Simple approach key to housing review
A simpler housing allocation system is being planned to help eligible people to find social housing.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and Aspire Housing will be carrying out an eight-week consultation on proposed changes to how people go about finding a property.
The proposed amendments will bring the joint policy in line with national best practice.
Gill Heesom, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council’s Cabinet member for Community Safety and Wellbeing, said:
We work closely with Aspire Housing to help those who need it find suitable social housing and we review the process every few years to make sure it works as well as it can.
The proposed changes will tidy up the system and should make it easier for eligible applicants to find the place they want.”
Proposed changes include:
- discounting students aged over-18 who currently become eligible just because they are living in the borough while studying at university;
- limiting the number of bids a person can make to three at any one time;
- redrafting the medical assessment section to make clear that it’s not just a person’s personal health that matters, but whether their health affects their continued living at home – or whether the home is affecting the individual’s wellbeing.
Having approved the consultation at the council’s Cabinet meeting, the eight-week consultation will begin on Tuesday, May 2nd and details will be publicised.
Gill Heesom added:
I would urge everyone who has an interest in the allocation of social housing in the borough to have a look at the proposals and have their say – this affects people’s lives and we want to make sure we carry on getting it right.”