The HIP: The Housing Industry Podcast
The housing crisis looms large. The UK’s crying out for housing stock, and new builds can play a huge role in the recovery. Diversity and inclusion is finally getting the attention it deserves at a strategic level. Although there’s plenty of work still to do. And environmental concerns are taking centre stage, with time running out to reach ambitious targets in net zero carbon emissions. Suffice to say, the UK housing sector is going through a period of great change right now. With everything developing at such a pace, it can be hard to keep your finger on the pulse. That’s why we’ve launched The Housing Industry Podcast. Featuring lively conversations with key leaders in the housing sector, The Housing Industry Podcast will provide real value to anyone working in the UK housing market who cares about making a difference.
The HIP: The Housing Industry Podcast
Boris Worrall, Chief Executive of Rooftop Housing Group
Communicating the right way and coming from a place of empathy can help to
maintain good relationships with customers. This is why Rooftop Housing is focusing on the basics and avoiding ‘holding customers at arm’s length’.
In this episode, we speak with Boris Worrall, Chief Executive of Rooftop Housing Group. Boris has an eclectic range of experiences from 8 years in journalism to 5 years in the Home Office and now with over 10 years experience in housing.
We talk at length about Boris’ journey into housing and how his other experiences have shaped him as a leader in the housing sector. He gives insights into the transition into the sector and the additional skill that he had to level up in. Boris took the reins from a Chief Executive who’d held the position for the previous 20 years. He gives us a look into his action plan for modernising the organisation and speaks on what they got right and wrong during that process.
We talk about Rooftop’s digital transformation and the challenges that they’ve faced with providing efficient service while tempering expectations. Boris shares how Rooftop is focusing on the basics and giving customers what actually matters to them and supporting them in the way that they need it.
Boris explains Rooftop’s USP of culture and values and the ‘feel’ of working at the organisation. We ask Boris how Rooftop’s experience has been with striking the right flexible working balance and balancing high performance with flexibility. And finally, Boris gives us his views on the CIH qualification and what’s next for Rooftop and the sector as a whole.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Boris’ journalism experience shaped him as a leader.
- How Boris went about modernising Rooftop and shedding its ‘local authority skin’.
- Giving customers what actually matters to them.
- Getting key customer-centric messages across to tradespeople.
- How has Rooftop tackled flexible working?
- Balancing high performance with flexibility.
- How is Rooftop continuing to build enough homes?
- How do we make housing a career of choice and why is it such a challenge with our sector?
- The CIH qualification and what it means for the sector