Local Link Now Essential for Borough Housing Applicants

Published on: 28 Jul, 2014
Updated on: 4 Aug, 2014

Those who need a helping hand to secure a place to live must have a local connection – that’s the key change Guildford Borough Council (GBC) has agreed to its housing allocations policy.

The high demand for social housing in the borough means the council needs to ensure their allocation is as fair as possible. The review, which involved consultation with housing applicants, the Tenants’ Action Group and registered housing providers attracted over 600 individual responses.

Cllr Sarah Creedy (Con, Holy Trinity), lead councillor for housing and social welfare said: “We have looked carefully at the criteria we use to decide how we allocate social housing in our borough. As part of this review, we have strengthened the requirement for those on the register to have a strong local connection, usually meaning they have lived in the borough for two years or more.”

Cllr Sarah Creedy

The local connection rule does not apply to those who have recently left the Armed Forces.

Cllr Creedy continued: “We have a limited amount of housing stock, although we are working with our partners to build more affordable housing in the borough. The allocations policy and this recent review is all about making the best use of our limited resources to house those in greatest need.”

The changes will take be phased in over the next six months, with new applicants affected from August 1.

Responses to Local Link Now Essential for Borough Housing Applicants

Roland McKinney Reply

July 28, 2014 at 10:45 pm

Cllr Creedy says: “The allocations policy and this recent review is all about making the best use of our limited resources to house those in greatest need.”

Fine sounding words. The reality? The threshold income qualification for social housing has been set at £35,000 for a single person, £70,000 for a couple.

Is there anyone out there who believes that this reflects “those in greatest need”. Or maybe like me you have doubts – that perhaps these thresholds have been set so that the social housing list can expand and justify the council’s housing target, which has been set well beyond the actual housing needs of Guildford.