Rule change slashes number of overcrowded families offered social housing
The number of Lewisham overcrowded families moving into social housing has plummeted after the council changed its rules to push many of them down the priority list.
In order to manage the huge demand for social housing, Lewisham Council changed its allocation policy in 2022, creating a new low-priority category that included households whose current housing was overcrowded by one bedroom. Under the new system, the most severely overcrowded households retained a high level of priority for offers of social housing.
A report tabled at a Lewisham Council meeting last week revealed that between April 2021 and the introduction of the new allocation policy in October 2022, 424 overcrowded households were moved into social housing – but only 135 have since November 2022.
While the former time period is longer than the latter, this does not by itself explain such a large drop in numbers – overall the number of allocations is a third lower since November 2022 than in the period before, whereas the number of allocations to overcrowded households has fallen by nearly 70%.
The report said that 79 lets have been made to overcrowded households so far in the 2023/24 financial year, compared to 208 in 2022/23 – during which year the new allocation policy was introduced – and 272 in 2021/22.
Under the new allocations policy, households that are assessed as ‘statutorily’ overcrowded generally have higher priority than those who are only overcrowded under the separate ‘bedroom standard’. But the report warned that many households were not updating their online applications for social housing to allow an assessment of statutory overcrowding to be made. Applicants were advised of the change in allocation rules, but the report suggested they might not be engaging either because they did not read the letter warning of the changes, or because the long waiting times to be offered social housing meant applicants felt no urgency.
‘Despite being advised to by officers, very few clients follow up and send in a change in circumstances form,’ the report said. ‘Once a change in circumstance form is received, feedback from officers indicates that a notable proportion meet the requirements for statutory overcrowding.’
However, the rule changes have seen more homeless people move into social housing. The allocation policy changes gave higher priority to homeless applicants with an ‘additional’ need for social housing. The number of homeless households moving into social housing has risen from 288 between April 2021 and October 2022, to 423 since November 2022. Twenty homeless households with additional needs have moved into social housing due to their increased priority since the rule change.
Image: Mirador Social Housing
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