Mansfield council to purchase new software to start tackling nearly £1 million in rent arrears

A meeting on Friday, March 7, approved a three-year contract for software designed to streamline how the authority reclaims its rent arrears, starting from next month.

A council report says a current system used to recover lost housing income “has limited capacity to make recommendations, automated measurements and requires manual, time-consuming input”.

Sharon Hoskin, Tenancy Services manager at the council, says on average the authority is owed around £1 million a year in unpaid social housing rent.

The new software makes use of technology including artificial intelligence, meaning the council can solve housing problems more quickly.

The report says: “It reviews tenants’ behaviour and risk before automating every stage of the arrears management process. This frees up officers to focus on other important areas of work, including supporting tenants through early intervention and prevention.”

The new software, called Voicescape, comes with a total annual cost of £71,271 and a one-off implementation cost of £16,844, meaning the 36-month contract will cost the authority £230,657 in total.

Ms Hoskin told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Week-on-week when we look at the whole year, when we open up on week one and then week 52, on average at the end of each week it says [around] £1 million [in unpaid rent].”

After the new software comes into effect, the council hopes to cut the £1 million rent arrears figure by around one quarter by the end of the three-year contract.

Also speaking to the LDRS, Coun Anne Callaghan (Lab), Portfolio Holder for Housing, says there are “all sorts of reasons” for tenants to be in rent arrears.

She said: “When you look at it initially, that seems an awful lot of money for a small housing department.

“When you drill down, there’s all sorts of reasons. Somebody might have been laid off work and they haven’t got it put in place, it will look like they’re not paying- they will – but it will be on a catch-up.

“It’s not just that they’re adamantly not paying their rent.”