Huntingdonshire District Council has joined with 6 other Councils in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to launch the Home-Link choice based lettings scheme. The scheme is being launched this month and will allow people across these Council areas to have more choice when they apply for social housing. Under the new scheme, people on the housing registers in these areas will be able to bid for the property they want to live in.
Home-Link is set to be launched on 22nd February and will change the way Council and Housing Association properties are let. The introduction of the scheme follows consultation across these Council areas throughout 2007.
The seven Councils make up what is called the Cambridge sub-region, and includes Cambridge City, East Cambridgeshire, Forest Heath, Huntingdonshire, South Cambridgeshire and St Edmundsbury. Council and Housing Association properties in these areas will be advertised on a dedicated website, you can visit this website by clicking on the link on the right. Properties in Fenland will be advertised from November 2008.
They will also be advertised in a fortnightly Home-Link magazine which is available at a range of access points across the sub-region. Details will also be advertised at Council and Housing Association offices where people would normally apply for housing.
Applicants on the housing register will be able to place an expression of interest, known as a bid, for up to three available properties in each fortnightly advertising cycle.
In addition to this, 10% of all property in the sub region will be advertised as available to anyone who has a local connection to the sub-region. So for example where an applicant only has a local connection to Huntingdonshire they will be able to bid for properties in the Huntingdonshire section of the Home-link magazine and properties advertised in the cross partner section of the magazine.
They will be able to bid for the available properties in a variety of ways:
- By visiting the Home-Link website using the link on the right
- By low cost telephone number on tel: 0870 727 0481
- By text message 07781 472726
- By returning a postal coupon
- By calling in to a local council or housing association office.
When bids are considered for advertised properties, the successful bidder will usually be the person who has been in the highest housing need band for the longest period of time.
All existing applicants on the housing register will receive details about their current application for housing as well as a straightforward Home-Link user guide, which explains how the scheme will operate. Full details will also be posted on the Home-Link website.
Home-Link will not increase the total number of homes available across the sub-region but it will give people more choice and provide a more open and transparent system.
Applicants will have more say in where they are housed and more information about their housing options. It will also provide the opportunity to move around the sub-region.
All the partners in the Home-Link scheme are fully committed to ensuring that there is appropriate support in place for vulnerable applicants. The partnership is working closely with support agencies to make sure the scheme is accessible to everyone.
The first advertising cycle will be from 9am on Friday 22nd February until 12noon on Wednesday 27th February. Properties will be advertised each fortnight from then onwards.
Councillor Mike Simpson, deputy leader of Huntingdonshire District Council, said:”The Home-Link scheme will provide applicants with far more information about the properties available to let. By being able to bid for individual properties, families will have a much greater say in where they would like to live and will be actively involved in the process, rather than being allocated a property by the council.
“This will include the opportunity of bidding for properties in other areas of the Cambridge sub-region. The additional information the scheme provides will tell them their chances of being housed via the register as they will be able to see the level of priority previous properties were let to.”