Residents of the London Borough of Redbridge have a new self-service digital repairs system to report their housing repair needs to the council.
The housing repairs software as a service (SaaS) enables Redbridge’s 5,500 to log their repairs 24/7. This means tenants are no longer restricted to traditional call hours or email threads to report issues.
The new software, now live at the council, has been created by Made Tech, a provider of digital, data and technology services to the UK public sector. The firms said the service is easy to use and avoids complex language and unnecessary logins. Tenants go online to log their housing issue and provide their contact details. Confirmation is then immediate via text or email.
“We’re committed to providing a user-friendly, reliable service to the citizens of Redbridge,” said Tom Harrison, programme director at London Borough of Redbridge. “We needed an online housing repairs service that would work smarter for our citizens and fit around their everyday lives. With Made Tech’s help, we’ve now got exactly that. We’ve already had positive feedback from our tenants who like the design, and agree the step-by-step process is really easy to use.”
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Glen Ocskó, head of local government at Made Tech, said forward thinking local authorities like Redbridge are helping to reinvent how housing repairs are delivered to citizens, with data at its centre to help make better-informed, proactive decisions.
“We’ve built an innovative and affordable new product for Redbridge, based on GOV.UK standards, making it more efficient for people to report their housing repair needs. We previously conducted research with community groups, to make the product accessible and easy to use as possible.”
In the future, the council will work with Made Tech to analyse the housing repairs data from the new platform to continue to improve its housing service. It will also extend its plans to provide user centric design for other services within the council.
