Council keeps housing waiting list open amidst housing crisis

Council keeps housing waiting list open amidst housing crisis

0:02 AM, 8th April 2024, About 3 weeks ago 3

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One of England’s largest councils announces it will not close its social housing waiting list.

Birmingham City Council considered the option of closing its social housing list to new applicants in February but it has since announced its decision not to close waiting lists.

The move comes after several councils in England, including Leeds, are considering closing social housing waiting lists due to huge demand.

Country is in the grip of a severe national housing crisis

According to the magazine Inside Housing, Birmingham City Council currently has more than 23,000 households on its housing register, this includes 11,000 applications on the housing register that are yet to be assessed.

The housing register receives more than 400 new applications a week, while the council is only able to allocate 2,000 to 3,000 social homes to applicants in a typical year.

A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council told Inside Housing: “The country is in the grip of a severe national housing crisis, one that is putting an immense strain on Birmingham City Council’s existing housing stock.

“In response to the overwhelming demand for housing, the council has considered various measures, including the possibility of closing the register to new applicants. This would have allowed the council to focus on clearing the existing backlog of applications.

“But, we recognise how important it is for citizens to be able to apply for a home. On this basis, our housing register will remain open to new applications, and we will do all we can to keep it open.”

Councils in England considering closing their housing lists

With Birmingham City Council declaring bankruptcy, the housing department now faces a significant 28% budget cut.

Many councils across England are considering closing their housing lists altogether to ease demand.

Leeds City Council is considering removing all applicants from its waiting list who are in Band C and Band D which could leave 18,000 people unable to find a place to live.


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Comments

Reluctant Landlord

10:11 AM, 8th April 2024, About 3 weeks ago

23,000 in existing list
11,000 to add = 34,000
and 400 more a week (x 1 year) = 20,800

Grand total from today until April 2025 is 54,8000
3,000 per annum actually allocated, and so the figures roll on...

The reality is the list is pointless, open or closed.

Mick Roberts

5:41 AM, 9th April 2024, About 3 weeks ago

And they bring in Selective Licensing. Surely that will give em more houses won't it. These Council people are bright aren't they.

I'll keep putting this in, as one day, someone may take me up on the offer.

If anyone has more time than me, we could do with doing Freedom of Information FOI requests on all Councils what their homeless bill is for hotels and temporary accommodation.
Since you introduced Selective Licensing.
And also to the Councils that don't have Selective Licensing.

Be nice to see (because there is one) how big the direct correlation is from those Councils with Selective Licensing and those without.

Nottingham's homeless bill is now £8 million a year 6 years after introducing Oops Forcing Selective Licensing on 99% of tenants who didn't want it.
They can say there are bigger issues at play here, and there are, but Selective Licensing started it all and massively contributes to it now.

I know Newham was the first to introduce Selective Licensing and their homeless was also the biggest rise afterwards

Reluctant Landlord

19:22 PM, 9th April 2024, About 3 weeks ago

“In response to the overwhelming demand for housing, the council has considered various measures, including the possibility of closing the register to new applicants. This would have allowed the council to focus on clearing the existing backlog of applications."

How do you do that with ZERO properties available?

Or should I say with lots of properties available to you ALREADY (council properties that the public already own) but you can't be bothered to bring back into use to house the same people on your own list....

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