The Housing Corporation this week announced emergency contingency plans to rescue its ambitious strategy to put the bidding process for investment funding online.
Housing associations without internet access have been offered new "contingency arrangements" to allow them to bid for a portion of the approved development programme.

The corporation's decision to require associations to bid online has met with heartfelt opposition from smaller organisations who claim it will increase bureaucracy for those without the net (Housing Today, 24 August).

However, following a meeting last week the National Housing Federation agreed to let members use technology at its regional offices and provide telephone support, while paper copies of the guide to the allocation process and new grant rates will be made available. The Almshouse Association and the Abbeyfield Society has also agreed to help with bids.

The corporation defended its strategy, which will eventually see all investment process carried out over the internet by April 2001.

Acting deputy chief executive Neil Hadden explained: "The modernising government agenda has set government bodies stiff targets to provide online services by 2005. We want to beat those targets and are developing our e-business strategy which will set out the way in which we plan to achieve this goal."

Announcing the contingency arrangements he said tests of the system carried out during the summer had prompted "an extremely positive response."

"We will be evaluating the success of the bidding process and feeding those lessons into the further development of our facilities," Hadden added. "But we are confident that we will achieve our aims of introducing our new systems on time, on budget and of providing a better service to our customers."

National Housing Federation assistant chief executive James Tickell supported the corporation's aims, but added: "We do have some reservations about the speed with which the corporation has moved to web-based bidding for the next financial year. A change of this importance should have been more clearly signalled some months ago."

However the policy remains unpopular in with some associations. Railway housing association chief executive John Burrows said the corporation was unreasonable not to offer any choice in the matter. "If we treated tenants like this we would be in serious trouble," he said.