The platform: from Local Housing Allowance search to keys in hand
From the first search to the day a family moves in, in the order a case actually happens. Every clip and screenshot on this page was recorded in a demonstration environment: every household is fictional and every figure is illustrative.
Find: from registration to an LHA shortlist
The daily map
Every morning the catalogue is rebuilt and each London borough is scored on how many homes fall within Local Housing Allowance. Step between LHA, plus five per cent and plus ten per cent and watch the map change.
Registration in under a minute
A council reference, the family name, and how to reach them. The case stays with whoever creates it, and can be handed to another caseworker at any time.
Affordability worked out for you
BoroughLets calculates bedroom need and Local Housing Allowance from the household's composition and home borough. Mark them as in temporary accommodation and it records what the stay is costing the council.
Search from the record
Search opens with the household's bedroom need and maximum rent already set, and private sector listings come back within their budget. Open any home for the photographs and the full description without leaving the system.
Schools and GPs nearby
Check the nearby schools, GPs and hospitals, with walking and driving times, before arranging a viewing.
The shortlist
Pick the homes that fit, add a personal note, and send it straight to the family. The team can see what was sent, when it went out, and whether it has been opened.
Engage: every conversation on the household record
Call a family straight from their record, in the browser. The call is recorded, and the caseworker tells the family so at the start. When you hang up, BoroughLets transcribes it and drafts a summary.
Read it, correct anything that is not quite right, and confirm. This is the confirm gate, and how it and the audit trail work is set out in full. The confirmed version is kept as it was signed off, with the original draft beside it. Managers can review every confirmed call in one place.
This is not a setting that can be turned off. It is how the feature is built.
Place: from shortlist to keys in hand
Reserve a home and the whole team can see it is spoken for, so two caseworkers never chase the same property.
Every step to the keys is tracked: the viewing, the offer, the checks, and the move. The board shows every placement the service holds, and anything that has stalled carries a marker.
When a family moves in, BoroughLets records the temporary accommodation spend the council no longer pays.
Prove: temporary accommodation spend avoided, in numbers
Temporary accommodation cost avoided, net of the full rent of the new home, counted from the day a family moves in. How quickly families are placed, from registration to move in. Whether tenancies last, at six months and at twelve.
Scale: your whole caseload from day one
Bring your existing caseload across in one upload. The preview colours every row: what is complete, what is missing something critical, and what needs a decision. Nothing is saved until you say so, and the whole import can be rolled back.
New applicants can be registered just by describing them, in text or by voice. The details are read back for you to check before the record is created.
Against the ways the work is done today
Most teams run this on a spreadsheet, a set of portal alerts, and whatever the housing management system offers. This is what changes.
| The job | Spreadsheet and portal alerts | Housing management system | BoroughLets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finding homes | One site at a time, each rent checked by hand against the rate. | Not its job. Records the outcome, not the search. | One search across the major listing sites, filtered to Local Housing Allowance, plus five and plus ten per cent, rebuilt every morning. |
| Affordability | Worked out per household, by whoever has the rates to hand. | Holds the household; the calculation is usually elsewhere. | Bedroom need and the LHA rate calculated from the family's composition and borough, shown before the search runs. |
| Contact with families | Phone and notebook; what was said is typed up afterwards. | A notes field, typed up afterwards if there is time. | Calls made from the record, transcribed and drafted, then confirmed by the caseworker before anything is saved. |
| Tracking a placement | A column on the spreadsheet, updated by hand. | A status, once the tenancy is set up. | Every step from reserved to moved in on one board, with anything stalled marked. |
| Reporting the saving | Assembled for the quarterly meeting. | Possible, if someone builds the report. | Counted the day a family moves in: spend avoided, time to place, tenancies sustained. |
| Governance | Depends on the spreadsheet's owner, not on the system. | Strong on the record, silent on the search. | Named accounts, MFA, an audit trail, and AI that cannot write to a record without a person signing it off. |
What a housing management system does varies by product; the housing management system column describes the modules councils most often have, not any one supplier.
What BoroughLets is not
Worth saying plainly, because it saves everyone a meeting.
It is not a housing management or allocations system, and it does not replace one.
It does not make statutory decisions, and it does not assess or rank applicants.
It does not advertise properties to the public. There is no public access to any data.
It does not sign tenancies or handle payments.
The platform, screen by screen
Eleven screens from a demonstration environment, with fictional households and illustrative figures. Select any to look closer.
BoroughLets. Built for councils. Made for families.
Tell us about your caseload and we will show you the platform against your own borough's Local Housing Allowance rates. A first demo takes 30 minutes, online, with nothing to prepare.