Formula Consulting was founded by Chris McKellar to bring clear, practical, sector-specific expertise to social housing organisations — with a primary focus on repairs and maintenance.
Chris has worked in and alongside social housing and local government organisations, building deep experience in repairs and maintenance operations, service improvement, performance management, and the practical use of data. He founded Formula Consulting to offer housing organisations the kind of honest, grounded, hands-on support that larger consultancies rarely provide — focused on finding what is not working and making sure it gets fixed.
Formula Consulting's primary focus is repairs and maintenance in social housing. This is where most of our work sits, and where we bring the deepest expertise. We understand R&M services from the inside — the operational pressures, the data challenges, the relationship between contractors and in-house teams, and the ways that small systemic failures compound into significant resident impact.
Our approach begins with diagnosis. We do not arrive with ready-made solutions — we start by understanding what is actually happening in your service, why performance is falling short, and where the real pressure points are. Only then do we work with you to develop and implement improvements that address the root causes, not just the symptoms.
Beyond R&M, we also support organisations with governance and compliance, performance reporting, and policy review — particularly where these touch on repairs and maintenance services. Data sits at the heart of how Chris works. Rather than treating numbers as a reporting exercise, he uses them as a diagnostic tool — interrogating what the data is really saying, identifying what it conceals as much as what it reveals, and using those insights to drive decisions and set direction. In a sector where performance data is often plentiful but poorly used, this ability to move from raw information to clear, evidence-based action is one of the most consistent sources of value we bring.
We also have a growing interest in how AI tools can support housing organisations to work more efficiently and effectively — through socialhousing.ai and direct advisory work. This is an emerging area, and we approach it with the same honesty we bring to everything else: focusing on genuine usefulness, not hype.
Formula Consulting is a small, independent consultancy. You work with Chris directly — not a junior team operating at arm's length from the person you hired.