We are required by law to have a Housing Allocation Scheme. The scheme sets out the rules that decide who can apply for rented accommodation available through the council. You have to meet eligibility and qualifying rules for a place on the Housing Register.
Housing Allocation Scheme 2021 (pdf 486KB)
In December 2015, we made some changes to our Housing Allocation Scheme:
Overcrowding - the overcrowding qualifying criteria was amended from a two-bedroom shortage to a one-bedroom shortage. Before the changes, we would only consider an application from a household which needed two extra bedrooms. We will now consider an application from a household that needs one extra bedroom. This change only applies to families and not single applicants or couples without dependants.
Medical condition – this was amended from an applicant (or household member) suffering from a medical condition that is 'severely affected' by current housing to 'moderately affected'.
Residence criteria – to qualify to be on our register, applicants needed to have been resident in the borough for at least five years. We have changed this slightly to allow for those who have been resident for the past five out of seven years, but you still need to be resident in the borough when you apply.