BOROUGH OF POOLE

COMMUNITY SUPPORT & EDUCATION SCRUTINY COMMIITTEE

14 November 2006

REPORT OF HEAD OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

ALLOCATION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Part of published forward plan : No

  1. PURPOSE

1.1.The purpose of this report is to provide members with an overview of the Council’s system for the allocation of affordable housing.

  1. RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1.Members are asked to comment on the operation of the allocation of affordable housing system.

  1. LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND

3.1.The legislative background for the allocation of affordable housing is the 1996 Housing act and the Homelessness Act 2002. In addition there is a statutory code of guidance for allocation of accommodation

3.2.The selection of any person to be a secure or introductory tenant or a nomination to be a secure tenant or an assured tenant of a Registered social landlord is an allocation.

3.3.To receive an allocation a household must be a qualifying person. Households may be ineligible due to their immigration status or that they have been guilty of unacceptable behaviour. The latter is defined as behaviour which if that person was a secure tenant or a members of a secure tenants household it would entitle the landlord to a possession order under any of the grounds 1-7 of the Housing act 1985 schedule 2.

3.4.Each Council must establish an allocation scheme for determining priorities between qualifying persons. The scheme should include an element of choice. All Councils will be required to operate a choice based scheme by 2010. All allocations must be made in accordance with the scheme and to do otherwise would be ultra vires.

3.5.In establishing priorities five groups should be given reasonable preference over others,

Athose who are homeless but not in priority need

Bthose who are owed a duty under homeless legislation,

Cthose in insanitary or overcrowded accommodation

Dthose who need to move on medical or welfare grounds

Ethose who need to move to a particular part of the locality in the district of the authority where failure to meet that need would cause hardship.

  1. THE BOROUGH OF POOLE SCHEME

4.1.The Borough of Poole allocation scheme sets out the policy for determining priority and eligibility in terms of property type .

4.2.In the former case the Council operates a date order system. The longer the person has been waiting the higher up the housing register they are placed and the better chance they have of receiving an offer of accommodation. Applicants are asked to re-register their application every six months to keep their application current. The reasonable preference groups are given additional preference by the award of priority cards which carry higher priority than applicants just in date order. The priority card can be a composite of the various groups and is then sorted again in date order. Priority cards are allocated by a Priority panel made up of officers from a range of disciplines who receive reports based on information provided by the applicant and further investigation and professional advice. Applicants have the right of appeal if they are not awarded priority and they do not agree.

4.3.Once applicants have joined the housing register and have received preference they can bid for available property under the Home choice scheme. This scheme works on the basis of advertising all Council and Registered social landlords property on a weekly basis. The adverts provide details on the type of property, the street or block the landlord , rent to be charged and any other useful information to help an applicant decide whether they wish to bid for it. Applicants can make bids for the properties via bidding slips or on line. Applicants must be eligible for the property they bid for. A short list is then drawn up and either the household who has been waiting longest or who has priority will be offered the property if they are eligible.

4.4.There is a need to make sure that reasonable preference is maintained between the groups of households bidding for properties. To that end members are asked to agree an allocation plan which targets the allocations to be made to the various groups. So for example a target is set in the current year to allocation 30% of all allocations to homeless households.

  1. PERFORMANCE

5.1.In the last financial year 2005/6 550 properties were allocated. That broke down into 182 elderly persons dwellings and 368 general needs dwellings. Of that total 95 were allocated to homeless households 315 to households on the Council’s waiting list and 140 households who were transferring. The overall refusal rate was 23% ( 713 offers were made and 163 offers were refused)

5.2.The Council’s Home choice scheme has been assessed as part of a national project undertaken by Herriot Watts university.

SIMON HENDEY

HEAD OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

1