Nearly same number of people on waiting list as council homes in Newark and Sherwood

At the last count there were 5,070 applicants waiting to be housed in Newark and Sherwood, almost as many properties the district council has — 5,551.

Of those on the district council’s housing register, 205 were in band one, the most pressing need.

Worthiness for housing is split between four bands on a sliding scale of need that also takes into consideration an applicant’s association to an area.

A total of 412 were in band two, 1,599 band three and 2,854 were band four, which is the lowest priority for the council in meeting its statutory obligations.

Throughout 2020/21 a total of 346 lettings were made, but only 63 went to those in most need, 138 went to those classed as band two, 81 to band three applicants and 15 to band four — effectively those classed as the least pressing.

A table on the agenda for Monday night’s homes and communities committee gave a breakdown of the length of time people in band one and two spent waiting for a council house in 2019/20, alongside the reasons for requesting a move.

Of the band one requests, a snapshot reveals four came from care leavers who averaged 235 days waiting from the point of having their banding agreed to the commencement of their tenancies.

Three requests to be rehoused due to living conditions were made, with an average wait time of 78 days, seven came from people who were homeless, when there was an average wait of 48 days to be given a tenancy, two requests were on medical grounds, which took on average 660 days, and one was on the grounds of statutory overcrowding, which resulted in a 374-day wait.

With respect to those determined to be band two need, 21 applications were as a result of homelessness and the average wait time was 63 days, 18 were for move-on accommodation, where the average wait was 183 days; 23 were on medical grounds, when it was 169 days; 21 were due to insecurity of tenure, which resulted in an average 80 day wait; 19 were as a result of overcrowding, where the wait time averaged out at 102 days; and three were Armed Forces, with an average 233-day wait.

No figures were proffered for bands three or four.

The report that went to committee read: “Members will note from the figures that there are currently over 5,000 applications registered with the council and of these nearly 3,000 are in our lowest need band, that of band four.

“It has been agreed that the housing register is in need of a review.

“Planning is underway in terms of how such a review may be conducted, the resources required to carry it out and the implication this may have on other areas of work.”

It was said strong advice would be given over the chances of getting a home as opposed to simply being on the list long term and what alternatives there may be.

Committee member Johno Lee thanked officers for their work in housing people and said the accommodation offered to veterans countered assertions the council did not do enough for the Armed Forces community.

Chairman Tim Wendels said: “Our allocations scheme is based on a legislative framework that assesses housing need and awards relevant bands accordingly. Those in the lowest band are legislatively assessed as not having housing need and we currently have nearly 3,000 applicants in this band. We will be undertaking a review of the housing register soon. In addition to supporting residents and applicants into a new home, we also recently entered the fourth year of our ambitious five-year council house building programme. We are committed to doing what we can to meet the nationwide social housing shortage.”