Housing allocations

There are far more people wanting to move to council and housing association homes than the number of homes available. We use a set of rules called the "Housing Allocations Scheme" to decide who we can help.

The law says that we have to give priority for housing to people in the highest and most urgent need. This could include people who are:

• homeless
• living in overcrowded places or conditions
• suffering with medical problems that are being made worse by their current housing
• disabled and living in a home that does not meet their needs
• likely to suffer hardship if they were unable to move.

Last year we made significant changes to our scheme. Our aim was to focus on housing the people in high housing need rather than administering a housing register of people we will never be able to house. We also now give extra priority to people in housing need who are also working, volunteering, training or are former members of the armed forces. Finally, we also changed the way we offer choice to housing applicants.

We are considering making some further changes and would like to hear the views of stakeholders before making these changes. The main changes relate to the following:

• Local connection- applicants will normally be expected to have lived in Barnet for 2 years
• Non qualification- certain classes of applicant will not be placed into any housing band
• Community contribution- formal caring will be recognised
• Pan-London Mobility

Please see a summary and the revised full scheme below.

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