Falkirk Council: New housing allocation system crashes leaving thousands unable to bid for homes

Staff from the council’s housing services were left having to field phone calls from people who couldn’t access the online system and anxious to be able to place their bid.

One exasperated woman, who is desperate to secure a house as her landlord is selling her current home, said the council closed their normal bidding system March 29 to April 19 to upgrade the system. She said: “But when it went live it quickly went down leaving thousands of people unable to access. We keep getting told to email but surely there mlust be a system for the elderly and others who don't have access to the internet. They people are being disadvantaged by this system error.

"The allocations team have all been lovely even though they are taking hundreds of calls. I called the other day and was 42nd in the queue after being on hold for 42 minutes. I was told there was no point calling again that day as they had no different information and to keep trying the system then call again the following day.

Falkirk Council currently owns and manages 24 per cent of the housing stock in the area. Its website states there are currently around 10,000 applications on the housing list, but only around 1200 council properties become available to let each year.

A Falkirk Council spokesperson said: “The new housing application system requires applicants to register in order to place bids and went live on April 19.

“Unfortunately, we became aware of some issues with the new system which prevented bids from being placed. We are working hard to fix this issue and in the meantime we have extended the list for an additional week to May 3 to make sure all applicants have the opportunity to bid on properties they are eligible for.

“The website will be updated to reflect this and we have continued to provide support through the Housing Allocations phoneline, the Housing IT mailbox and through face-to-face support at our libraries.

“So far, over 2500 applicants have registered on the new system in the last week.”