Draft Housing Allocations Scheme consultation

Overview

Share your views in this consultation about proposals to change the qualification criteria for social housing.

The new policy aims to create an accessible, fair and transparent service, meet local housing need, meet the housing needs of the most vulnerable, prioritise those with the greatest and most urgent housing needs, make the best use of existing social housing stock, ensure equal treatment for all applicants and meet the regulatory requirements and industry standards. 

There are changes proposed, some listed below, which would affect who is eligible to apply for social housing and the banding which successful applicants would be given. 

• Introducing a household income threshold of £39,059 per year.
• Introducing a savings, assets and capital threshold of £16,000 per household.
• Anyone who is adequately housed will not be able to join the register.
• Any applicant who refuses their offer of accommodation would be removed from the register and be ineligible to reapply for 12 months. 
• Removing the five-year limit so that any veteran can join the Housing Register, to align with practices adopted by many other authorities nationwide.
• Young carers would be awarded their own bedroom for the duration of the time they are providing care to the person in the home.
• Raising the age which children of the same sex can share a bedroom – from 16 to 18.
• Allocating a slightly smaller property, in some circumstances, provided it would alleviate severe overcrowding and provided everyone in the household has an adequate bedspace.
• Introducing the option to rehouse young adults aged 18 or over, who are the child of a tenant, into a studio or 1 bedroom property, to remove or significantly reduce the overcrowding of the main household. The applicant or the young adult can make the request.
• Introducing affordability checks when allocating social housing, to give confidence to incoming tenants that they can afford the home and sustain their tenancy.