Promoting their new site

Hounslow Homes, a new partner of Looking Local, officially launched their site last Friday with a launch event in west London. Led by their Chief Executive, Bernadette O'Shea, their site was launched to the media, housing colleagues and public sector partners, showing their commitment to DiTV and mobiles as new public facing channels.

Hounslow Homes showed the delegates a TV version of their Looking Local service live on a large TV, as well as setting up a data projector to show the web view. A second plasma linked up to a Nintendo Wii gave people the opportunity to see how easy Looking Local was to use via the specifically designed Wii interface.

To celebrate the launch of the site, Hounslow Homes had a DiTV cake commissioned and handouts printed to explain to the audience how and why DiTV and mobile was being deployed. Looking Local's David Stansfield gave a presentation to show the adaptability and scope of what Looking Local's solution can offer to both the digitally excluded and those in the community whole rely on their mobile phones for communication and access.

The Hounslow Homes site offers a wide range of services including real time choice based lettings, FAQs about rent and money management, the ability to report repairs and maintenance issues, local news and events - including a great opportunity to get the local residents involved in a local gardening course - and the ability to request a wide range of account options. They also have taken up the ability - available to all Looking Local partners - to offer access to the national initiatives by Jobcentre Plus, NHS Choices, Starthere and Transport Direct.

Hounslow Homes has bought a Looking Local Quickcode allowing their audience to access their service quickly and easily by simply inserting 44 (the alpha numeric code for HH) into the front screen of Looking Local and bypassing the regional access menus.

Following the launch Hounslow Homes Chief Executive Bernadette O'Shea said:
'Finding cost effective ways of communicating with tenants and leaseholders is always important.  We know that about 70% of households now have access to satellite, cable and digital TV so using the TV as a way of communicating makes a lot of sense.  We got a really positive response from residents at the launch and I am delighted to say that we are already experiencing about 2,000 hits a week. Wow, that is powerful!'

Please take a moment to see their site and wide range of information and services here: http://lookinglocal.gov.uk/lookinglocal and enter the Quickcode 44 on the front page.