23 - Dudley at Home through Digi TV

 

Dudley Council, which runs a choice based lettings service known as ‘Dudley at Home’, has announced that people on their housing register will be able to bid for properties through its Digi TV site from June 11.

 

‘Dudley at Home’ was launched last December as a pilot scheme to allow people across the borough to view and bid for available council properties in Stourbridge and Halesowen. From October this year it is hoped the full service will be launched so that council properties from across the whole borough will be available through the scheme.

 

Customers can currently view and bid for properties via the council website or pick up a property newsletter before bidding over the phone or in person at their local housing office or Dudley Council Plus.

 

But now Dudley Council is looking to make viewing and bidding even easier by introducing it to its successful Digi TV site.

 

The council launched its Digi TV system in September last year and since then the site has received around 100,000 hits.  It can be can be accessed by residents with any digital interactive television package such as Sky and Virgin Media (including Telewest and NTL). The ‘Dudley at Home’ link will be on the homepage of the site from June 11.

 

“The ‘Dudley at Home’ pilot scheme has been very successful and we are pleased it will soon be available through Digi TV. We hope this will give all residents on our housing register another simple way of bidding for properties from the comfort of their living room.”

 

Viewing and bidding for council properties will add to a long list of services residents can access through Digi TV. Through the pioneering service people can also report things such as litter, potholes, vandalism, bin collections, council housing repairs, abandoned vehicles and street light problems. Residents can also find out more about the council’s services by requesting benefits leaflets, recycling services, vote forms along with direct debit, blue badge, school register and housing register application forms.

 

To access the site people simply need to press the interactive button on their remote controls and follow the interactive services through to local services. Users can fill in their details to request information using the control in the same way as texting from a mobile phone.

 

‘Dudley at Home’ is a new system that is replacing the current process used to allocate council properties. The new system offers more choice and provides a clearer, more open view of the results. It is part of a project called Choice Based Lettings, which the government has recommended to be in place in every local authority across England and Wales by 2010.

 

When a property becomes available it will now be advertised on Digi TV, the council website and published in a list that people can pick up from their library or housing office.