RentSense helps South Lakes reduce arrears and create capacity to deal with welfare reform
South Lakes Housing was a stock transfer from the South Lakeland council in 2012, prior to which it as being run as an ALMO. It has around 3,000 properties spread across the Lake District, in Southern Cumbria.
Highlights
3K
Properties
2.5 FTE
FTE Capacity Created
24%
Arrears Reduction
A short conversation with South Lakes’ Income Manager, Simon Hughes, about why they invested in RentSense the benefits it has helped deliver.
Mobysoft:
What was income collection like prior to RentSense?
Simon Hughes:
At that time South Lakes had generic housing officers and the prospect of having to check all 3,000 accounts, would have wasted a considerable amount of time. With the transition to four weekly HB we just wanted to see and action cases that needed our attention.
Mobysoft:
What was the initial impact of RentSense for the officers?
Simon Hughes:
Back then, before RentSense, officers were looking at all their accounts in the HMS, checking for arrears, but after deployment of RentSense they were looking at just 25% of their patch. So straight away we could see the benefits.
Mobysoft:
You moved from a generic to specialist housing model, did RentSense help with this transition?
Simon Hughes:
We moved to three income officers who looked after 3,000 rent accounts. At that time RentSense was recommending about 500 cases a week across the team. This meant the officers were focused on their cases, which they got through by mid-week, in turn this freed up time for visits and so forth later in the week. Both then and now I believe without RentSense we would need another 2-3 FTE to simply cope and manage with income collection, it is that important.
Mobysoft:
You recently transitioned to a new HMS, and it was believed the vendor could help you replicate RentSense?
How did the move to the new HMS go with re-deploying RentSense?
Since making the move to the new HMS RentSense has really bridged the gap for us, indeed it (RentSense) was one of the smoothest parts of making the transition (to a new HMS). For us this was really important and Mobysoft coped really well with the whole process.”
Simon Hughes, South Lakes Housing
Simon Hughes:
I would say that in the future if we were looking to change our HMS again I would want demonstrable evidence that the system could deliver similar results to RentSense before committing to it
View of South Lakes offices by Stramongate Bridge, crossing the river Kent In Kendal, the Lake District
Mobysoft:
It has been a time of change for South Lakes with welfare reform, transitioning from a generic to a specialist income collection team as well as deploying a new HMS how has RentSense helped with this?
Simon Hughes:
Since 2016 our arrears have fallen from 2.08% to 1.76% in 2017 to 1.33% in 2018 and RentSense has certainly helped with that. We have maintained upper quartile performance throughout using RentSense. Of our 3,000 tenancies over the last nine to ten months the officers have only had around 120 cases a week to look at, which really plays a part.
Mobysoft:
Would you recommend RentSense to other organisations?
RentSense has really helped, without it I am convinced our arrears would be in a much worse state, and it is consistently saving us 2-3 FTE. Yes, I have and I do. I have lost count the number of organisations I have spoken to. We are happy and it works well for us
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