Allocating social housing

The government is consulting on new draft statutory guidance on social housing allocations for local authorities in England.

The new guidance is intended to assist authorities to take advantage of the provisions in the Localism Act 2011 which give back to local authorities the freedom to manage their own waiting lists, and make it easier for them to move existing social tenants to more suitable accommodation. It also encourages authorities to make use of the existing flexibilities within the allocation legislation to ensure that social homes go to people who need and deserve them the most.

Alongside the guidance, the government is consulting on 2 sets of draft regulations relating to the Armed Forces. The regulations will ensure that former service men and women who have urgent housing needs are given ‘additional preference’ (i.e. high priority) for social housing - so that they will be at or near the top of housing waiting lists; and that service personnel who move from base-to-base do not lose their qualification rights.