Housing Allocations & Lettings Draft Policy (2024) - Consultations

Bolton Council are currently consulting on the revisions to the Housing Allocations and Lettings Policy.  This is being undertaken to meet the requirements of new legislation and changes to practice.

What is a Housing Allocations and Lettings Policy?

The Housing Allocations and Lettings Policy is a technical document setting out how the housing register is managed and how social rented properties available to let within the area are offered to customers.  It is not a replacement for the individual lettings policies that all the independent social landlords also have.  We therefore will not accept comments relating to the lettings policy.

This policy should be viewed as an overarching framework whereby certain responsibilities sit with the Council and others with the partner landlords.

The proposal

Following a review of the existing Allocations and Lettings Policy, the draft updated policy reflects several changes in law and regulation, whilst also providing clarification of some elements of the policy to avoid ambiguity.   Bolton Council is consulting with residents and stakeholders to allow opportunity for people to contribute their views to the revised policy.  Once the consultation and policy review is completed, the approved updated policy is proposed to be implemented from 1st January 2025.

What are the changes to the revised policy?

*Note: Much of the policy document remains unchanged. The changes proposed include only minor policy changes, with the majority of policy document changes reflecting practical procedure and process alignment. As such there are no major changes to policy.  The requirement to reflect homelessness changes in the priority banding system is a requirement of Housing legislation and therefore the policy is being updated to reflect legislative requirements.

The changes are:

i. To reflect the duties to prevent and relieve homelessness contained within the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 in the allocations scheme, including an alignment of suitable offers across part VI Allocations and Part VII Homelessness. (Refer to section 4.3).

ii. To update the Policy document to reflect Government guidance and best practice in relation to data protection, Equality Act and Homelessness prevention.

iii. To provide greater clarity on how the rules contained in the policy will be applied in assessing need and other aspects of applications, including:

Consideration of current or former tenants with a housing related debt.

Clarification on households and property size requirements.

iv. To provide greater clarity for assessment of applications on the housing need criteria applicable for awarding the top 2 bands for urgent and high housing need priority.

v. To provide a revised definition of ‘local connection’ to ensure any connection has been secured ‘by choice’, thereby better enabling Bolton Council to manage applications from those placed into the area by neighbouring authorities.

For further details about the consultation and who will be impacted, please watch this short video and refer to our useful documents below:

Please view these useful documents prior to responding to the consultation.

Housing Allocations and Lettings Revised Policy

Housing Allocations and Lettings Frequently Asked Questions

This consultation has now closed.

To take part in the consultation, please email the Consultation and Research Team with your comments.

Alternatively please write to:

FREEPOST RTTT-YTEL-YSXS
Consultation & Engagement Team
2nd Floor
Town Hall
Victoria Square
Bolton
BL1 1RU