Changes to Wealden’s affordable housing eligibility rules

At a virtual meeting on Wednesday (May 13), members of Wealden District Council’s cabinet agreed to amend the authority’s housing allocation policy – the rules which govern who is eligible to apply for affordable housing. 

The changes relax the council’s rules on how long a person needs to live, work or have family in an area before they are considered to have a local connection to it. 

This results in changes to the council’s position on parish lettings, a policy which means people considered to have a ‘local connection’ to an area will be considered above other people when housing is allocated.

Cllr Ray Cade, cabinet member for housing and benefits, said: “The last review of the council’s housing allocation policy took place in 2011. Needless to say housing needs and people’s expectations have changed, along with the general, social and economic environment.

“The parish lettings policy is now failing to meet its original aims of sustaining communities by enabling local individuals and families to stay in their own area.

“As the report says, this can lead to unintended consequences for the established community’s residents, when the allocation process cascades to the wider district criteria.

“The report seeks to adjust some of the current residency and financial criteria, in order to more efficiently manage our housing stock but more importantly effectively meet housing needs, particularly with regard to people with close connections to our local communities.”

Cllr Cade added that the effects of the changes will be reviewed over the coming year, with further reviews of the policy likely to take place. 

As a result of the changes, a person will only have to live or work in an area for two years (rather than three) before they are considered to have a local connection and are able to join the housing register.

More significantly their family will only have had to live in the area for five years, rather than ten years before they are considered to have a local connection this way.

This is expected to have a significant impact as around 42 per cent of applications to join Wealden’s housing register are rejected due to the applicant not meeting the current local connection definition, despite having close family living in the district.

Council leader Bob Standley said: “At the moment the policy is excluding people who have some connection to a local area.

“Because they are not within the current criteria, they miss out and [the property] is allocated to someone with no local connection.

“This [change] is a benefit to local communities rather than reducing the allocation.”

The changes are also intended to make it easier for older people to move into affordable housing nearer to their families. 

As well as the changes to what constitutes a local connection, the new policy raises the ceiling on the savings someone can have before being able to join the housing waiting list.

Currently, someone cannot put their name down for housing if they have savings or assets worth more than £6,000. The amended policy will raise the cap to £20,000 instead.

This is intended to reflect the fact that the capital required to purchase a leasehold in the district starts at around £30,000.

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