Housing allocations policy

This policy sets out who qualifies to join the Council’s Housing Register, how to join the Register and how the Council will prioritise and nominate households to vacant properties supplied to the Council from housing associations who operate in Walsall. To do this the Council is obliged to meet various statutory requirements as outlined below. The Council will only nominate households to vacant homes in accordance with this policy. This Policy applies to all new and existing applicants. 

Social and affordable rented housing is housing owned by both local authorities and housing associations for which guideline rents are determined through the national rent regime. Walsall Council no longer owns any housing stock, so by default this policy applies exclusively to vacant properties supplied to the Council from housing associations who operate in Walsall. Generally, housing associations will offer to the Council at least 50% of their vacant properties. 

The Housing Act 1996, as amended, requires all local authorities to make housing allocations in accordance with an Allocations Policy. The policy must give reasonable preference to groups in assessed housing need as defined by Section 166A (3) of the Housing Act 1996 as set out below: 

• (a) people who are homeless within the meaning of Part 7 of the 1996 Act 
• (b) people who are owed a duty by any housing authority under section 190(2), 193(2) or 195(2) of the 1996 Act (or under section 65(2) or 68(2) of the Housing Act 1985) or who are occupying accommodation secured by any housing authority under s.192(3) 
• (c) people occupying insanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions 
• (d) people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds, including grounds relating to a disability, and 
• (e) people who need to move to a particular locality in the district of the housing authority, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship (to themselves or others) 

Section 150 (1) of the Localism Act 2011 states that a local authority must publish a Tenancy Strategy. The Strategy sets out the matters that registered providers of social housing operating in their district must ‘have regard’ to when formulating policies relating to: 

• a) the kinds of tenancies that they grant; 
• b) the circumstances in which they will grant a tenancy of a particular kind; 
• c) where they grant tenancies for a certain term, the lengths of the terms; and, 
• d) the circumstances in which they will grant a further tenancy at the end of an existing tenancy. 

The Black Country Tenancy Strategy has been adopted in response to the Localism Act 2011. 

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 places duties on local authorities to intervene at earlier stages to prevent homelessness in their areas. It also requires housing authorities to provide homelessness services to all those affected, not just those who have ‘Priority Need.’ These include: 

• a) an enhanced prevention duty extending the period a household is threatened with homelessness from 28 days to 56 days (referred to as the Prevention Duty); and, 
• b) a duty for those who are already homeless so that housing authorities will support households for 56 days to relieve their homelessness by helping them to secure accommodation (referred to as the Relief Duty). 

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and accompanying statutory code came into effect on 01 October 2021. The Act extends priority need for homeless assistance to persons who are homeless as a consequence of being a victim of domestic abuse (Section A4.4 of the statutory code).