North Northamptonshire Council Draft Housing Allocation Scheme Consultation (November 2020)

Overview

All local housing authorities are required by law to have a scheme for determining priorities and procedures when allocating social housing. 

The current two-tier system of local government in Northamptonshire is changing from 1 April 2021.

On 1 April 2021 there will be a new council for North Northamptonshire, replacing Northamptonshire County Council, Corby Borough Council, East Northamptonshire Council, Kettering Borough Council and the Borough Council of Wellingborough.

Currently in North Northamptonshire, each of the borough and district Councils have a different allocation scheme.

A new housing allocation scheme is being developed for North Northamptonshire which we aim to implement sometime during the financial year, starting 1 April 2021, and your views are needed to help shape the final scheme.

This document is important as it contains the rules that the new unitary Council will follow when allocating council and housing association properties in North Northamptonshire.

The proposed draft housing allocation scheme will:

• supersede the existing schemes covering Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough.
• apply to existing applicants, new applicants and existing social housing tenants who wish to transfer.
• maintain a Choice Based Lettings approach to allocations with which current service users and key stakeholders will be familiar.
• aim to provide good quality, affordable housing to those in the most need whilst promoting sustainable tenancies and communities.

The proposed draft scheme sets out the rules regarding:

• Who would be eligible and who would qualify for social housing in North Northamptonshire (section 4)
• Who can apply and how the new unitary Council will process applications (section 5)
• How the new unitary Council assesses housing need and determines who should have priority for social housing (section 6)
• How the new unitary Council allocates social housing and who can be considered for what type of property (section 7)
• How applications from those in the greatest housing need (including those that are homeless) will be managed (section 8)

For further information, please see the North Northamptonshire Draft Housing Allocation Scheme document.

Why we are consulting

We would really like your views on our proposed draft housing allocation scheme. In particular, we are asking for your feedback and opinions on specific sections of the draft housing allocation scheme.

The consultation is open to all residents, stakeholders and people representing organisations.

The consultation will run for 6 weeks from 4 November to 15 December 2020.

Please tell us your views by completing this questionnaire. Alternatively, you can email or send your comments in by post using the contact details below.

The information provided by you in this consultation will be used only for research purposes and it will not be used in a manner that would allow identification of individual responses. We will not be asking for your name or contact details. Any personal information supplied within your comments that could identify you will not be published.

Please contact us if you have any queries about this consultation. Our contact details are as follows:

Email Address: futurenorthants@northamptonshire.gov.uk

Postal Address:

• Allocations Consultation 
• Future Northants
• C / O Kettering Borough Council
• Bowling Green Road
• Kettering
• NN15 7QX

Telephone: 01536 410333

What will happen next?

Once the consultation closes, we will collate all the feedback received and present this information for the North Northamptonshire Shadow Executive to consider when making their decision on the housing allocation scheme for North Northamptonshire. This will happen early in 2021.

We will then publish the scheme, with the aim to implement this sometime during financial year starting 1 April 2020. Existing housing applicants impacted by these changes will be contacted before the changes come into effect.