Draft Lettings Plan: Somerset Place; Choice Approach

It has been noted that both London Borough of Hillingdon and Notting Hill housing Trust are participating in the Locata (West London Lettings) pilot. Though the pilot should be operational prior to the expected first phase handover at Somerset Place, it is unlikely that the first tranche of nominees could be identified through Locata given the run-in required for a Choice based Allocation policy at the development. It is therefore anticipated that London Borough of Hillingdon will identify nominees through more traditional means in line with the agreed lettings plan, and Locata utilised for later tranches of nominees.

It has been proposed that nominees are allocated to a unit size – not a specific unit. This will enable Notting Hill to view a selection of properties with prospective tenants; and offer them the opportunity to express a preference of location. Equally, nominees may be given the opportunity to express a preference of unit type: i.e. flat or house. Where tenants make conflicting choices, or where there is excessive demand, the following criteria will be used:

  • House vs flat – if there is under-occupation to offer the flat to the household who is underoccupying.
  • Where there are young children to offer unit with garden.
  • Time/points on waiting list priority.

For Consideration

  • Child Density
  • Child density is potentially very high at Somerset Place. With maximum occupation the overall level of child density for the scheme is 50%.
  • London Borough of Hillingdon to nominate any age groups in the first phase of nominees. This is to be monitored by Notting Hill and flags raised on later lettings through Locata in order to achieve a balanced mix of age groups across the scheme: (0-5/5-10/10-16 years).
  • Gender difference is not to be considered in the plan.
  • Under-occupation will be considered in Shared Ownership properties.
  • Where either RSL or borough decants are nominated to the scheme – like for like properties may be considered, allowing for under-occupation.
  • RSL Transfers
  • LB Hillingdon have agreed up to 25% RSL transfers for the lettings plan. Notting Hill to identify substitute units for LB Hillingdon. This arrangement to be limited to internal borough transfers at this time (pending demand to be negosiated for later phases?) and also to cover all unit sizes on the development.
  • London Borough of Hillingdon Nominees
  • L B Hillingdon to target a percentage of borough transfer cases as opposed to homeless households (?) Local connection criteria i.e. neighbouring social housing developments and support links.
  • Mobility Applicants (3x wheel chair flats in phase 1)
  • Notting Hill has identified a number of its own tenants requiring wheel chair units from the transfer list, however, none of these are internal borough transfers. (Out of borough transfers to be considered in the later phases by reciprocal agreement with LB Hillingdon?)
  • Ethnicity
  • The lettings plan is not to breach the borough’s Allocation and Equal Opportunity policies.
  • Benefit Dependency
  • Given the mixture of tenure at the development it is not considered appropriate to write a percentage benefit dependency target into the lettings plan for phase one of lettings. This may be reviewed for later tranches. The overall objective for Notting Hill rented would be no more than 50% dependency.