Council Housing - Confused!

££sc££

"The priority is being given to people with a local connection to the village, even over those with a higher band, which is what was slightly confusing to me. Why bother with a banding system?"

The banding system is the main system for the district. Sometimes when new properties are built particularly in rural villages, certain conditions are put in place, such as priority being given to local people. (as Squinty says, a local lettings plan/policy).

Why? - there's often an affordable housing shortage in these less affordable villages, the HA/developer have to get the local parish council on side who want the properties built but only for their locals, they don't want outsiders coming in! They want villagers to be able to grow up and start their own family without being forced out of the village by house prices. Another reason is, if a number of properties are all being built at the same time and no local lettings plan was in place, the people with the highest priority would get them, and you may end up with a large number of vulnerable people living in very close proximity, e.g. high number of disabled, unemployed, victims of domestic violence etc, local lettings plans help create mixed communities.

But regardless of the reason, this all goes in your favour...get bidding and good luck!

PasturesNew

CornishWildFlower wrote: »

I can appreciate that however, I think they've really blurred things by having the council do all of the allocation. It might've been a good idea for the HA's to hold back some stock to let at a controlled market value to people like us and plough the profits back into their housing stock. Would work for them as they'd increase their stock at no cost to the taxpayer and, would work for us as we'd no longer be at the mercy of the holiday market or fickle LL's. In a perfect world eh?

Ultimately, somebody has to be in the pricey private lets, at the mercy of the cr4p market, so why shouldn't it be you? You're new and chose to live in the area; locals have probably been waiting years to get a chance to live within 5-6 miles of their family/friends and job.

Think yourself lucky, I can't even go ON the list.

Wee_Willy_Harris

A number of LA's employ a local lettings policy with certain high demand/low turnover properties. This is particularly common with new builds, which are always popular, and is meant to encourage more "sustainable communities". The banding is still an issue as you may be competing with other people with a local connection whe have a greater need (and higher banding) than yourself. However, a local lettings policy will play to your advantage so get your bids placed.

Whilst the general idea is to get as many social housing homes to be allocated via CBL (more transparent and widely felt to be faireer than the old points systems), many HA's will have what they call "nomination rights". This menas that only a certain [percentage of their properties will ber allocated via a centralised CBL scheme (a requirement of social housing). Some HA's will have bought in to CBL completely and allocate 100% of their properties, other may used CBL for a lower percentage, but few will be less than 50%. To find out who does what, you will need to contact each HA individually.

If I've appeared to shout anyone down, that was not my intention. But there are many myths around social housing and many people miss opportunities because of them. I'd rather people got an accurate idea of social housing and it's allocation so that they may make a more informed decision.

CornishWildFlower

PasturesNew wrote: »

Ultimately, somebody has to be in the pricey private lets, at the mercy of the cr4p market, so why shouldn't it be you? You're new and chose to live in the area; locals have probably been waiting years to get a chance to live within 5-6 miles of their family/friends and job.

Think yourself lucky, I can't even go ON the list.

If 18 years is new to you, then that's fine with me. I chose to live in the area because that is where my work is, and I make friends where I find them, 'luck' has had nothing to do with it. When my husband left the army he also found work in the area and volunteers for Cornwall search and rescue, we take nothing out but, I do feel we put something in. Why shouldn't it be me? Absolutely no reason at all, my only gripe is with the lack of security of tenure. Which I don't think is being OTT.

CornishWildFlower

££sc££ wrote: »

"The priority is being given to people with a local connection to the village, even over those with a higher band, which is what was slightly confusing to me. Why bother with a banding system?"

The banding system is the main system for the district. Sometimes when new properties are built particularly in rural villages, certain conditions are put in place, such as priority being given to local people. (as Squinty says, a local lettings plan/policy).

Why? - there's often an affordable housing shortage in these less affordable villages, the HA/developer have to get the local parish council on side who want the properties built but only for their locals, they don't want outsiders coming in! They want villagers to be able to grow up and start their own family without being forced out of the village by house prices. Another reason is, if a number of properties are all being built at the same time and no local lettings plan was in place, the people with the highest priority would get them, and you may end up with a large number of vulnerable people living in very close proximity, e.g. high number of disabled, unemployed, victims of domestic violence etc, local lettings plans help create mixed communities.

But regardless of the reason, this all goes in your favour...get bidding and good luck!

Hi,

Thanks for the info. Most of the conditions seem pretty vague, the only thing set in stone seems to be the criminal record/asbo thing which was pretty unusual, I thought. I'll give it a go but I won't hold my breath, we usually qualify for jack! Thanks again.

CornishWildFlower

Wee_Willy_Harris wrote: »

A number of LA's employ a local lettings policy with certain high demand/low turnover properties. This is particularly common with new builds, which are always popular, and is meant to encourage more "sustainable communities". The banding is still an issue as you may be competing with other people with a local connection whe have a greater need (and higher banding) than yourself. However, a local lettings policy will play to your advantage so get your bids placed.

Whilst the general idea is to get as many social housing homes to be allocated via CBL (more transparent and widely felt to be faireer than the old points systems), many HA's will have what they call "nomination rights". This menas that only a certain [percentage of their properties will ber allocated via a centralised CBL scheme (a requirement of social housing). Some HA's will have bought in to CBL completely and allocate 100% of their properties, other may used CBL for a lower percentage, but few will be less than 50%. To find out who does what, you will need to contact each HA individually.

If I've appeared to shout anyone down, that was not my intention. But there are many myths around social housing and many people miss opportunities because of them. I'd rather people got an accurate idea of social housing and it's allocation so that they may make a more informed decision.

Hi,

I didn't realise that they may not have handed over all stock, I will look into it, and thanks for the heads up. I'd much rather just attempt to rent a house in the normal way off a HA. For what it's worth and from what I've read, I haven't seen you shout anyone down, I think you're very informative, thanks again.