Priority Bands for Rehousing

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• Priority Bands for Rehousing

There are 4 priority bands. Please view the information for the band that applies to you.

Band A (Emergency and Top Priority)

Emergency categories

• Applicants awarded over-riding medical priority by the Council’s Medical Adviser for a move to suitable accommodation.
  
• Homeless households, in priority need and living in temporary accommodation arranged by the Council where the lease has ended and the landlord wants the property back.  (If the tenant has occupied temporary accommodation for less than 12 months, they will be offered alternative temporary accommodation instead).
  
• Council or housing association tenants who are at risk in their home and the Council has agreed to a Management Transfer.
  
• Council tenants who need to move because their home has become uninhabitable, or is to be re-developed and the contractors need vacant possession (decants).
  
• Applicants with an assessed need to move to a property adapted for a physically disabled person, who cannot remain in, or return to, their current home.
  
• Deferred Transfers (tenants with the requisite priority who have relinquished their tenancy and the Council has agreed to re-house them at a later date) who need re-housing within 3 months.
  
• Deferred transfers where the PLS lease ends who were in Band B (that is, tenants with the requisite priority who were overcrowded in their Council tenancy) **
  
• Deferred transfers where the PLS lease ends who were in Band C and have occupied their PLS home for 12 months or more and with the requisite priority (if they have occupied their PLS home for less than 12 months, they will be offered alternative temporary accommodation).**

**  These are new customer categories which are not yet operational.

Top Priority categories

• Staff Re-housing Scheme tenants (Education and Housing Caretakers and Hostel and Sheltered Scheme Managers) the Council has a contractual obligation to re-house at commencement and on termination of their employment.
  
• Council or housing association tenants who qualify for the Incentive to Move scheme, that is, occupy family accommodation and are willing to move to one bedroom or sheltered accommodation or give up 2 bedrooms. Also, tenants of 1 bedroom general purpose accommodation moving to sheltered housing.
  
• Tenants in a property adapted for a disabled person which they no longer need which could be used by someone else with a need for that type of property.
  
• Council tenants who have succeeded to a tenancy, but a move has been agreed to smaller accommodation which meets their needs, or non-statutory successors where a discretionary offer has been agreed.
  
• Deferred transfers who have moved up from Band B after 2 years.  They will remain in Band A for 6 months, after which they will receive a direct offer. **

**  These are new customer categories which are not yet operational.

Priority will be given to any Emergency Category applicants who bid for an available home

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Band B (Urgent Need to Move)

• Applicants nominated by Social Services through their re-housing quotas.
  
• Homeless households in priority need where the Council has accepted a re-housing duty, who have occupied temporary accommodation for 2 years or over.
  
• Council or housing association tenants lacking 2 or more bedrooms who have an additional identified housing need (e.g., medical).
  
• Other applicants whose household lacks 2 or more bedrooms and have an additional identified housing need (preference for family homes of 3 bedrooms or more will be given to existing council or housing association tenants in this band).
  
• High medical need to move, that is, where current housing conditions are assessed as having a major adverse effect on the health of the applicant, or a member of their household.  
  
• Households in priority need threatened with homelessness by relatives or friends, who remain in their home instead of making a homelessness application.  Band B status would be retained unless the household were subsequently accepted as homeless and placed in temporary accommodation.  In these circumstances the household would be moved to Band C and revert to the re-housing path followed by other accepted households in temporary accommodation.  **
  
• Previously overcrowded Council tenants who have opted to move to larger temporary accommodation on a deferred transfer basis and have either been assessed for Band B or have been placed in Band B after 2 years in Band C. (Such households will remain in Band B for two years when they will move to Band A). **
  
• Tenants who need to move on from specialist supported accommodation.
  
• Applicants experiencing high levels of multiple need, that is, who have 3 or more types of identified housing need from the list below, which place them in at least 2 of the reasonable preference categories identified in the Housing Act 1996, as amended by the Homelessness Act 2002.

**  These are new customer categories which are not yet operational.

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Band C (Identified Housing Need)

• HOMEMOVE nominations into the borough for sheltered housing.
  
• Homeless households in priority need where the Council has accepted a re-housing duty and have occupied temporary accommodation for less than 2 years. Tenants in their first PLS or Tenant Finder tenancy must have been accommodated in their current home for 12 months or more in order to bid for permanent accommodation.
  
• Council and housing association tenants who have an identified housing need (see identitfied housing need table below).
  
• Other applicants with an identified housing need.  Existing Council and housing association tenants in this band will be given preference for family homes of 3 bedrooms or more.
  
• Previously overcrowded Council tenants, already in Band C, who have opted to move to larger temporary accommodation on a deferred transfer basis. (Such households will remain in Band C for two years when they will move to Band B). **

**  These are new customer categories which are not yet operational.

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Band D (All Other Applicants)

• All other applicants for housing who do not have an identified housing need (see table below).
  
• Applicants who have unreasonably refused 2 suitable offers.
  
• Applicants living outside the borough.
  
• Owner occupiers without an over-riding medical need to move.

Identified Housing Need

This includes:

• Lacking one or more bedrooms.  A single person living in a bedsit or studio flat is not considered to be lacking a bedroom.
  
• Lacking or sharing facilities (kitchen/living room/bathroom) with another household.
  
• Medical need (recommended by the Council`s Medical Adviser).
  
• Home too large (households qualifying for the Incentive to Move scheme will be in Band A).
  
• Private sector tenants where the property is in poor condition and an Environmental Health Officer has stated there will be a delay in taking enforcement action for substantial disrepair.
  
• Families unable to live together because of a genuine lack of accommodation.
  
• Private sector tenants who have received Notice to Quit or a possession order, but do not have a priority need.   
  
• Households with children under 10 living in a flat above the 4^th floor.
  
• Households with 2 members (where one is aged 10 or over) sharing a single bedroom .
  
• Any other exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Head of Housing.
• In cases where an applicant has two of the above identified housing needs, the Head of Housing will exercise discretion as to whether to place the application in a higher band where the needs fall within two of the reasonable preference categories identified in the Housing Act 1996, as mended by the Homelessness Act 2002 - refer to Reasonable Preference Categories (Annex 5) below). Examples may include cases where a household is severely overcrowded and also has an assessed medical need, or where tenants are severely overcrowded and are also suffering harassment in their current accommodation.