Kingston Council Approves Additional Funding for Housing Management System Upgrade

Kingston Council has approved an additional £372,000 in funding for the ongoing implementation of its new NEC Housing Management System, bringing the total anticipated cost to approximately £4.59 million. The initial budget for the project was around £4.2 million.

The boost will support the delivery of Phases 3 and 4 of the system, and will also fund the scoping of Phase 5. The NEC system is designed to replace two main IT systems and numerous spreadsheet-based databases, many developed internally, which were described as life-expired and presented significant integration, data quality, and automation limitations.

Matthew Essex, Executive Director of Place, explained that the additional funding would enhance customer service and improve internal processes for regulatory compliance and health and safety management. The additional funding would enhance customer service through a resident portal, allowing tenants to manage their accounts and report repairs online, and improve internal processes for regulatory compliance and health and safety management, he stated.

Phases 1 and 2 of the project have already been completed, establishing the core system for housing functions, asset management, and repairs data. The existing Digital Implementation Team will continue from their implementation of Phase 2 into the delivery of Phases 3 and 4.

Phase 3, expected to go live in October 2026, will introduce a resident self-service portal, allowing tenants to manage their accounts and report repairs online. This phase is anticipated to result in a substantial decrease in contact centre demand and enhanced data accuracy.

Phase 4, also targeted for completion in October 2025 if approved, will focus on compliance, anti-social behaviour management, and streamlining the property purchase process. This phase aims to provide continued assurance to the Housing Regulator and streamline the process around acquisition and commissioning of new homes including automating processes, accelerating completion times, improving resident experience by providing status access, and ensures legal compliance and risk mitigation. The council also anticipates the realisation of cashable efficiencies across the council from the system's implementation.

While Phases 3 and 4 are expected to deliver clear benefits, the exact advantages of Phase 5 are still being explored. The additional funding will cover the scoping of Phase 5, with potential benefits of modules including Servicing, Support Services, CRM, Customer Services and the Contractor Portal being investigated. Matthew Essex noted that the benefits... are less well defined at this stage, and a decision on whether to proceed with implementation will be made after the scoping is complete. Any further resource requests for Phase 5 will be brought back to a future committee meeting.

The committee noted the progress made to date and approved the additional funding. The meeting information highlights several expected benefits that could serve as key performance indicators (KPIs), including a substantial decrease in contact centre demand, enhanced data accuracy, realisation of cashable efficiencies across the council, and improved compliance with the Social Housing White Paper and Consumer Standards through increased customer visibility of their own data. However, specific, formally defined KPIs are not listed in the provided information.

The implementation of the NEC Housing Management System is expected to transform service delivery and establish a reliable single source of truth for data-driven decisions. While the report mentions realisation of cashable efficiencies across the council, specific impacts on staffing requirements are not detailed.

Further details on the project can be found in the Public reports pack for the Corporate and Resources Committee meeting on 25 June 2026, and the Decisions document from the same meeting.