Buckinghamshire Council Housing Allocations Scheme

The Council will assess the relative priority of applicants in two stages:

Stage One – Banding (See 4.1)

This assessment takes place when an applicant applies to join the Housing Register and his or her eligibility and priority are assessed.

The assessment of an application will take into account any accommodation that the applicant is currently entitled to occupy and any medical and welfare needs. When assessing for the number of bedrooms that are currently available to the applicant’s household, a second living room that is suitable to be used as sleeping accommodation will be treated as a bedroom.

An applicant is entitled to occupy accommodation:

• As an owner, lessee, leaseholder or tenant or by virtue of a court order.
• Express or implied license to occupy (i.e. as a lodger or living with relative).
• Any other enactment or rule of law giving a person the right to remain in occupation or restricting the right of another person from recovering possession.

Worsening of housing circumstances

An applicant must not do (or fail to do) something for the purpose of worsening their housing circumstances. When such a situation arises, the Council will carefully assess the change of circumstances and consider the facts of the case. The assessment of an application in these circumstances will take into account the applicants circumstances prior to the act.

For an applicant to have worsened their circumstances there must be evidence that it would have been reasonable for the applicant to have remained in their previous accommodation.

Examples of an applicant undertaking an act for the purpose of worsening housing circumstances are set out below;

• Abandoning a previous suitable tenancy.
• Moving without good reason to accommodation which is more overcrowded or is considered more unsatisfactory or insanitary that their previous accommodation.
• Selling a property or giving notice on a tenancy without having alternative accommodation available to them.
• Allowing a property to become overcrowded by inviting additional households to move in.
• Moving out of a property when housing advice has been provided for the applicant to remain in their existing accommodation.
• Moving out of an adapted property into an unsuitable or un-adapted property.
• Moving out of a property due to financial reasons when the property has been assessed as being affordable by the Council.
• Having sufficient funds available to purchase or to rent suitable accommodation in the private sector and choosing not to do so.
• Refusing an offer of private rented accommodation in order to get a banding on BHC.
• A statutory homeless household refusing a suitable final offer
• Collusion with landlord or family member to obtain notice to quit.

If an applicant is assessed as having worsened their housing circumstances, and they qualify to join the scheme, they will be placed into band E for a period of 12 months. An applicant can then request that their application be re-assessed after this period. All relevant facts and information available will be considered in the re-assessment process.

Stage Two – Shortlisting (See 6.1)

This assessment takes place when an applicant has bid on a property.

If more than one applicant bids on a property, they will be placed on a shortlist. The policy states how the relative priority of applicants on a shortlist will be determined.

Applicants will be placed in a Priority Band, taking into account the information they have provided with their housing application. The criteria for the Bands are given in Appendix 1.

When a change of circumstances results in a change of banding to a higher band the priority date of the banding will be amended to the date of acceptance onto the new band. Should a change in circumstances result in the band being lowered the date of application will remain.

This will not apply when an applicant is a current or former “looked after” child who has been moved into a higher banding under the terms of the Buckinghamshire Leaving Care Protocol (because the applicant is due to leave care and is ready for independent living). In this specific situation, the priority date of the banding will not be amended when the applicant moves into a higher banding. The purpose of this exception is to support Buckinghamshire Council in meeting its Corporate Parenting responsibilities and to ensure that young people leaving care are able to secure accommodation at the appropriate time in order to achieve a successful transition into adulthood and independent living.

The Council has appointed a qualified Medical Advisor whose advice may be sought when assessing whether to place an applicant in a higher priority band on medical grounds.

Applicants with serious medical problems may complete a self-assessment form. A Housing Officer will consider the information provided and make an assessment as to whether any medical priority should be awarded, including consulting a qualified medical adviser as required They will consider the medical advisor’s opinion along with all other relevant information in order to determine whether a priority band should be given and also any recommendation for the type of housing required (e.g. ground floor or adapted accommodation).

If applicants have been assessed as having a medical need they will be advised of the type of property that would be considered as suitable. Bids placed by the applicant on properties not meeting the criteria recommended will not be considered for the property.

When making a decision whether to award a priority on medical grounds, the Housing Officer will look at:

• How the current accommodation is causing or affecting the medical condition.
• How social housing would improve it.
• The severity of the effect that housing is having on the medical condition.
• The duration of the condition and any expected recovery time.
• The severity in comparison to the housing needs of other applicants.
• Whether other options are viable that could improve the situation.

Following the assessment a decision will be made whether to award a priority banding. The bandings are below:

• Band B “Severe” – The current housing is having a severe impact on the applicant’s (or family members) health and their health will deteriorate if the applicant is not moved to a suitable property.
• Band C “Adverse” – The current housing is having an adverse impact on applicant’s (or family member’s) health. Their health will not deteriorate in current accommodation, but the adverse impact will be reduced if the applicant moves to more suitable accommodation.

An applicant has a right to request a review of a decision not to award medical priority. Following the outcome of that review, the Council will not undertake any further assessment for 12 months unless there is a significant change in circumstances.

Applicants who have been awarded a medical priority to take into account difficulty with stairs and the need for ground floor accommodation will not usually be considered for a property with either internal or external stairs unless there are appropriate adaptations in place.

Households in temporary accommodation that is provided by the Council in pursuance of its homelessness duty (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) will not be entitled to a priority banding on Medical Grounds. In this situation, the household will have the statutory right to request a review of the suitability of the temporary accommodation that has been secured for them. This will be dealt with outside of the Bucks Home Choice Allocation Policy and in accordance with the current homelessness legislation and associated guidance. The Council will also keep the suitability of the temporary accommodation under ongoing review and will respond to any change of circumstances that arises in the household concerned.

Some applicants may need to move on welfare grounds that are not related to a medical condition.

It is not possible to state all the circumstances that will justify Reasonable Preference on welfare grounds, and each case will be assessed individually. A decision on whether or not to award priority on welfare grounds will be made by a panel consisting of at least two senior officers of the Council and all decisions will be recorded to ensure equality and consistency is maintained.

The panel will comprise of at least two senior officers of the Council who will consider the following factors to ensure consistency when assessing welfare cases:

• Is the applicant’s current housing situation having an adverse effect on their welfare?
• If so, can the adverse effect on the applicant’s welfare be resolved without the need to move?
• If the adverse effect cannot be resolved in the applicant’s current housing situation, can it be resolved by re-housing elsewhere? (Consideration will be given by the panel to ensure that, where there is a risk to the applicant’s safety and well-being, any move will reduce that risk. This may require a move away from the applicant’s current district).
• Will the applicant suffer hardship if they do not move to a particular location in the local authority district? (Where an applicant is applying to move to live near a relative to give/receive support, the panel will consider if there is evidence to support the application. These may include confirmation from support services, evidence of carers Allowance and any other information that the Council feels is relevant to the application).

In the event that the panel accepts that:

• An applicant needs to move on welfare grounds, but
• The Bucks Home Choice scheme cannot deliver a suitable move (e.g. because the applicant needs to move out of the Council area).

Then the Council will liaise with the applicant and relevant agencies to identify a suitable course of action to address the welfare needs.

Households in temporary accommodation that is provided by the Council in pursuance of its homelessness duty (Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996) will not be entitled to a priority banding on Welfare Grounds. In this situation, the household will have the statutory right to request a review of the suitability of the temporary accommodation that has been secured for them. This will be dealt with outside of the Bucks Home Choice Allocation Policy and in accordance with the current homelessness legislation and associated guidance. The Council will also keep the suitability of the temporary accommodation under ongoing review and will respond to any change of circumstances that arises in the household concerned.

The Council reserves the right to review the applicant’s priority banding on an appropriate periodic basis. Applicants are expected to be actively looking for and bidding on available properties on Bucks Home Choice. In certain circumstances the Council may make a direct allocation of an appropriate property. Any reviews will take into account bids that have been made by an applicant, offers made and refused, along with the particular circumstances of the case.

If an applicant has been placed in Priority Band A (Welfare) or B or C (Medical grounds) and has failed to bid for any properties or accept a direct offer of accommodation, the Council reserves the right to review the Priority Band.

In conducting the review, the Council will take into consideration the following:

• Have there been any properties advertised that would have met the applicant’s needs?
• If so did the applicant apply for them?
• Why were the bids unsuccessful?
• Did the applicant receive appropriate support in accessing the bidding cycle?
• Are the applicant’s circumstances the same?

On completion of the review a decision will be made whether the priority banding continues to apply. This may result in the application being removed where, without this priority banding, they would not otherwise qualify to join the housing register.