Recommendation:
To receive a presentation from the District Council’s Assistant Head of Housing (Operations) on the operation of the local Choice Based Lettings Scheme.
1. The implementation of a Choice Based Lettings Scheme is necessary in order to meet the requirements of Government that such a scheme be in place by 2010 at the latest.
2. Under a Choice Based Lettings scheme, all vacant social rented properties would be advertised to applicants on the Housing Register in a two-weekly publication, website, and other media giving details of location, type, rent, service charge, council tax band and landlord of the available accommodation. Applicants would apply for a property by “expressing an interest” either in person, by post, telephone, text, email or Internet. Limits to the number of “expressions” per applicant would be in place, which would include restricting “expressions” for properties to those households, which only have an assessed need for a particular property type.
3. At the end of the two weekly cycle, the Council would analyse the “expressions of interests” received and allocate each property following a prioritisation and selection process in accordance with its own Allocations Scheme. In general terms, the property would be offered to the applicant in the highest band, who has been registered the longest, who had “expressed an interest” for the specific vacancy. The results of the “expressions of interest” on each property advertised is then published in the next periodic publication, setting out the number received on each property, as well as the Band and registration date of the successful applicant. This helps applicants to see how long the successful applicant has been waiting and gives greater transparency in the allocation of accommodation, as each applicant would be able to clearly understand how the scheme works.
4. The Government encourages authorities to work in partnership and has made grants available to assist with set up costs based on a bidding process. The Council took the lead in setting up the Herts and Essex Housing Options Consortium (HEHOC), which is a partnership of the following authorities:
Brentwood Borough Council
Chelmsford Borough Council
Broxbourne District Council
Uttlesford District Council
East Herts District Council
Epping Forest District Council
5. Following the submission of a successful bid to the Government, HEHOC received a grant of £96,000. Around £60,000 of the grant is funding a Consultant to Project Manage the implementation of the scheme, which will be managed by an external Choice Based Lettings Agency. The balance of the grant will go towards the set up costs.
6. Any Choice Based Lettings Scheme must be developed in a way that takes into account the needs of vulnerable groups. This would involve close liaison with Social Care and a wide-range of partner agencies, ensuring that vulnerable people are able to participate fully in any scheme.
7. The Assistant Head of Housing Services (Operations) will be attending the meeting to explain how the scheme works in more detail.
8. At the time of writing the report it is expected that the scheme will go live on 19 November 2007. It was hoped to explain the scheme at the last meeting, but unfortunately due to other pressing agenda items the matter was deferred.
Minutes:
The Assistant Director of Housing Service (Operations), Roger Wilson, gave a presentation on the operation of the Local Choice-Based Lettings Scheme. The implementation of the Choice-Based Lettings Scheme was necessary to meet Government requirements. The scheme allowed all vacant social rented properties to be advertised to applicants on the Housing Register in a two weekly publication website, and other media outlets, giving details of location, type, rent, service charge, council tax band and landlord of the accommodation. Applicants applied by expressing an interest in person, by post, telephone, text, email or by the internet. Limits to the number of “expressions” per applicant were in place which included restricting “expressions” for properties to those households which only had an assessed need for a particular property type.
Following the two weekly cycle, the Council would analyse the expressions of interest received and allocate each property. The property would be offered to the applicant in the highest band who had been registered the longest, and who had expressed an interest for the vacancy. The results of the expressions of interest on each property advertised was then published in the next periodic publication, which set out the number on each property, as well as the band and registration date of the successful applicant. Applicants could see how long the successful applicant had been waiting and gave greater transparency in the allocation of accommodation.
The Council had set up the Herts and Essex Housing Options Consortium (HEHOC) which had a partnership with the following authorities:
Brentwood Borough Council
Chelmsford Borough Council
Broxbourne District Council
Uttlesford District Council
East Herts District Council
Epping Forest District Council
Following the submission of a successful bid to the Government, HEHOC received a grant of £96,000. Around £60,000 of the grant was for funding a consultant to manage the implementation of the scheme, through an external Choice-Based Lettings Agency. The balance of the grant went towards the set up costs.
The scheme was developed in a way that took into account the needs of vulnerable groups, this involved liaison with social care and other partner agencies, ensuring that vulnerable people were able to participate fully in the scheme. The scheme became operational on 19 November 2007. The committee asked for an updating report in a year’s time, reviewing the success or otherwise of the scheme.
RESOLVED:
That an updating report on Choice Based Lettings be brought back to this committee in a year’s time.