Updating The Housing Corporation's Investment Management System

Background

In December 2008 the Housing Corporation was split into two separate agencies – the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).  The HCA has taken on the functions of English Partnerships, the Academy for Sustainable Communities and key housing and regeneration programmes previously delivered by Communities and Local Government; it has also taken responsibility for the Housing Corporation's investment duties including the management of the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP).  Sopra Group continues to deliver IT services to both the TSA and the HCA.

Sopra Group was chosen in a competitive tender to update the Housing Corporation's Investment Management System to streamline the NAHP bidding and allocation process. 

Overview

The recent publication of the Government Green Paper Homes for the Future announced the investment of at least £8 billion in social and key worker housing over a three-year period between 2008 and 2011.  The Green Paper details the Government's intention to meet both the need for more social homes (for renting) as well as affordable home ownership options to help first-time buyers get on the property ladder.

The Housing Corporation was the national Government agency responsible for investing in new social and affordable homes, and for regulating over 1,500 housing associations across England.  In addition to this the Housing Corporation also administered the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) which began on 1 April 2008 and will run for three years.  Since the Housing Corporation ceased to exist in December 2008 the Homes and Communities Agency has been managing the NAHP.

Under the terms of the NAHP, Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and other Unregistered Bodies (URBs) such as private developers were invited to put themselves forward to bid for a share of the £8 billion in government funds available.  The Housing Corporation was responsible for recording and assessing these applications, and finally, allocating funds to approved partners.  

In 2007 NAHP bidding took place between 9th September and 2nd November, with the application selection process beginning in early November.  The draft NAHP was then presented to the Minister for Housing in early February 2008 for approval with the Housing Corporation beginning to distribute funds to accepted partners from 1st April 2008. 

In a competitive tender the Housing Corporation chose Sopra Group to be its Support and Development partner on this important project.  This is a managed service covered by a framework agreement that allowed flexibility to the Housing Corporation in its purchase of IT Services.

Solution

The Housing Corporation needed to update its Investment Management System (IMS) to manage the NAHP bidding and allocation process more efficiently.  Updating the current system in favour of building a new one was not only a cost-effective option, but also offered the lowest-risk solution for delivering the first phase of the project to the tight deadline of 9th September 2007.   The solution proposed that the basic structures of the current system would remain the same with all IMS specification, Bids and Partnership structure, functionality, methodology and terminology being retained, meaning there would be very little disruption to daily business processes.

Sopra Group worked closely on site with the Housing Corporation for the duration of the project to provide an end-to-end range of services including: project management; business analysis; application development, management, support and enhancement; and testing.  One of the key project management challenges was managing the resource profile to meet the extremely tight deadlines.

The project was divided into the following three phases (each with an approximate three-month timescale):

1. Phase One - Bidding - Updating the current system to enable RSLs and URBs to bid for funding by entering details and submitting proposed schemes – the system was ready to accept applications from the agreed "go live" date of 9th September 2007
2. Phase Two - Bid Assessment – Enabling Housing Corporation staff to assess bids against set criteria from the beginning of November 2007.  This phase also facilitated the creation of a draft programme that was submitted for Ministerial approval in February 2008
3. Phase Three – Fund Allocation Process – Enabling more efficient publishing and processing of new bids right through to the allocations and schemes systems stages.   The system went live on 1st April 2008.  Sopra Group continues to provide 'post-go-live' support to the HCA.

Benefits

This managed service delivered the Housing Corporation a number of benefits, including:

• Reduction in costs - Updating the current system was cheaper than building a new one as there were no new outlay costs on new software applications.
• As the basic structure of the system did not change there was no requirement for formal staff training, and hence disruption of day-to-day operations was minimal.
• Using an established application that was already embedded in the Housing Corporation's business process meant the risks associated with developing a bespoke system were greatly reduced.

”Sopra Group and Housing Corporation staff have worked increasingly well together as an integrated team. Sopra’s willingness to engage on a risk-and-reward basis has ensured projects have been delivered on time, to budget and importantly the business owners and users of the system are satisfied.” Senior IT Stakeholder, Housing Corporation.