Cambridgeshire’s Home-Link scheme has gone live with “My Gateway” – the LHS system that allows housing applicants to see personalised information when they log on to their on-line housing application. 

This means that housing applicants in Cambridgeshire will now only see information that is relevant to them – in effect having their own “personal” pages.

The “My Gateway” system includes a survey generator that allows schemes to get quick feedback direct from customers.

As part of the upgrade, Cambridgeshire has also re-designed its Home-Link website and has polled its customers on the changes using the survey generator.

Nine out of 10 respondents rated the new website as good or excellent and 87 per cent of customers said they found the website easy to use and liked the way the information was presented. Only three per cent needed help to log in.

The “My Gateway” system is able to provide “personalised” website services because of the information held on the Housing Register about each housing applicant.

The system uses an applicant’s information to filter the advice given about housing, employment, training and support. 

A young unemployed housing applicant might be offered information on training opportunities, for example, but would not see irrelevant information on, say, sheltered housing. 

By contrast, a pensioner might well be offered details of local sheltered accommodation but would not see other information that was not relevant to their situation.

The Cambridgeshire scheme covers seven local authorities and handles more than 150,000 bids a year from more than 23,000 housing applicants.

Derbyshire’s ‘My Home-Options’ was  the first scheme to launch “My Gateway” in September 2010 and has already run scores of campaigns offering both personalised and general advice – including information on winter warmth, benefit take-up and financial advice. 

The Derbyshire scheme was shortlisted for the Personalisation and Choice Award in the MJ Local Government Achievement Awards 2011.