Housing associations and housing organisations will be charged for Brighton & Hove City Council’s Choice Based Lettings service in a move that will help modernise services and deliver savings of around £140,000.
Registered Providers, which include the city’s housing associations and sheltered housing bodies, take nominations from the council but to date have not had to pay for the service.
The move to charge would bring the council in line with most other council’s nationally that already charge and ease the financial pressures on the city’s housing service.
Under CBL, applicants for housing are verified by the council’s Homemove team and then as properties come up for letting the top three shortlisted households are checked to ensure they meet the criteria for the property they have bid on. The proposal is to charge pro rata according to the number of shortlists produced for each Registered Provider.
The council is also reviewing its sheltered housing service to identify ways to improve and streamline the department ahead of closer work with the adult social care service.
Chair of housing Cllr Bill Randall said:
“Our Choice Based Lettings service means our tenants choose the properties they want instead of them being allocated and has been provided free of charge to the local housing organisations we work with.
“We face very challenging budget reductions so we think it’s time our housing partners paid for this service like others up and down the country.”