6.15 Choice Based lettings

Common Housing Register

The Council operates a Common Housing Register and all Registered Social Landlords with stock in Tower Hamlets are invited to participate. A choice-based lettings policy was introduced in July 2002, which means that vacant properties, including those RSL properties to which the Council has nomination rights, are advertised and bids invited by applicants waiting to be rehoused. Reasonable preference is determined through the use of banding into a number of priority groups.

Full membership of the Common Register by partner RSLs means that their tenants have access to the full range of empty properties on an equal basis with Council Tenants on the transfer list. The Council believes that tenants should not have their opportunities of moving diminished by stock transfer and will therefore expect all RSLs that receive stock via Housing Choice to join the Common Housing Register.

Homelessness

The Council will ensure that the proposed transfer will not affect the supply of accommodation to assist vulnerable households. As well as ensuring that those accepted as homeless and in priority need are able to access the Choice Based Lettings System there will continue to be close monitoring to ensure that homes from all transfer landlords continue to be available to this client group. Empty homes in blocks that are being decanted as part of regeneration programmes will continue to be used as valuable temporary accommodation as part of the strategy to end the use of Bed and Breakfast as temporary accommodation.

Overcrowding Strategy for tenants

THCH with the permission of the Council will operate an overcrowding strategy for all those Mansford Estate tenants on the transfer list as at xxxx. Under the Overcrowding Strategy for Mansford Estate, THCH will make an offer to all overcrowded tenants on the transfer list within five years of the transfer. The scheme will operate in the same way as previous overcrowding strategies i.e.:

• One offer of accommodation will be made regardless of property types and floor levels chosen (except where a medical assessment advises otherwise)
• Offers will be made in group and date order
• Offers will be withdrawn if rent accounts are not cleared by the time of the viewing
• A refusal of an offer of a knockthrough will count as a refusal of an offer
• Offers will have regard to areas of preference however offers may be made in the Shadwell area
• If an offer is made through the Common Housing Register, this will also count as an offer under this strategy

If an offer is refused, then applications will remain on the ordinary transfer list to await an offer, and applicants will not lose out on their current rights.

Common Housing Register

The Council operates a Common Housing Register and all Registered Social Landlords with stock in Tower Hamlets are invited to participate. A choice-based lettings policy was introduced in July 2002, which means that vacant properties, including those RSL properties to which the Council has nomination rights, are advertised and bids invited by applicants waiting to be rehoused. Reasonable preference is determined through the use of banding into a number of priority groups.

Full membership of the Common Register by partner RSLs means that their tenants have access to the full range of empty properties on an equal basis with Council Tenants on the transfer list. The Council believes that tenants should not have their opportunities of moving diminished by stock transfer and will therefore expect all RSLs that receive stock via Housing Choice to join the Common Housing Register.

Homelessness

The Council will ensure that the proposed transfer will not affect the supply of accommodation to assist vulnerable households. As well as ensuring that those accepted as homeless and in priority need are able to access the Choice Based Lettings System there will continue to be close monitoring to ensure that homes from all transfer landlords continue to be available to this client group. Empty homes in blocks that are being decanted as part of regeneration programmes will continue to be used as valuable temporary accommodation as part of the strategy to end the use of Bed and Breakfast as temporary accommodation.

Overcrowding Strategy for tenants

 

• One offer of accommodation will be made regardless of property types and floor levels chosen (except where a medical assessment advises otherwise)
• Offers will be made in group and date order
• Offers will be withdrawn if rent accounts are not cleared by the time of the viewing
• A refusal of an offer of a knockthrough will count as a refusal of an offer
• Offers will have regard to areas of preference however offers may be made in the Shadwell area
• If an offer is made through the Common Housing Register, this will also count as an offer under this strategy

If an offer is refused, then applications will remain on the ordinary transfer list to await an offer, and applicants will not lose out on their current rights.