Myth busting Housing allocations Q&A:
Who does the Council allocate housing to?
Most people that we house come from Harlow.
All Councils have to decide who is a priority, based on what the
law says and in Harlow we give priority to Harlow people. The
Council’s allocation policy clearly makes sure that Harlow people
in the worst housing circumstances get the highest priority.
Between March 2010 and March 2011 Harlow
Council housed 607 households, 97% of these were Harlow people
which is the same percentage as the previous year. Asylum
seekers are not housed in Harlow, they are housed in areas where
there is less housing demand. There is no truth in the myth
that households from Hackney are systemically housed by the
Council.
Council and Housing Association tenants can
mutually exchange (swap) properties – and it is through this route
that most tenants move into and out of Harlow, over 200 tenants
have used this initiative since December 2008 and this is
continuing to grow. The Homeswapper website gives more
details – www.homeswapper.co.uk
How is Council housing in Harlow
allocated?
People who join the housing register are given
a priority banding between 1 and 4. These bands are:
Band 1 – Urgent need to move, i.e, life
threatening medical condition.
Band 2 – High Priority, i.e. an applicant who is
statutorily overcrowded, a homeless household the Council has a
duty to house permanently
Band 3 – Identified Housing Need, i.e. household
who has a need to move for medical or social reasons
Band 4 – Other Housing requirements.
Harlow Council was one of the first Councils
nationally to use a choice based letting scheme – http://www.harlowhomefinder.co.uk/
– to allocate housing. People on the register use this system to
bid for suitable properties of their choice. The properties are
allocated to the person in the highest priority band.
Preference is given to people who live or have a local
connection in Harlow.
In exceptional cases there may be a need for
urgently allocating a property to a person who needs an urgent move
on harassment or management grounds. In such cases a suitable
property will be identified by the Council and matched to the
applicant outside of the normal bidding process.
Why can’t the Council house everyone
who is on the housing register?
There are far more people seeking housing in
Harlow than the Council can ever hope to house.
On average each year there are around 630
Council and Housing Association rented homes that Harlow Council
has available to offer to people. This sounds a lot, but
there are almost 4,000 households on the Council’s Housing Register
which grows by over 100 each month.
Why can’t the Council build more
homes?
All Councils have limited resources which mean
they cannot build new homes. However the Council is working
with developers and Housing Associations to produce new rented and
low cost home ownership homes on new build sites like Rank House,
Fifth Avenue and Newhall, but the number that can be built are
limited.