Issue - meetings

Background:

This report sought Cabinet approval of the revised Housing Allocations Policy, attached at Appendix A to the report. This was last reviewed in 2012 and since then there had been changes in legislation and additional Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) guidance.  Therefore, it had been necessary for the policy to be updated to reflect this and the current needs of Medway residents.

The policy was a statutory requirement and detailed who should be awarded priority for housing and how the units of accommodation would be allocated. As of 1 July 2019 there were 3,923 households registered for accommodation and of those 1,860 households had a priority that allowed them to bid for accommodation through the Homechoice system.

The Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meetings on 22 August 2019 and its comments were set out at section 7 of the report.

A Diversity Impact Assessment had been completed and was detailed at Appendix B to the report.

Reasons:

The Housing Allocations Policy is a statutory document and adopting the revised policy will ensure that it remains up to date and is able to respond to pressures locally.