Release date - Thursday 18 September 2008
HOME CHOICE THROUGH TV
DIGITV'S GUY GILES TO SPEAK ON REACHING DIGITALLY EXCLUDED APPLICANTS AT NATIONAL CHOICE BASED LETTINGS CONFERENCE
Guy Giles, Operations Director for DigiTV is to speak on how digital TV can help reach digitally excluded social housing applicants at the national Choice Based Lettings Conference to be run by Capita in Central London on Tuesday 23rd September.
Choice Based Lettings, (CBL), the government approved property bidding system providing social housing applicants with a choice in where they live, is expected to replace all existing schemes for the allocation of social housing nationwide by 2010. The CBL Conference will focus on how social housing providers can ensure their schemes are accessible to everyone. Extending CBL to TV and mobile makes it available to applicants who don't have access to computers or the internet.
Home Options - Greater Norwich, one of the first organizations to offer its CBL service on DigiTV's Looking Local portal, is already seeing 20,000 to 30,000 hits a month from people using the site to look for housing. Home Options - Greater Norwich is delighted with results so far. Among successful bids on their TV based system last month are a young family in severe financial difficulties faced with homelessness who moved into a two bedroom bungalow in South Norfolk thanks to the system; an older couple with health issues who swapped to a small bungalow through CBL on DigiTV, leaving their larger home free for a bigger family; and a young single man living with his parents who successfully qualified for a new build development earmarked for local residents using the service.
Three suppliers of Choice Based Lettings (CBL) have extended their service to TV and mobile through DigiTV: Abritas, (the first to do so), Home Connections and IBS Open Systems. They have each developed 'plugin' technology which can connect their internet-based service to digital TV and mobile through DigiTV.
"Local authorities and housing associations who specify DigiTV compliant software in their procurement process and add the plugin option to their order when purchasing their system, will be able to provide choice for more housing applicants than they otherwise could and will significantly reduce digital exclusion", commented Guy Giles, Operations Director for DigiTV.
