Issue - meetings

This report provides a budgetary update in respect of the procurement and award of a new Integrated Housing Management IT System contract for a period of four years. The project is anticipated to cost c£600k. 

In order to commence the project in the current financial year a Housing Revenue Account (HRA) supplementary capital estimate of £160k and a virement of £240k from within existing 2020/21 HRA budgets is requested. Provision will be made in the 2021/22 Housing Revenue Account budget for the £200k balance.

Cabinet

            RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL

            The approval of a Housing Revenue Account supplementary estimate of £160k (which equates to a weekly rent of 92p per dwelling) for the costs associated with the procurement and implementation of a new integrated housing management IT system. 

Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

(1)  the virement of £240k be approved from existing budgets - £140k from capital budget x 25 and £100k from revenue contingency underspend;

(2)  the procurement and award of a 2+1+1 Contract be approved to a total value of £500k (inclusive of maintenance and support costs_ of a new Integrated Housing Management System, subject to Full Council approving the above supplementary estimate;

(3)  the ongoing maintenance and support costs for the new system of £50k of which £15k is accounted for within existing budgets be noted.

The Cabinet Member for Residential Services, Councillor Mrs Gregory, introduced this item stating that it updated Cabinet and sought approval in respect of the procurement and award of a new Integrated Housing Management IT System with some of the associated project costs being met from within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget.  The new system would provide greater accessibility to services for tenants and leaseholders. 

The Group Head of Residential Services provided some further background. She explained that the Council had been running the existing system since 2014 and that the current contract was due to expire in November 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic and the necessity to work from home had highlighted a number of system limitations, the conclusion being that the current system was not fit to meet future needs.  The new system would provide the opportunity to implement cloud hosting; a modern customer self-service portal; contractor portal and an integrated document management system. This would result in a reduction of paper used with manual processes being replaced by electronic billing and integrated processes reducing the need for the customer to have to physically visit the Civic Centre.  To start the procurement process, it was confirmed that Full Council would be asked to approve a Housing Revenue Account supplementary estimate of £160k.

The Cabinet Member for Residential Services confirmed that the new system would be a positive for tenants as it would provide them with self-service opportunities that they did not have now.  Cabinet fully supported the procurement and award of the new integrated Housing Management IT System.

Non-Cabinet Councillors outlined that although they were pleased to see advances in technology, they had concerns about investing significant sums into a new system when the existing system had only been procured back in 2014.  There was also concern that the request to approve funding for this scheme seemed to have come out of nowhere and a request was made for the finances to be re-explained as what had been set in the report was confusing.

The Group Head of Residential Services explained the figures involved. She outlined that the current contract expired in November 2021 and so work was progressing twelve months in advance of that date to provide time to implement the new system, so this was a planned process. In terms of the total project cost this was explained by the Group Head of Residential Services and the Financial Services Manager. Having received this explanation, there were non-Cabinet Councillors who insisted to know what the outcomes from this investment would be. It was explained that there were would be greater efficiencies in terms of transactional costs and that the self-service opportunities would provide tenants and leaseholders with a service seven days a week twenty- four hours a day.  Until the system had been running for a period of time, it would not be possible to confirm what tangible savings could be made in respect of staff time and in terms of service delivery. 

Further questions were asked about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 260