1. Better Homes Working Group
Aiming to publish at year end
Chair: Rory Bergin HTA Design LLP.

2. Introduction Five themes of Work
Housing Quality: ‘firmness, commodity and delight’ : Julia Park, LBA
How can the supply chain contribute : David Kowal, Saint-Gobain
How can procurement behaviour help : Jon Wardle, Airey Miller
Why skills matter throughout the delivery chain :Jon Watson, ORCA
How do we describe, deliver and get feedback on appropriate quality

3. Defining Quality It means different things to different people:
Difficult to define and measure, need good proxies
Currently it's all about numbers and not enough about the legacy
NIMBY's care more about the legacy or (quality) than the numbers
Vitruvius probably got it about right 'firmness, commodity and delight'
Firmness – regulation: fire, structure, energy, systems
Commodity – standards: sound, light, ventilation
Delight – design quality, planning, the intangible
“Homes people want to live in”

4. Product Quality
Products can contribute a great deal to perception of quality & liveability
Customers live with products every day
Experience, see, feel, and touch them
Can speed up delivery and sales
Manufacturing has R&D capacity
Plenty of room to innovate

5. Procuring Quality
‘Quality means: Doing it right when no one is looking’ H Ford.
Gaps in procurement mean gaps in quality
Rising tender prices means innovation is needed
We can only deliver what is defined, need clarity from clients on priorities
Alternative forms of procurement may offer benefits
The arrival of the local authorities means that changes are coming
Institutional Investment is on the rise

6. Skills More people leaving industry than joining
Demand on industry to deliver numbers
Evidence that quality of finished product is poor (APPG report)
Maintaining a high value output with a shrinking workforce is difficult
Manufacturing processes require less site-based craftsmanship skills
Factory production can help productivity and quality

7. The Customer Relationship
Inadequate
Develop some proxies for quality that final customers want
Tell customers what they are and how we are providing them
Offer customisation using modern IT
Reassure customers that they matter
Check that we have done what we said we would do: performance, defects
Check that the customer values what we have done

8. The Work Ahead
We welcome more input but we need additional representation from
Build to Rent providers
Local Authorities