Transcript An Introduction to Choice Based Lettings Rugby BC

Housing Options for
Disabled People
2 July 2007
Choice Based Lettings
Alison Venning
What is CBL?
A way of letting social rented properties where
• Individual properties are openly advertised
• Property & area marketing information is published
• Homeseekers take the initiative to browse, choose & ‘bid’
• Bids are ranked & offers made according to prioritisation
policies – the allocations scheme
• Results & demand feedback are published
• A customer’s right to refuse an offer is accepted
• Customer support is available
• Accessible information
Allocations cf CBL
Allocations
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Cumbersome processes
Complex
Opaque
Driven by officer decisions
Nurtures dependency
Sometimes coercive
Paper based
Organised separately by
tenure
• Working in isolation
• Reluctant tenants
Choice Based Lettings
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Efficient processes
Simple
Transparent
Driven by homeseeker
Promotes empowerment
No penalties for refusals
Choice of channels
Part of Housing Options
approach
Partnership working
Sustainable communities
Advantages for
homeseekers
Homeseekers choose
whether to bid
Learn to use the Internet/New
technology
Homeseekers choose where
to live
Can define own housing
needs
Good housing advice on
website
Can refuse without any
penalty
Area
Type
Size
Floor
Tenure
Can better understand
chances
Can explore options
through website and
staff
Current Position
Target
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CBL in place in all 354 English local authorities by 2010
Progress as at April 06
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32% LAs and 40% of large RSLs
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Fewer than 10% LAs currently have no plans
Regional Challenge Fund to promote sub-regional schemes
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Oversubscribed: half of bids received in Round 2 funded
Objectives
CLG wants CBL services to
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Be integral to a housing options approach
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Involve the private rented sector
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Involve Low Cost Home Ownership
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Be regional or sub-regional
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Involve local authorities & RSLs working in partnership
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Increased homeseeker satisfaction
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Longer lasting tenancies
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Reduce void costs & rent loss
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Support creation of stable & cohesive communities
Longer Term Impact
• DCLG commissioned Heriott-Watt & BMRB long-term
impact report
• Benefits
• The end of hard to let
• Lower refusal rates
• Faster void times
• Better tenancy sustainment
• Cycle & shortlists support improved administration
• Potential to transform customer relationships
Transforming Customer
Relationships
• Transparency
• Fairness
• Accessibility
• Feedback
• Myth busting
• Managing expectations
• Promoting options
• Preventing Homelessness
• Attracting RSLs to include all vacancies
Transforming Customer
Relationships
•Transparency and fairness:
“Increased transparency is variously seen as helping
applicants to appraise housing options more realistically,
and to legitimise lettings decisions taken by landlords”
•Show all stock not just voids to help myth busting
•Blind faith to brutal truth – openness and honesty –
treating people like adults
•Aim to put all stock in to cbl scheme
Transforming Customer
Relationships
• Feedback and managing expectations:
“where personalised feedback was available people felt
very positive about the CBL system”
• Feedback is essential to making informed choice
and managing expectations:
• Whether personalised (you came 10th)
• Or general (2 beds in Newtown go to households in
Band A or with x points)
Transforming Customer
Relationships
Accessibility and fairness:
• “In areas where the system was well understood .. it was
believed fair”
CBL exposes underlying allocations scheme to scrutiny
so the way in which bids are ranked (either banding or
simple points scheme) must be:
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easily understood
explained well
fair
justifiable
legal
Allocation Schemes
Must be Housing Act 96 (as amended by
Homelessness Act 2002) compliant – e.g. no
exclusions except the statutory ones
Give reasonable preference
Must publish full rules and follow them
Must be simple and easily understood to ensure
transparency and to reduce administrative burden
Must pass the “pub test”
Must ensure properties with special features are
reserved for those with special needs
Allocation policies cont’d
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LAs retain responsibility for allocations schemes
LAs retain responsibility for homeless
RSLs must co-operate as far as is reasonable
CBL works with either banding or points schemes
CBL does need a simple scheme for ease of:
understanding
accessibility
transparency
administration
• Must retain right to refuse bid on risk or management
grounds
• Must reserve right to make direct offers
Range of support for
vulnerable
Identify them first – new apps and old
Identify and train those that support them
Prompting people to get hold of the advert
Sending copies of the ad to the housebound
Copies of the ad to homeless out of borough
Sending enlarged copies, giant emails or texts
Flowcharts of how to log on and bid
Bidding on behalf of those who cannot cope
Making best use of stock
Know your stock and its potential – train inspectors
Lifetime Homes
Inspect at every visit
Update database – NROSH
Incentives to vacate adapted properties
Incentives to move to smaller
Disabled Housing Registers
Bungalows/ elderly persons units
Other issues
Informed choice – frying pans to fire
Adaptations – RSLs have a duty to co-operate in
meeting needs
Adaptability
Advantages of sub-regional schemes
New Build programme
Unmet needs
Thanks for listening.
Any questions?