DCLG to stress local association in guidance on social housing allocations

The Government has launched a consultation in relation to proposed statutory guidance that would emphasise the importance of a local association when it comes to social housing allocations.

In the consultation paper, the Department for Communities and Local Government said ministers were of the view that, in deciding who qualifies or does not qualify for social housing, local authorities should ensure that they prioritise applications able to demonstrate a close association with their area.

It added: “We know that some local authorities have already decided to include a residency test as part of their qualification criteria for social housing, requiring people to have lived in the area for a certain amount of time before they can go on the waiting list.

“We believe that this is entirely appropriate and we want to ensure that all local authorities adopt such an approach. We consider that a reasonable period of residency would be at least two years.”

The DCLG therefore proposed that the new guidance “should strongly encourage all local authorities to adopt a two year residency test as part of their qualification criteria”.

However, the Department said it recognised that people might have a local connection to an area even if they did not currently live there or had not lived there for long enough.

“Accordingly, we propose that the guidance should also encourage local authorities to consider adopting other qualification criteria alongside a residency test so that people who are able to demonstrate a strong association to the local area are not disadvantaged,” the consultation paper said.

The consultation paper gave as examples of criteria demonstrating a strong local association:

• Family association: “for example, where the applicant has close family who live in the district and who have done so for a minimum period of time”; or
• Employment in the district: “for example, where the applicant or a member of their household is currently employed in the district and has worked there for a certain number of years”.

The DCLG added that it was important that local authorities retained the flexibility to take proper account of special circumstances, “including for example the need to protect people who are moving into the district to escape violence, as well as homeless families and care leavers whom the local authority have housed outside their district”.

It also said there might be sound policy reasons not to apply a residency test to existing social tenants seeking to move between local authorities. “This could for example, restrict the ability of tenants to downsize to a smaller social home or to take up an employment opportunity, which might impede labour market mobility.”

The consultation paper added: “The new guidance will therefore remind local authorities of the need to provide for appropriate exceptions.”

The DCLG said it did not to propose to change the position that members of the regular Armed Forces, their bereaved spouses and civil partners, and seriously injured reservists must not be subject to disqualification through a local connection or a residence test.

“This guidance will make clear that we expect local authorities to also consider the wider needs of the Armed Forces community, and to be sympathetic to changing family circumstances, recognising, for example, that the spouses and partners of service personnel can also be disadvantaged by the need to move from base to base,” it added.

The consultation paper said local authorities should ensure that those who do not qualify for social housing – either because they have not lived in the area for long enough, or because they cannot demonstrate a local association in some other way – are helped to find alternative housing, “for example in the private rented sector”.

“We would propose, therefore, that the guidance reminds local authorities of the desirability of operating a housing options approach alongside a restricted waiting list,” it said. “In the case of foreign nationals who are sleeping rough, appropriate options might include reconnection to their own country.”

The DCLG also insisted that local authorities needed to ensure they collected and published accurate, up-to-date and anonymised information on waiting list applicants and lettings outcomes. “The published data should include information about household characteristics, including the age, sex, ethnicity and nationality of applicants and new tenants.”

The paper said: “Accordingly, the new guidance will include an expectation on local authorities to have a clear policy about the collection and publication of waiting list and lettings information and to ensure the policy is published on their website.”

Proposed guidance on recording social lettings has also been published.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “This government is standing up for hard-working people. Local residents and the Armed Forces should be first in line for social housing. This is part of decisive package of government reforms to tackle unsustainable immigration.”