This article is brought to you by Slough Borough Council. A consultation into proposed changes to the Housing Allocations Scheme which will run for eight weeks.
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.
Councillor Robert Stedmond, lead member for housing, said: “Housing needs can frequently change, and I’m pleased there is a new policy to consult on, which will give residents a clearer view on the process and criteria for housing applications.
“Larger properties are in short supply, and therefore waiting times are longer. Some of these proposed changes mean offering smaller properties to those who could manage in that size home, therefore reducing the waiting list for any larger properties.
“A more stringent criteria to apply would mean those most in need of housing have a higher chance of being allocated a property sooner.
“I urge everyone to complete the consultation survey.”
Through the new policy, all homeless cases must be on the housing register, and the council will do more to stop someone becoming homeless and improve discharges into the private rented sector.
The proposals also include banding changes, so Band A for emergency priority, Band B for urgent priority and Band C for moderate priority.
For those who meet the community contribution criteria, they would be given a higher priority than other applicants in the same band as them, for Bands B and C.
In future, direct lets will be restricted to specific types of applicants. The council will be introducing choice based lettings, where applicants can express their preference on a list of available properties and be shortlisted based on banding. The higher banding would be offered the property.
Under the proposed changes, applicants in Band B and C would be required to re-register every 12 months.
Feedback from the consultation will be considered, with any necessary changes made to the policy, before a report goes to Cabinet in June, to approve it.
The existing policy hasn’t been updated since 2018, and the new proposed policy, once agreed, would last for five years before another review.
Read the full policy on the council’s website.
Complete the consultation survey online until 4 May. The survey can be translated into different languages from the consultation platform, including Romanian, Urdu, Polish and Hindi.