Housing policy and strategy

We are making changes to our 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 will come into effect in February 2025. It aims to make allocating social housing more transparent and prioritise those facing multiple challenges.   

The new scheme will:

• Introduce a new band system to more openly reflect the needs and circumstances of those waiting for social housing.  
• Give greater priority to households facing severe or multiple challenges, by bringing in new priority groups to reflect this.
• Make 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 will fix this.
• Give 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:  

• Nearly three quarters of respondents to our public consultation felt that we should give greater priority to households with multiple needs, and our new scheme reflects that
• Adults leaving the care system told us they wanted the opportunity to bid for homes rather than have them directly assigned, and we have changed the scheme to include that
• There was a wide range of feedback on our current policy of giving additional priority to people in employment, but many respondents felt the current policy should change. We have changed this by removing them for new applicants, but allowing those already with them to keep them for 3 years 
• Over half of respondents strongly agreed that we should give additional priority to long-standing Westminster residents. We have amended the scheme to recognise the accumulation of time spent living in the borough, rather than just at the date you applied.

Next steps and timeline

The new scheme will replace the previous scheme in February 2025. From this date, anyone applying for social housing will be applying under the new scheme.  

If you are already on the housing register, you will be automatically reassessed in line with the new scheme. We will write to you directly to let you know what the changes mean for you. We will let you know what band you have been allocated to and how many points you have under the new scheme.  

We will also be holding events for you to talk to us in person about the changes. We will let you know details of these in the new year.  

Questions and Answers

Why are you changing the Allocations Scheme?

We have not made many changes to our scheme for quite a long time. We are changing 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. 

You’re changing your Housing Allocations Scheme, but what that does mean for me?

If you already have an application open on our housing register you will see a change to the number of points you have, and you will be given a new priority band. Exactly how your application changes will depend on your circumstances. In early 2025 we will write to you explaining the changes in more detail and what they mean for you. 

If you are not currently on the housing register the change will not affect you now, but will explain how your application will be assessed if you apply in the future.

What happens next?

You don’t need to do anything right now. We will write to you early in 2025 with more information about what the changes mean for you, when the new scheme will launch and whether there is any additional information we need from you. 

More information

See the current Allocations Scheme: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/housing-policy-and-strategy/allocations-scheme 

Apply for social housing: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/housing/register-social-housing/how-apply-social-housing