New BHA website puts focus on tenants

Berwickshire Housing Association (BHA) has taken another step on its digital journey by launching a new tenant-focussed website.

Following a selection process, Berwick-based digital agency, Strive Digital won the redevelopment contract, and BHA said it is “delighted” with the results.

With the new website, BHA said it has laid the focus firmly on its tenants who are now able to gain easy access to all the information they need be it paying their rent, reporting a repair or viewing homes to let. The association said it did this by working in partnership and exchanging ideas with Strive Digital, which has created a website which looks good and works well across a range of devices. Almost 60% of visitors to the website now do so using their mobile phone. BHA added that Strive Digital also put a lot of work into ensuring the site is easy to update and maintain.

The new website is just the start of BHA’s ‘digital journey’, and, in the near future, it is planning to launch a ‘MyBHA’ portal which will allow tenants to manage all aspects of their tenancy online.

Steven Walker, Managing Director of Strive Digital, said: “It has been a pleasure working with the team at BHA, identifying and remedying the shortcomings of the previous website.

“The result is a digital presence, much more in line with the business goals and audience needs.

“We look forward to our continued working relationship with BHA and the further development and optimisation of the website.”

Helen Forsyth, BHA Chief Executive added: “We are delighted with our new website. The design by Strive means we have an easy to use site, and our staff can easily keep everything up to date in the background.

“This is a major first step for us in improving our digital services, and we look forward to rolling out ‘MyBHA’ in the next few months. MyBHA is a self-service portal that will allow our tenants 24/7 access to key services like reporting repairs and paying their rent.”