London Borough of Redbridge adopts user-centric housing repairs service
Sam Birchall
Residents of the London Borough of Redbridge are benefiting from a new digital repairs service that allows them to report their housing repair needs to the council via self-service.
The new platform, which is now live, provides Redbridge’s 5,500 council tenants with an efficient and convenient way of reporting their housing issues 24/7, without the traditional restrictions and complications imposed by call hours or email threads. Tenants can only request one repair at a time, and will receive confirmation of their logged issue via text or email.
The software has been created by Made Tech, a provider of digital, data and technology services to the UK public sector.
A user-centred service
Tom Harrison, Programme Director at London Borough of Redbridge said: “We’re committed to providing a user-friendly, reliable service to the citizens 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.”
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.”
Redbridge council will be working with Made Tech to analyse the housing repairs data in order to make further improvements to the new service. It will also be extending its plans to provide user centric design for other services within the council.
