Maryhill Housing Association
The Problem
Longstanding worries about the sustainability of a group of tower blocks, and an impending decision on substantial investment. A sense that they probably were sustainable – but how to test that robustly without the kind of review process that can create a fog of information, rather than clarity, and start to swallow time and money?
How We Helped
A desk-top option appraisal, using information available from systems and knowledge within the organisation, readily available external information, and our own substantial experience of such situations. We followed the best-practice principles of option appraisal, which include making sure you focus your analytical effort on those aspects which might realistically lead you to make a different final choice.
The Outcome
As is often the case, when you do option appraisal correctly, the right way forward does emerge clearly from the pack – in this case, retention and investment, and some pointers on future management strategy for the blocks. As a bonus, in some positive feedback for the association, we were able to show that their thoughtful approach to managing the blocks in the last few years had resulted in them out-performing their own historic business planning assumptions for the blocks; well done Maryhill!