Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank has launched a prepaid card scheme for housing benefit payments. A&L’s prepaid card payments solution is being implemented following the Government’s scheme to transfer payment of housing benefit to claimants, as opposed to their landlords. Local authorities are expected to save up to 75 per cent of housing benefit processing…
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Finance Management
Acquisitions – good or bad for the industry?
With the planned acquisition of IBS OpenSystems by Capita and the earlier acquisition of Northgate by US-buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (see the May edition of Housing Technology), are these good for social housing organisations? On the one hand, the new owners of IBS and Northgate are both likely to have greater funds to support…
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Decent Homes in Cambridge
Cambridge City Council is on target to achieve the Decent Homes standard following its implementation of Anite’s Codeman asset management software, with all of the council’s 7600 social housing properties expected to meet the Government’s minimum requirements by 2010. Cambridge City Council is upgrading to the latest version of Codeman which offers a improved mobile…
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High-street payments service combats financial exclusion
Woolworths has signed with Allpay.net to provide bill payment services in its 820 high-street stores, enabling customers that receive bills from Allpay.net clients, which include housing associations and local councils, to now make their payments at the cashtill in any Woolworths store, using cash or a debit card. Customers will use an Allpay.net swipe card,…
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E-procurement at Wandle Housing
Wandle Housing Association has overhauled its procurement systems to deliver tighter budgetary control, better financial reporting and faster ordering. Wandle, which owns and manages more than 5600 properties in 11 London boroughs including Bromley, Croydon, Lewisham and Wandsworth, was hampered by an old and inflexible purchasing system. While Wandle’s accounting process was very efficient, with…
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Community Housing Group takes IBS
Worcestershire-based Community Housing Group is focusing on streamlining its internal processes and improving customer service following the signing of a £100,000 contract with IBS OpenSystems. With 5500 homes around Kidderminster, Bewdley and Stourport, Community Housing Group expects to see efficiency gains in its processing of invoices, payroll, job contracts, timesheets and other internal processes when…
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