Decision details

Tenancy Services continues to face increasing pressure from the Welfare Reform and Universal Credit Programmes as well as Cost-of-Living Crisis facing the Country due to high inflation and increasing levels of interest charged on borrowing. These factors can have a significant negative impact on arrears and collection rates.

Mobysoft ‘RentSense’ is an arrears management tool, based on predictive analytics to identify where to focus early support for tenants who fall into arrears. MobySoft has a proven track record analysing rent payment patterns for more than 1.6 million social housing tenants and their ‘RentSense’ software solution is used by more than 170 social landlords. Tenancy

Services have been working with MobySoft and its product Rentsense for the past three years. The findings are extremely positive and have underpinned current levels of operational efficiency. Rent arrears have seen a reduction of £94,979 from April 2023 to January 2024, which is significant against the challenging financial constraints in the UK at this time.

Alternative options considered:

Consideration has been given to further developing the Northgate Housing Management system through use of their Account Analytics module. This would in the long-term rationalise the number of separate software systems the Council uses (day to day). It is proposed that during 2024/25 the Council will begin operating Account Analytics allowing 12 months to develop the software and ensure its effectiveness, providing a direct comparison

of Rentsense and Account Analytics and each providers overall performance in this field.

To exempt this contract from market testing, under para 3.10.2 of

Contract Standing Orders, and to award a 12-month contract to Mobysoft Ltd with a value of £80,629.

Reason:

This is in the best economic interest of the Council and will enable continuous

management of rent arrears.