New priorities for housing register allocations policy

The move follows a review of the policy and a consultation to find out local views on proposed changes to how some needs are prioritised.

Cllr Jo Rust, the Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for People and Communities, said: “People’s needs and lives change over time, and new legislation can affect our approach, so periodically we review our policy to make sure it continues to be fair.

“I’d like to thank our Housing Needs Team for the work they have done to update our policy and I would especially like to thank people who took part in our consultation: we listened carefully to what people said and made changes to our proposals to take their views into account.”

The Homechoice Allocations Policy is used to decide what ‘priority’ people are given when they apply to join the housing register. It is used to assess the urgency of their need, which affects how quickly they are likely to become eligible to apply for a social and/or affordable home.

Some changes to the policy were suggested to keep it up to date with legislative requirements and local needs, and a consultation was held to establish people’s views on these.*

The council especially sought the views of people with lived experience of homelessness and groups likely to be affected by the proposed changes: of 212 survey respondents more than 40% had current or past experience of being homeless.

Proposed changes:

1. The number of allocation bands will increase to five, adding a ‘no priority’ band for people who would like to move but have no housing need reason for this.
2. Remove incentives for people in work: this had previously been introduced to incentivise work but does not take into account that some people cannot work, for example due to disability or caring responsibilities. This change does not disincentivise work; it simply means that people who cannot work are no worse off.
3. People who are actually homeless will be prioritised above people who are at risk of homelessness. People who are at risk of homelessness will still be given some priority but it will not be as high as people who are actually homeless.
4. Welfare and medical needs will be considered together, instead of separately – this will mean that needs can be approached more flexibly and a wider range of priority can be awarded.
5. Applicants with children who are overcrowded will have higher priority than people with children in a first-floor flat or lacking a garden.
6. A time limit for applications from military veterans to have a local connection will be removed.

A further change was reviewed following feedback from survey respondents. This relates to applicants in supported hostel accommodation no longer being given automatic high priority when they are ready to move on. While more than half of respondents supported the change, there was nonetheless some feedback expressing concern about its potential impact – especially from people with lived experience. As a result, the council has proposed that hostel residents will remain high priority unless there is a clear indication that they do not need this.

The changes will be discussed by the council’s Environment and Community Panel on 8 July, before going to Cabinet and then Full Council for final approval.