Councillors will discuss potential changes to the Housing Allocations Policy at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday 17 October.
The Housing Allocations Policy sets out the conditions required to qualify for the housing register and how applicants are prioritised.
Since the city’s current Housing Allocations Policy was approved in 2016, significant legislative changes have been introduced, including the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
The proposed changes aim to help create more opportunities to prevent homelessness, reduce reliance on temporary accommodation and create more options for social housing tenants fleeing domestic abuse.
The changes could also offer greater transparency for applicants and more choice for households that meet the legal definition of overcrowded.
One key proposed change is to allow households at risk of being made homeless to join the housing register sooner. Currently, homeless households can only join once the council accepts a full housing duty for them.
Additionally, if a household secured alternative accommodation while homeless or at risk of homelessness, they would remain on the housing register. We anticipate this would reduce the number of households living in temporary accommodation.
Other proposed changes include simplifying the housing register queuing system, increased priority for some armed forces households and changing the residency criteria so that applicants must have lived in Brighton & Hove for 5 out of the last 7 years.
Currently, applicants must have lived in Brighton & Hove for 5 years or longer, without a break. This proposal aims to support people who may have had to temporarily move out of the city, for example to care for relatives.
Councillor Gill Williams, Cabinet member for Housing and New Homes, said: “There is no denying that Brighton & Hove has been significantly impacted by the national housing crisis.
“We’re seeing record numbers of residents presenting as either homeless or threatened with homelessness, which is putting substantial pressure on our services.
“We’re working on building more council homes to meet this demand, but in the meantime we must ensure we’re making the best use of council and housing association homes in the city.
“Social housing is an incredibly valuable resource, and it’s crucial that we ensure those who are in the greatest need are awarded the highest priority on the housing register.
“We need a robust system to manage this process, and changing our housing allocations policy could provide us with a fairer framework that means available council homes go to the people who need them most.”
We ran a public consultation between 1 March and 8 June, which generated 684 responses. The feedback has helped shape the final recommended changes to the housing allocations policy.
