19th February 2025
Proposed changes to the way social housing in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse is allocated for those in the most need will speed up help for homeless households to move into long-term accommodation.
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils are inviting people to take part in a public consultation on proposed changes to their Joint Housing Allocations Policy.
The councils maintain a housing register and advertise available social housing through a Choice Based Lettings Scheme. The Joint Housing Allocations Policy sets out the criteria to join the housing register and the rules for how social housing is allocated.
The policy was last updated in 2019 – so it is now in need of a refresh to reflect current housing priorities in the districts.
Proposed changes to the policy cover four main areas, firstly, increasing the income and savings threshold from £60,000 to £80,000 to reflect the changes in income and inflation.
An increase in the rent arrears threshold from £500 to £1,000 is also proposed to help support low-income households by allowing applicants who are willing to address low-level rent arrears to join the register.
Ensuring people with life circumstances such as rough sleeping or addiction issues are not disproportionately excluded from the housing register is an area of focus for the proposed amends.
Removing the disqualification period of up to two years to join the housing register at the end of a custodial sentence or eviction, for example, is part of the proposals. The amend would require independent evidence to be provided that the applicant is willing to receive support and change their behaviour.
The fourth and final area of changes covers amending the priority ‘banding’ system for homeless households in temporary accommodation – this will help homeless households move more quickly into more suitable long-term accommodation.
Cllr Maggie-Filipova-Rivers, Cabinet Member for Housing at South Oxfordshire District Council said: “This policy underpins our work on providing homes to those who need them most.
“It’s timely now to refresh the policy alongside all our work to increase social housing provision across the district. We want to ensure the criteria for joining our housing register reflects economic changes and government policy updates over the past few years. Do join the conversation and share feedback on our proposed updates.”
Cllr Sue Caul, Cabinet Member for Housing at Vale of White Horse District Council said: “We want to encourage people to take part in this consultation. Whilst some of the proposed changes to the criteria for joining our housing register are fairly small adjustments – they are all designed to help ensure no one is disadvantaged when it comes to allocating social housing.
“We’ll review and consider everyone’s comments on the proposed policy updates so please do join in the consultation.”
The consultation opens on Tuesday 18 February and runs until 11:59pm on Tuesday 18 March 2025.
To take part in the consultation go to our website theconversation.southandvale.gov.uk
