Milton Keynes Council Helps 355 Households Out of Arrears & Reduces Overall Arrears by Over £400k in Cost of Living Crisis

Milton Keynes Council has used RentSense and Mobysoft’s Income Maximisation consultancy, to help reduce its arrears by £414K, as well reduce the number of households in arrears by 355 throughout the cost of living crisis.

To ensure that the income team were able to respond to an ever-changing environment the council began a restructure two years ago that focused on the development staff skills and ensuring personnel were equipped for the role. The reorganisation had as one of its main aims the embedding of a consistent approach and culture to working with tenants in arrears. More recently, the council has also taken advantage of Mobysoft’s Income Maximisation consultancy, working alongside Mobysoft Income Maximisation Director, Nick Beasley.

Leona Evans, Housing Income Manager at Milton Keynes commented: “The team have really developed over the last couple of years, increasing their confidence and skill sets.

“The recent work with Nick has also really helped. He really engaged with staff and got their buy-in. He implemented change, looking at structure and approach to ensure consistency and improved results.”

The service from Mobysoft helps focus income teams on key objectives and follows income best practice to help organisations support more tenants and achieve even better results with RentSense.

The cost of living crisis has been a really difficult time for tenants and staff, but despite that we have been able to achieve some fantastic results. Since April 2022 we have 355 fewer households in arrears.

Leona Evans, Housing Income Manager at Milton Keynes Council

“We have reduced our high level arrears cases, of over £2,000, by 100 cases through support, not enforcement.

“There have been lots of other real benefits, including arrears dropping by £414,882 in twelve months to £2.8M (a reduction of 12.8%). And, we have been able to release planned bad debt provisions, as arrears are ahead of where we thought they would be. T

“That has meant we have been able to release a further £100,000 into the HRA. And our arrears are on track to be lower than last year’s final figure.”

Jon Brownbill, Director of Customer Success at Mobysoft, said: “The work Leona and the team at Milton Keynes have put in is really coming to the fore. Their improved performance across so many metrics is testament to their focus and hard work, despite these challenging times.

“At Mobysoft we work closely with our customers to help them support their tenants, achieve their corporate objectives, and improve performance.”