The Executive Board of the city council meets this Tuesday, when councillors are being asked to approve new changes to the Housing Allocations Policy.
A joint report by Graham de Max, Policy and Partnership Manager, Housing Strategy, and Sue Lomax, Housing Options Manager, Nottingham City Homes will be presented to councillors at the meeting.
The report takes into account the impact that the Bedroom Tax is having on people living in Nottingham today, and its impact on the available housing stock of 29,000 homes.
The report says Nottingham City Council’s Housing Allocations Policy is regularly reviewed to maintain its relevance in providing homes for people in need, which last happened three years ago.
Nottingham is currently experiencing increasing demand for social housing, in particular as a result of the Government’s Welfare reform agenda.
Currently there are just fewer than 12,000 applicants on the housing register. Approximately 1800 properties became available for re-letting last year, which means that supply is greatly outstripping demand.
The increased demand means that applicants who have low or no needs are placed on the housing register with little or no realistic chance of being offered a social tenancy.
In June 2012 parts of the Localism Act 2011 relating to housing allocations came into force.
Local Authorities throughout the country are making amendments to their Housing Allocations Policies to make use of the powers and flexibilities, particularly in relation to setting a residency qualification and in discharging homeless duties to the private rented sector.
The proposed new amendments include the Introduction of qualifying criteria for applicants to the Housing register, in relation to age and residency in the City; and non-qualifying criteria in terms of un-acceptable behaviour, home ownership, no housing need and unavailability to occupy accommodation.
In terms of city residency the qualifying period will change to 3 years to prevent immigrants from entering the UK and jumping the Nottingham housing cue, or transferring into Nottingham from other areas of the country.
It says that the Housing Register will be closed to new applicants with a low chance of success.
Re-designation of the holding band 5, which will become a band for lower need applicants who will qualify for older people’s accommodation.
Amendments to eligibility and occupancy criteria to relax previous age restrictions which were applied to ground floor flats. This is in view of the increased demand, particularly from those who currently have to pay the Bedroom Tax who want to down-size, or need to be re-housed due to regeneration.
There will also be amendments to the eligibility and occupancy criteria for two bedroom low rise flats to make best use of all accommodation which can be used for smaller families, many of whom are particularly impacted by the reductions in benefits due to the Bedroom Tax.
The introduction of affordability and risk assessments for all applicants prior to offer, to ensure applicants are only offered accommodation which they can afford and, where any risks can be managed.
Sanctions will also be introduced for those who are not bidding realistically or who are continuously refusing suitable offers?
There will be amendments to the Allocation Policy in order to facilitate decisions from Nottingham City to discharge their homeless duty to the private rented sector.
This is a controversial decision since the private rented sector is presently under a lot of pressure.
This is for two reasons. Firstly, Lettings agents in England charge tenants an average of £350 in fees on top of a deposit and up-front rent, a housing charity has said.
Shelter set up anonymous testing of 60 lettings agencies to record what they charged to set up a tenancy, make credit checks and other paperwork.
It called for new rules to ensure these fees were only paid by landlords.
But the lettings agents' trade body said it was fair that tenants made a contribution.
The Association of Residential Lettings Agents said that if this was not the case, then rents would rise.
Secondly, private sector housing rents are considerably over valued. The average rent in England and Wales is now 3.9pc higher than it was this time last year and yet the average wage in the private sector hasn’t gone up at all, with pay rises grinding to a complete halt.
The squeeze is especially acute in London, where rents are 7.6pc higher and where a quarter of residents rent privately and here in the East Midlands rents are up 4.1pc, according to LSL Property Services.
As a result we are starting to hear tentative calls for rent controls – compulsory limits on how much landlords are allowed to charge, and caps on annual rent hikes.
On June 12th the Institute of Physical Studies released a report showing that wages have fallen more in real terms in the current economic downturn than ever before.
"The falls in nominal wages... during this recession are unprecedented," said Claire Crawford from the IFS.
On top of the rising cost of living, one third of workers who stayed in the same job saw a wage cut or freeze between 2010 and 2011, said the Institute.
Whatever the decision of councillors at this week’s Executive Board meeting, it promises to be a significant turning point for every tenant, and those on the Housing Waiting List.
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