Allocations scheme changes

As of March 2025 we have published a new Housing Allocations Scheme. Every council has a housing allocations scheme, which sets out how we assess and prioritise peoples’ needs to allocate our limited supply of social housing.

It tells you:

Who can apply to go on the social housing register.
Who gets priority for housing.
The type and size of property you are eligible to apply for.
How the council may resolve its housing duties towards you.

We reviewed our scheme alongside our tenants, communities and people on the housing register, to identify how we can best help those in the greatest need.

Our new scheme aims to make allocating social housing more transparent and prioritise those facing multiple challenges.

The new scheme:

Introduces a new band system to more openly reflect the needs and circumstances of those waiting for social housing.
Gives greater priority to households facing severe or multiple challenges, by bringing in new priority groups to reflect this.
Makes residency points fairer, by allowing people to gain them after joining the housing register. Previously, residents gained additional points if they had lived in Westminster for 10 years or more at the time of joining the register. If you joined the list at 9 years and reached 10 years during your wait for a house, these points could not be added. Our new scheme fixes this.
Gives people leaving care the opportunity to bid for properties, rather than being directly assigned one, so that they too are in control of their housing decision.

Sadly, the amount of available social housing in Westminster is very limited, especially for larger, family-sized homes. This means that households can face a long wait. Our new scheme aims to be more transparent, so that we can have honest conversations with people about their prospects for being housed and offer practical alternative options.

How we’ve listened to feedback

Many people have been involved in creating our new scheme, including residents, people waiting for social housing, professionals, charities and community groups. Throughout the review we heard many competing viewpoints, and we have tried to balance these in the fairest way possible in the new scheme.

Some changes that we have made in direct response to residents’ feedback include:

Feedback showed people needed the scheme to be easier to understand and access. A summary the scheme is now available along with an easy read version. All current applicants have been given an information booklet that summarises the changes.
Paper copies will be available through libraries across Westminster and videos will help applicants understand how to apply for housing.
Based on your feedback we’ve changed the priority given to people in employment. New applicants will not receive additional points for being in employment. However, current applicants with points for employment will be able to keep this for 3 years.
We listened to feedback on continuous residence and kept the minimum requirement at 10 years. However, we have changed how we assess residency, meaning that applicants can now accumulate years whilst they are on the Housing Register. This is to ensure that we are recognising long-term residents who have been waiting for social housing.
The majority of you said those with multiple needs should receive more points, so we’ve created a new group called Medical and Severely Overcrowded Priority Group. We have also introduced a new priority group for households where two or more the members have a medical need. This is called Cumulative Medical Priority. These new Priority Groups will be launching in September 2025.
We’ll continue to prioritise households with children but have also introduced an Overcrowded Family Offer, which will provide financial and practical support to household members who want to move out.
We have also created a new Priority Group called the ‘Next Generation Scheme’ which will help some adult household members to join the Housing Register if they have caring responsibilities or additional needs.
Finally, following feedback from our care leavers, the new scheme allows most adults leaving the council’s care to be able to bid on homes, so that they have more choice over where they live, with support from their Personal Advisor.

Next steps and timeline

The new scheme is now in place.

If you are already on the housing register, we have written to you directly to let you know what the changes mean for you.

Questions and Answers

Why have you changed the Allocations Scheme?

We have not made many changes to our scheme for quite a long time. We changed it now to make sure it meets the needs of our communities in the fairest way possible. Many people have also told us that they were unaware of the scheme, or it was hard to understand. We want to change that, making it easier for people to understand what will happen if they apply to the council for social housing.

What do the changes mean for me?

If you already have an application open on our housing register you will have seen a change to the number of points you have, and will have been given a new priority band. We wrote to everyone on the Housing Register with more information. If you have any questions, please contact allocationschemeenquiries@westminster.gov.uk.