Decision details

To approve the draft Housing Allocations Policy for a six-week period of consultation.

Local housing authorities have a duty to make sure that homes, which they own or have nomination rights to, are let in accordance with a published allocation scheme. The allocation scheme must describe the procedure for letting homes and for determining the relative priority accorded to different categories of applicants.

The Council implemented a new Housing Allocation Policy in May 2013 following the introduction of the Localism Act 2011.  The Act gives councils greater powers to decide which groups of people, within their area should qualify for housing.  Although councils have a greater scope to decide who qualifies for housing in their area, some priority must still be given to the groups of people defined in law as falling into a ‘reasonable preference’ category.

As part of the on-going review of all Council services using ‘systems thinking’ methodology, our Housing Department (comprising Neighbourhood Services and Housing Options) undertook a detailed review of their functions to fully understand the demand on our current housing waiting list and the existing allocations process.  The systems-thinking review and extensive experiment into a new way of working gave us the unique opportunity to consider the design of our service, remove waste from our system and create a more bespoke, customer-centred approach to solving housing problems.

The purpose of the Council’s housing service is to “understand each customer’s housing problem and help them solve it” and the proposed changes to the Housing Allocation Policy will enable the service to achieve its purpose.  Other changes have been incorporated to reflect changes in legislation and statutory guidance since the last update in 2013.

If approved, this draft policy will be published for a six-week period of public consultation.  Following this period, and once any necessary amendments are incorporated, it is intended that the Housing Allocations Policy will be presented to the Executive for adoption (replacing the current Housing Allocations Policy).

An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) of the policy will be undertaken before it is recommended for adoption.

RESOLVED that the Executive approves that the draft Housing Allocation Policy, as provided at Appendix A to the report, be published for a six-week period of public consultation, subject to the additional wording at paragraph 10.2 of “or otherwise occupied under a licence arrangement”.