We are looking at how we prioritise council and housing association social rent homes in Royal Greenwich. 

We want to know what you think of our current scheme, who can apply for a council home, who gets priority, and how we are making sure it is allocated to the people who need it most. 

Have your say on how the Council runs the housing waiting list

Housing Waiting List Consultation

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Thanks for your interest in the Royal Greenwich Housing Waiting List Survey

Greenwich Housing Allocation and Access team

Find out about how we currently prioritise who gets a council home in the borough.

Our current waiting list scheme

Our current scheme for council homes

<div data-testid="ProposalSectionRender" id="isPasted"><div data-testid="Container">Some council and housing association properties have restrictions on who can apply for them, and people on the housing register will be graded into bands depending on their needs. There are also rules regarding the number of bedrooms allocated to people with children.&nbsp;</div></div><div data-testid="ProposalSectionRender"><div data-testid="Container"><div data-disable-events="true">HOUSING BANDSSome adverts will show restrictions about who can apply for that property. If there are no restrictions, then anybody can apply.When you are put on the housing waiting list, you will be put into one of four bands.<h3>Band A</h3>Band A includes:<ul><li>people living in unsatisfactory housing, from which they have to move because the property is to be demolished or refurbished</li><li>tenants who are under-occupying family homes or living in properties with adaptations they do not need.</li><li>tenants in hospital who cannot return to their property because it is no longer suitable for their needs</li></ul>Applicants are housed in date order from when they were given Band A priority.<h3>Bands B1 and B2</h3>Bands B1 and B2 are for people who have an urgent need to move. This includes people who:<ul><li>have serious medical problems affected by their housing</li><li>are homeless and in &#39;priority need&#39;</li><li>are living in a severely overcrowded home or living in insanitary housing as assessed and determined by Environmental Health and where remedial works cannot be completed within a reasonable period of time</li><li>are at risk of domestic violence, hate crime or other abuse</li><li>need housing to move out of local authority care, supported housing, or other particular types of accommodation</li><li>form households placed&nbsp;into either leased or private rented sector accommodation, by Royal Greenwich, in order to prevent homelessness, and who are subsequently faced with homelessness through no fault of their own</li><li>are key workers or others with a particular need to live in the borough, or council staff who must move to do their job, or because they are leaving their job&nbsp;(staff who have been dismissed will not be eligible)</li><li>tenants affected by the &#39;Under Occupancy Cap&#39; who are under-occupying their property by one bedroom, or people left in council properties after the tenancy ends, subject to an assessment of their needs and circumstances.</li><li>armed services personnel and their families who are in housing,&nbsp;following their discharge from the Forces, and who have a connection with the borough (B1) or who do not have a connection with the borough (B2).</li></ul>Applicants are housed in date order from when they were given Band B1 or B2 priority (Band B1 applicants will be shortlisted before Band B2 - see the Allocations Policy for further details on the B bandings)<h3>Band C</h3>Band C is for all applicants on the housing register. Applicants in Band C do not have any priority and are housed in date order from the date their applications were registered.All applicants will be placed in Band C on registration. They may also be placed within one of the other bands depending on the outcome of any assessment.<h3>No band restriction</h3>If the advert says there are no band restrictions, it means people in any band can apply.<h2>Other restrictions</h2>There are also other restrictions, such as the following.<ul><li>Age - Some properties are for those aged over 50 or over 60 only.</li><li>Existing tenants - Some properties are advertised for existing Royal Borough of Greenwich council tenants only.</li><li>Number of people - Some adverts state the minimum or maximum number of people allowed in the property.</li><li>Children - There may need to be a certain number of children in the household.</li></ul><h3>General rules for restriction on children</h3>The following general rules apply:<ul><li>houses will be allocated to households with children.</li><li>a child means at least one person aged 15 years or less who is dependent on the person applying for a home.</li></ul><h2>Property size policy</h2>The following rules are used to allocate properties to applicants in Bands A, B1, B2 and C to make sure the Royal Borough of Greenwich makes best use of housing stock. Non-working age households, are exempt from the size criteria - this is to encourage people to downsize or exchange their properties.The rules allow one bedroom for:<ul><li>every adult couple (married or unmarried)</li><li>any other adult aged 16 years or over</li><li>any two children of the same sex aged under 16</li><li>any two children aged under ten years</li><li>any other child (other than a child whose main home is elsewhere)</li><li>children who can&#39;t share because of a disability or medical condition</li><li>a carer (or team of carers) providing overnight care.</li></ul>A parlour room counts as a bedroom for allocation purposes.<h2>Rules for property types that will be offered</h2>Applicants assessed and awarded a priority rehousing band will be able to bid for all types of properties (This change is effective from 15 February 2022 and is not retrospective), except where there is a medical recommendation excluding them from doing so.There are separate allocations policies for applicants with priority from regeneration areas. There is also a separate allocations policy for the allocation of caravan pitches on the Council&rsquo;s website.</div></div></div>

Read the full details of the scheme

rbg_housing_allocations_scheme.pdf

Have your say on how we prioritise who gets a council home. 

Tell us what you think about our waiting list

Have your say

We are looking at how we prioritise council and housing association homes for social rent in Royal Greenwich.&nbsp;We want to know what you think of our current scheme, who can apply for a council home, who gets priority, and how we are making sure it is allocated to the people who need it most.&nbsp;<span data-ccp-parastyle="paragraph" data-ccp-parastyle-defn='{"ObjectId":"40180392-b9de-47b1-853b-bf29238d4e25|167","ClassId":1073872969,"Properties":[469775450,"paragraph",201340122,"2",134233614,"true",469778129,"paragraph",335572020,"1",469777841,"Times New Roman",469777842,"Times New Roman",469777843,"Times New Roman",469777844,"Times New Roman",469769226,"Times New Roman",268442635,"24",335559705,"2057",335559740,"240",201341983,"0",134233118,"true",134233117,"true",469778324,"Normal"]}'>Everyone who applies for housing in&nbsp;Royal Greenwich&nbsp;goes on a waiting list (also known as the Housing Register).&nbsp;There are over 27,000 households on the list, and this number is growing each year.&nbsp;<span data-ccp-charstyle="normaltextrun" data-ccp-charstyle-defn='{"ObjectId":"40180392-b9de-47b1-853b-bf29238d4e25|168","ClassId":1073872969,"Properties":[469775450,"normaltextrun",201340122,"1",134233614,"true",469778129,"normaltextrun",335572020,"1",469778324,"Default Paragraph Font"]}'>Despite our&nbsp;1,750 council&nbsp;house building programme called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/greenwichbuilds"></a><a href="https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/greenwichbuilds"></a><a href="https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/greenwichbuilds">Greenwich Builds</a>, the demand for homes in Royal Greenwich far outstrips supply.&nbsp;On average,&nbsp;we only have around 1,000 homes available each year.&nbsp;Sadly,&nbsp;there are more than 20,000 households in&nbsp;the low priority Band C and fewer than 20 households in this Band get an offer each year.&nbsp;Why your view matters&nbsp;We have decided to look at how we&nbsp;allocate&nbsp;council&nbsp;and housing association social rent&nbsp;homes&nbsp;because:&nbsp;<ul><li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="" data-list-defn-props='{"335552541":1,"335559684":-2,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}' data-listid="17">The housing waiting list keeps growing&nbsp;</li><li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="" data-list-defn-props='{"335552541":1,"335559684":-2,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}' data-listid="17">Most&nbsp;of those who apply are very unlikely to get a home&nbsp;</li><li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="" data-list-defn-props='{"335552541":1,"335559684":-2,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}' data-listid="17">It&rsquo;s&nbsp;not always clear to people what chance they have of getting a home&nbsp;</li><li data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="" data-list-defn-props='{"335552541":1,"335559684":-2,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"hybridMultilevel"}' data-listid="17">We want to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;more help and support to households in the&nbsp;greatest need.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Q1. The Council&#39;s Housing Waiting ListCurrently, people can apply for council housing and join the housing waiting list after they have lived in the borough continuously for five years. Some people can apply without meeting this requirement &ndash; please see Background Information below to find out more about this.

Q2. The Council&#39;s Housing Waiting List (continued)The Council is legally allowed to look at how much money a person has available for housing costs when that person is applying for the housing waiting list &ndash; please read the Background Information to find out more about why before answering the question below.&nbsp;

Q3. Priority bands&nbsp;In order to make sure the housing waiting list is fair, the Council puts people into bands depending on their needs.&nbsp;Bands A and B are for people who have a priority need to be rehoused, for example because they have a serious medical issue affected by their housing, are at risk of domestic violence or are severely overcrowded. &nbsp;These people are placed higher up on the register than people who do not have such an urgent need.&nbsp;There are more than 6,000 households across Bands A and B.Band C is for everyone else, or those who have low or no need to be rehoused. There are more than 20,000 households in Band C, and our staff spend most of their time responding to enquiries about this band. &nbsp;When council homes become available priority is given to households in Bands A and B. Because only around 1,000 Council and housing association homes become available each year, very few people in Band C are housed (around 10 last year). &nbsp;The small number who are rehoused are likely to have waited for years before making a successful bid.Because of this, we are considering closing Band C.Instead we would provide more appropriate information, advice and support for those people in low or no housing need. This would also allow us to provide better support to those with more urgent housing needs and to make homes available faster.

Q4. Priority bands: Armed Forces family&nbsp;The law says that Councils must give extra priority to ex-members of the armed forces who have a need for housing.The Council is considering also giving extra priority to close relations of ex-members of the armed forces (e.g. divorced partners, those that are widowed).

Q5. Allocations: downsizingHelping Council tenants with spare bedrooms to move to a smaller home, if they want to, is an excellent way to free up larger houses for families living in overcrowded homes. Please read the Background Information to find out more before answering the question below.

Q6. Allocations: downsizing for older residentsSome older people are living in council homes with more bedrooms than they need.&nbsp;These people have reached state pension credit age, which means they are not subject to the &quot;bedroom tax&quot; and do not suffer any reductions to any benefit claims they might need to make to pay for extra rooms.&nbsp;Under the current scheme the Council may exercise its discretion to allocate a property with an additional bedroom in the case of non&ndash;working age households who downsize, but this is not automatic.

Q7. Final suggestionsThe questions in this consultation are based on what our research tells us needs to change to improve the performance of our housing allocations system.  &nbsp;However, we do not want to miss anything that is important to our residents and therefore we welcome other ideas.   &nbsp;

Thank you for sharing your views. Please tell us what you thought of this consultation below.