Gina Tomlinson

Group Research Manager

GIS at Places for People

Introduction

• Quick introduction – Places for People and Research & Planning Team

• Places for People’s GIS timeline….ups and downs!

• GIS to inform community investment work

• The future

• Four main companies: - PFP Homes - PFP Individual Support - Cotman Housing - Castle Rock Edinvar

• Approximately 63,000 properties

• From Stirling to Isle of Wight

• Concentrated in North West, West Yorkshire and North East.

Places for People

Research and Planning

GIS Timeline

• Late 2006/07 – bought GIS.

• Cadcorp – Map Modeller

• 3rd party to administrate & develop Intranet GIS

• GIS Analyst started in May 2008.

• Mainly research purposes

• Feb 2009 – took down Intranet GIS

• December 2009 – reached a sticking point – new business plan!

• April 2010 – bought Cadcorp GeognoSIS Editor for the Intranet.

• Allowed some people access as test users

• September 2010 – became friends with IT!

• February 2011 – GeognoSIS launched companywide

• April 2012 – Grounds maintenance mapping project commenced

Intranet GIS

GIS Users

Data

Community Investment

• Our approach to Corporate Responsibility

•Everything we do is ethical and responsible

•We aim to protect the environment

•We invest in products and services that help people prosper

•Awards

•BITC Corporate Responsibility Platinum

• One of the most responsible businesses in the UK

•BITC Big Tick

• Awarded for our innovative approach to neighbourhood planning

• Recognises excellence in community investment

AKABA

“If we could find out the level of worklessness amongst people with mental health issues in the African and African Caribbean communities that would be perfect!”

CESP Funding

• Funding reducing Carbon Emissions and alleviating Fuel Poverty

• Pay for double glazing, loft insulation, cavity wall, gas fires etc

• Combined CESP data with existing asset data to assess where funding could be applied for.

Stock Organisation - Creating Neighbourhoods

Scheme codes to neighbourhoods • 591 defined neighbourhoods covering ~56,000 stock

• ‘virtual neighbourhoods’ covering the rest

Neighbourhood Planning

• Neighbourhood planning areas are designed to take a holistic approach to improving neighbourhoods rather than just the built environment.

• Need to place our small neighbourhoods in context

• Used to highlight areas of major differences and think about why

Age Profile in Whinfield

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Whinfield Darlington 003A All Darlington

• Nearest Neighbour• Number of other

properties within• Distance to major office

• Added with long term void info

• Other financial info

• ‘Competitor’ maps for mergers, acquisitions, stock swaps etc

Stock Rationalisation – Strategic Uses

Using land registry titles to find unused land.

Understanding What’s Ours

Green Spaces

Customer Consultation

Getting to grips with the Open Data revolution

• GIS budget more than halved since 2009/10

•Working with partners such as Emapsite to explore the raft of freely available data out there

•Danger of data overload

•Need to think about the issue you are trying to tackle and what data you need rather than “I have this data now what can I do with it?”

•Need to understand the data available

•Role of GIS & Information Officer is to interpret and ‘add value’ to the data freely available

Lessons Learnt

• Have a reason for buying GIS and doing GIS projects

•Learn from others – GI4Housing, Ordnance Survey Housing Case Studies

• GIS needs looking after, it won’t run itself

• Dedicated role

• Support from IT

•Pitfalls of using consultants

• Keep it simple!

The Future for GIS at Places for People

• 26.11.12 – New GIS & Information Officer started

•Priorities: -

•Grounds maintenance project

•E-services – possibly online allocations with mapping front end

•Expansion of the functionality of the intranet GIS

•Expansion of GIS user base