Members of the National Housing Federation and UK BIM Alliance are collaborating on a joint project to help housing associations implement digital asset management.
This week we launched an introductory brochure, ‘BIM for housing associations: Asset management in the 21st century’. You can download the four page brochure from the NHF website here.
JPL Project Managing
The project team is led by Jack Ostrofsky, Head of Quality and Design at Southern Housing Group, and funded by A2 Dominion, Notting Hill Genesis, Peabody, Optivo and Southern Housing Group – all members of G15, the group of London’s largest housing associations who own or manage more than 600,000 homes.
I met Jack Ostrofsky in 2018 whilst I was working on the UK BIM Alliance document ‘A Fresh Way Forward for Product Data: State of the Nation’ and we both attended one of the Industry Response Group meetings to talk about the challenge of dealing with the cladding issues after Grenfell. Jack was developing the idea for helping housing associations of all sizes benefit from BIM and had come up with the idea of developing a suite of resources and guidance specifically for them, based on best practice in the sector and supported by experienced consultants.
I was delighted when he and Lloyd Connors (who was also in the Product Data Working Group) asked me to project manage the BIM for Housing Associations project, and we’ve come a long way in the last year or so. The brochure launched this week is the first step in talking about what we’re doing – an initiative which has already involved people from 36 different organisations.
Digital Asset Management
The implementation of digital asset management by housing associations is a key step in meeting the requirements of the new Building Safety Regulatory System which will require those responsible for certain buildings to, in essence, prove that they are safe. It will also help drive the implementation of genuinely interoperable data management in construction, something which will bring huge benefits to all, but will also disrupt the construction industry substantially.
If you’d like to get involved in the project, especially if you work for a housing association, you can contact the email address in the introductory brochure.

More about the Project
In the context of the Grenfell Tragedy, the Hackitt Review and the recent draft Building Safety Bill, pressure is growing to manage the creation, handover and retention of vital building and fire safety information, as a minimum.
BIM (Building Information Modelling) is the managed scoping, production, checking and delivery of digital asset information. BIM can therefore help associations meet and maintain a building safety case, but it will also bring other benefits. An accurate and reliable information model will ease procurement and handover, assist asset management and reduce cost and waste.
However, whilst housing associations are well placed to benefit from integrating BIM processes into their development and asset management strategies, few hold sufficient information about their projects, and even fewer in digital form.
This project is developing a set of exemplar documents, compliant with the latest ISO 19650 processes, which together with a report will provide a quick start guide to implementing digital processes. They will cover:
- The business case for BIM for housing associations, including examples of projects in action.
- The benefits of applying BIM processes to existing buildings.
- Exemplar Asset Information Requirements for asset management.
- Exemplar Exchange Information Requirements for development projects.
- Advice on the procurement process and appointment of relevant professionals.
The project brings together participants from across the housing sector and from industry including asset managers from associations of all sizes, with support from those working in the field including architects, engineers, BIM consultants, and contractors. The project is further endorsed by the National Housing Federation and the UK BIM Alliance, a cross-industry body dedicated to the practical implementation of digital processes in construction and infrastructure.
The project has been underway since 2019 and is aiming to publish its suite of documents towards the end of 2020.
Working Groups are chaired by Varun Soni (Head of BIM, Calfordseaden llp), Shaun Kelly (Head of Technical, Quality and Compliance, Altair Ltd) and Lloyd Connors (Former Head of Information Management, Airey Miller, now Head of IT at Homes for Lambeth). The Project Manager is Su Butcher (Director, Just Practising Ltd). Thirty-six organisations have so far participated in the production of the guidance.
More information and contact details can be found by visiting the UK BIM Alliance Website.
The end goal is to produce a toolbox that enables BIM for residential.