Issue - meetings

Committee considered a report in relation to the revised draft Housing Allocations Policy.

It was a statutory requirement under Part VI of the Housing Act 1996, for local

authorities to have an allocations policy in place which outlined how social housing located within their authority would be allocated. Statutory guidance on social housing allocations for local authorities in England set out how allocation schemes were to be framed.

The last full review of the Council’s Allocations Policy was undertaken in 2019, and formally adopted in April 2020. This moved away from a points-based system to a band system.

As demand for social housing continued to rise, it was important that the housing allocations policy provided a genuine route to access housing for households in need. The criteria to determine access to the housing register and priority banding were important.

Council housing within the District was an extremely limited resource and demand significantly outstripped supply. The Council had approximately 380 properties becoming available each financial year to meet the housing needs of applicants. It was imperative that the policy could adequately balance availability of the resource with needs that people had for rehousing into council housing.

The report outlined a number of proposed changes to the existing allocations policy, including the rationale, and also provided a proposed timeframe for completion of the public consultation. Full details were contained within the Appendix ‘summary of changes’ document attached to the report. The changes proposed may mean that some households who did not have a housing need were no longer eligible to access social housing via the Council’s Housing Register. A full equality impact assessment would be carried out as part of the consultation phase.

The Assistant Director Housing Management and Enforcement advised Members that Housing would also be actively promoting the Mutual Exchange Register. This was a service were anyone in a housing association property or council housing property could register to swap properties with someone else.

The Assistant Director Housing Management and Enforcement added that an online questionnaire was available on the Council’s website in relation to the revised Allocations Policy and encouraged Members to complete the survey.

Moved by Councillor Phil Smith and seconded by Councillor Louise Fox

RESOLVED that the revised Housing Allocations Policy be noted.

The Assistant Director Housing Management and Enforcement and the Housing Allocations Manager left the meeting.