Ipswich Borough Council is triallng a new text message service for tenants at the end of September 2023 for four weeks, as another way of contacting our customers to welcome new tenants and provide updates. 

This new text out service to council tenants will include messages that:

• Welcome a tenant to their new home / garage or other property tenancy
• Contact a tenant about their Direct Debit payment
• Advise of a Rent Account that may be in debt
• Contact a new Universal Credit claimant.

Text messages as part of an initial trial will be sent to groups of tenants identified meeting the above criteria, giving an opportunity to click one of three links:

• Visit the payment screen to pay any balance due
• Signposting to further assistance
• An “I need to speak to my Income Officer” prompt, where a message will be sent to the Income Officer asking them to make contact.

We hope to be able to introduce the service more widely to communicate with tenants once initial trials are complete.