Decision details

Tenancy Services is under increasing pressure from Welfare Reform and Universal Credit as well as the restrictions put in place by the Government to mitigate against the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. These factors are having a significant negative impact on arrears and collection rates.

The Northgate Housing Management System used for managing rent accounts is not able to identify and prioritise an accurate caseload for Officers creating a significant amount of waste work and meaning tenants that require immediate intervention and support are not always presented for contact.

Mobysoft ‘RentSense’ is an arrears management tool, based on predictive analytics to identify which tenants will 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 undertaken a ‘RentSense’ test with MobySoft. The findings were extremely positive and would improve operational efficiency.

The cost of entering into a minimum two-year contract is £83,250 (Year 1 – inclusive of set up) and £68,238 (Year 2). A return on investment is expected within the first year. The return on investment includes the economic benefit of reduced arrears.

Alternative options considered:

Consideration has been given to further developing the Northgate Housing Management system through use of their new Rent Analytics module however this option has been rejected as the module is relatively new and as yet largely untested.

To award a 2-year contract to Mobysoft for the ‘RentSense’ software.

Reason:

A decision has been taken to exempt this contract from market testing under para 3.10.2 of Contract Standing Orders, as having looked at products in the marketplace and available frameworks, we have not been able to identify any other third-party supplier able to provide a comparable specialist software product designed specifically for social landlords to improve income collection and help reduce tenant arrears.