The Breakfast Show with Rod Whiting
BBC Lincolnshire
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 - 07:53
Transcript with Boston Mayflower, and a resident, re their housing service and Homechoice bidding system:
RW "You get everything these days on your television, there's so many more things you can do now, you can get cinema tickets, you can play games, you can surf the net even now on telly, if you've got the right telly. From today people in Boston who are looking to find their next home on the social housing register can use their TV remote controls to bid for a house - what about that! In the past they would flick through the housing magazine, they would speak to their local council, or could perhaps look it up on the Internet, well now they just have to flick a remote control on the TV.
"Local tenant Angela Brown says that the new system is a great idea: "
AB "Unfortunately I suffer from arthritis, so particularly in the winter months, it's not always possible for me to get out and about. So I don't have to leave the house at all, all I do is get my remote control and see what I can find that suits me."
RW: "Boston Mayflower Housing is behind the scheme and Alycia Glaves (need to confirm with BM???) is in charge of the new initiative, says they have been looking at how people could get of the information."
AG "We were looking at ways for people to access our services, find out about our services, tell us what they think, and also with our Homechoice scheme, be able to see what available properties there are and register an interest for them. So it has been funded by Boston Mayflower, but we are extending the opportunity to our partner organisations, such as the Police and others to use the service, so in other words residents could report incidents through Looking Local as well."
RW " Let's talk now to Nathan Black, who's from Boston Mayflower...Without getting too technical, how's this going to work then?"
NB "Basically what it is, is that anyone with a digital service, which will eventually be coming on Freeview with the broadband boxes that may come out. Anybody with an interactive service can press their interactive button, they go straight through to the DirectGov service, which is where the Boston Mayflower service is, and off they go. They can basically bid on a property, they can look at the local transport links on there, they can look for their next job, there's all sorts of things on there. Anyone in the whole country can go on it, so you could be up Northumberland way, you can go straight on TV and look at what properties are available in the Boston area. "
RW "Normally you would go into the shop or send off for some papers or look even online?"
NB "Yes, what would normally happen is that you would go into the local council offices, and in their window there are the properties from that week, you can also look in the Boston Mayflower window, that also contains the properties. We produce a weekly property magazine that goes out in similar places, libraries, local shops and so on. People can get that magazine and look at what's available, they can also go on the Internet and look at what's available. There's all these sources of finding these properties, and that will still be there, this is just an extra, for people who maybe don't have a PC or who are not particularly friendly with the Internet, don't want to know about it, but they are OK with a remote control, they can use a remote control, and from the comfort of their armchair they can see what we've got. "
RW "Right and can they see pictures of the property?"
NB "They can see pictures, they can bid on it, they can see who's eligible for the property, they can see how many bedrooms it's got, they can see the local facilities and so on. So it's a really good service, not only that but they can bid on the property and at the same time look at the local buses, look for job, because it is linked into the Jobcentre Plus database. It is all these services under one roof. And we are actually the first organisation in the East Midlands to be offering this service, of bidding on a property on the TV."
RW "It's all very well, because it's nice for people to be able to look around and see where they can move to. But there is so much demand you could be a long way down the waiting list."
NB "Well basically, the way the waiting list works is for somebody not already on the housing register to get a new property, would go to the Boston borough council, register there, they would then be graded into a band, gold to copper, and they would come through to us, they would know eligible they were for properties and they can start bidding. Now if someone keeps bidding on properties they do want, eventually when they are chosen they would go up the list, and then they would get offered a property."
RW "OK, this is presumably costing you something would it not be better spent improving the properties you have already got?"
NB "Well it is only costing us £8,000 a year to actually run the service and we think that is good because it is including everyone who are currently digitally excluded; people out in rural areas, who don't have a PC, can't get hold of the magazine, find it difficult to come in to town to have a look at what's available. As Angela said on your earlier report, there are people who are in need of the service and we think they will find it useful and we are really trying to reach those people."
RW "And this is available now?"
NB "Yes, it's available now, you just push your interactive Button, go through to DirectGov, look for Local Services, look for East Midlands, look for Boston Mayflower and off you go."
End.
