Gloucestershire’s Homeseeker Plus to go live in September
Locata has won a G Cloud Tender process for the delivery and management of the systems driving the Gloucestershire Homeseeker housing scheme. The scheme will change its name and relaunch as Homeseeker Plus on September 7, 2016 with a new partner, responsive website and upgraded housing system. West Oxfordshire DC has joined the original six […]
Three more schemes go live with Mobile App
Three more schemes are now live with the Locata Mobile App that helps customers bid for homes. Monmouthshire, First Choice Homes Oldham and Cheshire West & Chester have joined existing users Kent and West London in using a bespoke mobile app that is individually branded to their own standards. Customers can download the app from […]
Locata’s Spring Housing Event attracts wide support
Housing officers from more than 25 local authority and housing association organisations in the North West attended Locata’s inaugural Spring Housing Event in Manchester on May 20. Andy Gale, Housing Consultant and former DCLG Practitioner Adviser for local authorities, was the key note speaker. He discussed the new prevention of homelessness duty on English local authorities […]
New duty to prevent homelessness is likely to be introduced soon
The Government is looking increasingly likely to introduce a new prevention of homelessness duty on English local authorities, according to Andy Gale, Housing Consultant and former DCLG Practitioner Adviser for local authorities. “All the public evidence suggests the issue is ‘when’ the change will happen and not ‘if’,” he told delegates to Locata’s Spring Housing […]
Kent is all a Twitter about Facebook
LHS can now help its partners deliver social media services to their customers. The Kent Homechoice website has recently launched Twitter and Facebook accounts to help the scheme communicate with its customers. Kent scheme partners also receive useful feedback from applicants about the services they provide via the social media accounts. In the first three […]
Royal Borough upgrades its customer services
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is working with LHS to improve its on-line services to customers. The council went live with the LHS Homeless Prevention and Advice Manager earlier this year and is currently finalising an upgrade to its allocations system. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead transferred all its housing stock […]
Swale Daily Bidding pilot a big success
Void times have been reduced by a third in Swale Borough Council during a four month pilot testing Daily Bidding. Most choice based lettings systems run on a two weekly cycle. However, Kent Homechoice believed daily bidding on properties could bring many benefits for both customers and the scheme partners. From initial concept, LHS delivered […]
Manchester Move gets homes moving
Manchester has successfully handled more than 75,000 bids for 1,400 advertised properties in its first three months of operation. LHS built the Manchester Move website that launched in February and replaced the previous Homefinder system in the city. Two years in development, the site uniquely uses a simple traffic light system to give customers an […]
West Berkshire go “paperless”
West Berkshire Council Housing team has gone “paperless” using LHS systems. An estimated 80,000 documents linked to more than 5,000 housing applicants have been scanned and loaded in the LHS back office. Housing staff went live with the new system in April 2011 and are now enjoying a massive reduction in the storage space required […]
Derbyshire shortlisted for MJ Awards
Derbyshire Home-Options Partnership has been shortlisted for a national award for its work providing housing applicants with personalised help and advice. The Derbyshire scheme was the first in the country to use the LHS My Gateway service. This allows housing applicants to see personalised information when they log on to their on-line housing application. This […]