Collection of Articles
Below is a collection of news articles which we have produced for our clients, we hope they stimulate discussion and inform conversations, and we always welcome feedback and questions
The Castle Compliance Club is growing and we want you to be part of it!
The Castle Compliance Club is growing and we want you to be part of it! The Castle Compliance Club is the ideal solution for smaller landlords who need support with compliance management. It combines the power of True Compliance's compliance management system, the flexibility of tailoring your own specific compliance needs and Cordery Castle's consultancy support. Joining the club provides access to expertise, tools, chatting with other [...]
The Castle Compliance Club is the ideal solution
The Castle Compliance Club is the ideal solution The Castle Compliance Club is the ideal solution for smaller landlords who need support with compliance management. It combines the power of True Compliance's compliance management system, the flexibility of tailoring your own specific compliance needs and Cordery Castle's consultancy support. Joining the club provides access to expertise, tools, chatting with other club members, and resources to help you [...]
A Practical Review to the ‘Golden Thread’ Question
A Practical Review to the 'Golden Thread' Question The up and coming Building Safety and Fire reform legislation will be relying on pin sharp safety intelligence to work effectively. If there is any ambiguity in the intelligence history may be repeated again. With the existing H&S Working Places, CDM, and FRRO to name three, there should be a data structure to take what is required to meet [...]
10 Good Reasons Why Leaders Choose Cordery Castle to Support and Develop Their Business
10 Good Reasons Why Leaders Choose Cordery Castle to Support and Develop Their Business We provide confidential improvement support in Compliance, Asset Management and Maintenance operations. We offer cost-effective consultancy, project management services, and a cloud-based compliance club to housing providers of all sizes. REALLY GOOD REASONS With many years of housing sector experience, the Cordery Castle team are experts in social housing, and are perfectly placed [...]
Partnering with the Chartered Association of Building Engineers
Partnering with the Chartered Association of Building Engineers We are pleased to announce that Cordery Castle has become an affiliate partner to the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE). With senior managers either full chartered members or working towards their charter, it was a natural step to aline with a shared agenda to impart knowledge, raise standards, and develop professional approaches to the new environment post Building [...]
High Risk Buildings (HRB’s)
High Risk Buildings (HRB's) With the Building Safety Bill/Regime being crafted as we speak I wanted to look at structures. What should constitute a high risk, and how should they be managed? The Bill will mitigate and correct historical statutory direction along with updating current thinking, but how do we mitigate the operational side? Clause 19; within the currently proposed document, defines the meaning of high risk [...]
An all-inclusive & affordable compliance solution for housing providers of all sizes
An all-inclusive & affordable compliance solution for housing providers of all sizes The world has changed, and technology now sits at the centre of most of our days (work and personal). We communicate by texting, emailing, Whats’apping, ‘Tweeting, we watch videos on demand via Youtube, Netflix, we get Alexa to tell us about the weather and switch on and off lights and we listen to music via Spotify…(you [...]
Social Housing Repairs – What shape are you in?
Social Housing Repairs – What shape are you in? The Covid pandemic has put every business under significant pressure with challenges beyond anything we have experienced in our lifetimes or even thought possible. It is no wonder we have all felt the strain as events have unfolded and we struggle to make sense of it all at home and at work. It is understandable that we feel [...]
Social Housing White Paper (SHWP) – The people side of things
Depending on the size of the property portfolio, and the tenure you’ll have slightly different positions on what is coming. But one thing which will be the same for all Associations and Local Authorities will be the tie between the SHWP and the Building Safety Act. As I’ve discussed in previous articles, the need for top-notch data is critical; without this, no matter what staffing structure you have, the management [...]
10 reasons why you should choose Castle Compliance Club
Ten Reasons why you should choose Castle Compliance Club 1. Castle Compliance Club uses the True Compliance software for management and monitoring. This is normally only available to larger providers. 2. True Compliance is a superb system which works with you to present data in a simple to follow format. 3. Castle Compliance Club is NOT JUST a compliance tool, it is backed by Cordery Castle who, [...]
Covid-19 Repairs Backlog
Covid-19 = Lockdown = Backlog = Problem I’m sure like many RPs, during Lockdown, you may have built up a backlog of repair work and are now working with contractors to manage this backlog in a controlled way. In my experience it is very rare for a contractor to admit when extra work will overwhelm his resources and so it falls to the experienced manager to take [...]
True Compliance Partnership
True Compliance Partnership We are pleased to announce a partnership with the leading software provider in compliance recording and monitoring software, offering the system to Landlords who have a small portfolio of properties and were unable to take advantage of the compliance monitoring offered by True Compliance. Through the use of True Compliance systems, we have created Castle Compliance Club to assist the smaller provider with the [...]
Managing Housing Repairs
Managing Housing Repairs Back To Basics Whatever method of providing a repairs service is used by the landlord be it in house, a wholly owned subsidiary or a JV arrangement to mention but a few, most tenants and residents just want a service that delivers on the promises made and carries out the repair in an efficient and professional way. Whether you are using your own directly [...]
National Housing Federation Smaller Housing Association Conference
National Housing Federation Smaller Housing Association Conference An excellent event organised by the NHF each year honed towards the needs of smaller housing providers and the concerns they have with the day to day running of housing provision to their local communities. This year we have been honoured in presenting one of the afternoon sessions to a good audience of senior managers with Richard Cordery and Daniel [...]
Asbestos Inspections
A dart-board on the back of an asbestos covered door Richard Cordery writes:I have spent the bulk of my interim working life trying to make a difference for housing providers with issues big and small. Be it staff, asset, processes, policy, or financial performance, I keep telling myself I’ve seen it all, but time and time again the sector manages to surprise me and take me on a new [...]
National Housing Federation
National Housing Federation Smaller Housing Association Conference An excellent event organised by the NHF each year honed towards the needs of smaller housing providers and the concerns they have with the day to day running of housing provision to their local communities. This year we have been honoured in presenting one of the afternoon sessions to a good audience of senior managers with Richard Cordery and Daniel Maher [...]
Fire Risk Assessment
30 Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) shoved in a drawer does not make you compliant I have spent the bulk of my working life trying to make a difference for housing providers with issues big and small. Be it staff, asset, process, policy, or financial performance I keep telling myself I’ve seen it all. Yet time and time again, the sector manages to surprise me and take me on [...]
GDPR Compliance
GDPR – Not as terrifying as you think! There appears to be a lot of scaremongering surrounding the new data protection guidelines due to come into force on 25th May 2018. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is the new law which will be replacing the Data Protection Act 1998.The focus seems to be on the big fines (20 million Euros or 4% of group worldwide turnover) [...]
Managing Rent Accounts
A consistent approach to managing rent accounts is essential A consistent approach to managing rent accounts is essential. Without it, the ability to fund and carry out repairs is greatly reduced. At Cordery Castle we feel this can be achieved most effectively through bespoke software. Manual processes for managing rents have, over the years, been replaced by computerised systems. However, many small and medium sized housing associations [...]