Purpose

The Housing IT Transformation Programme was
initiated in 2022 with the objective of implementing a new housing
IT management system by March 2024.
In February 2023 Cabinet approved £7.5m to deliver the
programme.
In October 2025 we went live with the majority of the modules as
part of the NEC Housing system. Whilst a significant achievement,
this delivery represents a two-year delay to planned Go Live, and
during this extended delivery, the programme scope has changed and
been updated to reflect additional assurance, compliance and
reporting requirements.
These delays and additional scope requirements mean that at the end
of November 2025 the programme has spent the £7.5m to deliver
the programme in full
However, there is still further work required to deliver the
programme as per the Business Case and additional emergent scope
requirements that need to be considered for inclusion in the
programme scope going forward. This urgent decision reflects the
additional resources and IT capabilities to continue delivering the
agreed scope at pace for the remainder of 25/26.
The additional capital and revenue funding requirements for 25/26
have been previously highlighted as part of the regular period
Budget Forecasts and are included as pressures in forecasts to the
end of the Financial Year.
REASONS: This decision cannot reasonably be deferred until the next
Committee decision in 2026 as there is an urgent requirement to
fund the additional resources and IT capabilities to continue
delivering the agreed scope of the programme at pace for the
remainder of 25/26

Content

Approval to spend up to £1.257m, split
80% Housing Revenue Account, 20% General Fund, for the remainder of
the Housing IT Transformation Programme Delivery in this Financial
year (25/26).

Alternative options considered

Close the programme now: Whilst in theory this
would reduce the cost of the programme in the short term to the
Council, this would be premature and put at significant risk the
stability of a critical Council function carrying both significant
financial and non-financial risk.
Deliver the existing scope in the shortest possible timescales:
This has the benefit of delivering the programme as quickly as
possible, but would most likely increase programme costs
considerably and require continued reliance on a predominantly
contractor-based model to deliver. The existing programme scope
won’t deliver all the functionality the service would like in
place to enable them to work effectively.
Preferred option: Scaled back resources and updated scope to
deliver the most value from the NEC system as possible: wherever
possible, scale-back resourcing on the programme, accepting that
timescales will be pushed out, whilst also updating the programme
scope to reflect current service requirements.