Yarmouth Road, Hemsby Local Lettings Policy (Orbit Housing site)

1.Background

1.1Section 166A(3) of the Housing Act 1996 requires Great Yarmouth Borough Council to ensure that when allocating and nominating to housing accommodation reasonable preference is given to the following groups:  

• people who are homeless within the meaning of Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 (including those who are intentionally homeless and those not in priority need)
• people who are owed a duty by any housing authority under the Housing Act 1996 sections 190(2), 193(2) or 195(2) (or under section 65(2) or 68(2) of the Housing Act 1985) or who are occupying accommodation secured by any such authority under section 192(3)
• people occupying insanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions
• people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds, including grounds relating to a disability
• people who need to move to a particular locality in the district of the authority, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship (to themselves or to others)

1.2Section 166A(3) of the Housing Act also enables the Council to give additional preference to particular descriptions of people within the above groups, these being descriptions of people with urgent housing needs.

1.3Section 166A(3) does not require that persons in the reasonable preference categories should be given absolute priority over everyone else.  This means that an allocation policy may provide for other factors than those set out in section 166A(3) to be taken into account in determining which applicants are to be given preference under a scheme, provided that:

• they do not dominate the scheme
• overall, the scheme operates to give reasonable preference to those in the statutory reasonable preference categories over those who are not

1.4Section 166A(6) of the Housing Act enables the Council to allocate particular accommodation to people of a particular description, whether or not they fall within the reasonable preference categories, provided that overall the Council is able to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of section 166A(3).

1.5This local lettings policy sets out the eligibility criteria for nominations to the rented dwellings at Yarmouth Road, Hemsby.

2.Eligibility criteria

2.1Nominations to follow the Allocations Policy and Scheme, with an additional criterion within the Emergency Band:

• where Great Yarmouth Borough Council requires households with a local connection to the parish of Hemsby to permanently move to alternative accommodation to allow future demolition to be undertaken due to coastal erosion

2.2Where local connection to the parish of Hemsby is defined as:

• last three years residency in the parish