Newlon Housing Trust selects RAM to manage £644 million asset base

Housing Association selects Asset4000 solution to streamline operations for its 7,000 properties and meet component accounting standards

Newlon Housing Trust, a charitable housing association providing affordable homes across north and east London, has selected a fixed asset management soloution from Real Asset Management (RAM) to control its £644m worth of assets in line with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SoRP). Asset4000 presents the housing trust with a robust asset register that provides the component accounting detail required to achieve SoRP, delivering greater transparency of the 70,000 components distributed across Newlon’s 7,000 properties.

Newlon Housing Trust, a ‘not for profit’ housing association, owns or manages affordable homes in eight boroughs in north and east London. These homes are a mix of affordable tenures, housing for people nominated from local authority waiting lists, specialised accommodation for Key Workers and Shared Ownership homes to help people take their first step on the property ladder. Newlon also works in partnership with Outward (part of the Newlon Housing Group) providing housing for people with a wide range of support and care needs.

Commenting on the organisation’s processes prior to the purchase of Asset4000, Meera Dodhia, Business Analyst for Development, comments, “We previously had simple Excel spreadsheets in place where we only needed to detail costs at property level and for any related developments. With the pressing need to meet SoRP legislation, we quickly realised that we required a solution that would be able to manage an increased level of information. Trying to implement component accounting within our existing spreadsheet system would have been unmanageable, resource-hungry and prone to error.”

Dodhia adds, “RAM’s Asset4000 solution will provide us with a comprehensive data set on each property, detailing each individual component within that property, including kitchen, bathroom, living room and electrical equipment. With information stored in this way, at the click of a button we will be able to see the asset value of the property, grants linked to each one, individual items, as well as instant calculations on depreciation costs, all of which will significantly streamline our internal operations.”

With public sector organisations under increasing pressure to make significant cost savings, Newlon Housing Trust will use Asset4000 to incorporate the complexities of component accounting, as dictated by legislative requirements, into its operations without the need for extra resources.

Dodhia explains, “Before SoRP, fixed asset management used to be a very straightforward process. However, the introduction of SoRP has multiplied the work involved in managing our asset base. With the Real Asset Management solution we knew we could meet the multifaceted requirements of the SoRP legislation. The solution will not only improve our year-end reporting and audit processes but also provide efficiency savings as our workload increases.”

Dodhia adds, “Asset4000 is an intuitive solution which is easy to navigate through via drop-down menus. We will also be able to manage the disposal of the old electronic and electrical equipment in our properties correctly through the RAM asset register, ensuring we comply with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Another real benefit of selecting the solution from Real Asset Management is the opportunity to attend forums where other housing associations share best practice as legislative requirements evolve.”

Dodhia concludes, “The Real Asset Management solution offers us increased flexibility when it comes to our fixed asset register and component accounting requirements. As SoRP and other legislation is introduced and new guidelines are put in place, we will be able to adapt the solution to suit. We are still developing as an organisation and are therefore continually adding to our asset base, with plans to upload all the information for our non-housing assets, such as IT equipment, motor vehicles and furniture. As such, Asset4000 will continue to evolve to help Newlon manage its asset data efficiently in one centrally-controlled solution.”