Tenants can show that intervention is needed, in cases where landlords are dragging their feet.
Chameleon’s Gateway Connect helps build trust and promotes better outcomes for everyone. It offers a solution that delivers immediate, tangible benefits to residents, while simultaneously resolving a critical operational challenge for providers.
An end-to-end, fully managed service, combining expert insights with incredibly reliable hardware – designed to scale with you as your business and tenant needs change.
It’s time to solve the access problem and secure the future of your social housing compliance.
