Homebuyers in Bracknell have been left in limbo after land searches stalled while Bracknell Forest Council migrated data to a new computer system. The land charges service is unavailable and some buyers face waits of more than two months, though the council denies its system was hacked.
One house buyer said: "All of a sudden we got a call from the Estate Agents to say that everything had come to a stop because the council was putting in a new computer system and whilst that was going on it was hacked."
A council spokesperson said, "The issues are not a result of hacking." The switch-over began at the end of January and was expected to cause only a short delay of around a week, but the authority says the data transfer proved more complex than anticipated and "this was not raised as an issue" ahead of the migration.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has identified the supplier as Arcus Global, based in Cambridge. Arcus was formed in 2009 and is led by CEO Peter Dewsbury, whose LinkedIn profile says he is "building a team to drive forward Cloud Computing and Platform Architecture based transformation in the Public Sector and beyond."
Local buyer Julie Cooper, 59, owner of cleaning firm Home Services, says the delays have left her family living out of boxes. She said: "It's very frustrating. We're living out of boxes at the moment and we don't know how long it's going to take."
She added: "We have been waiting since the beginning of February. We should have been in our new house by now."
Ms Cooper said her previous sale completed quickly but her onward purchase has been halted. "This is affecting our purchase. We were told to expect a delay of between 60-75 days. "Bracknell Forest Council haven't said a word. No word from them at all."
Jo Male, the council's assistant director for planning, said: "We are very sorry that this has caused local house buyers delays... we are doing everything we can to get the situation resolved," adding that teams are "meeting twice daily" and the issue has been escalated for urgent action.
Arcus Global was approached by the LDRS for a comment.
Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter
