Every local authority will hold a housing register. The housing register will contain, in most cases, any local authority housing and registered social landlord (RSL) properties. Anybody is entitled to apply for the housing register, but the local authority will asses whether a person has the right to qualify.
Every local authority has a scheme on how they allocate the housing stock, but generally the rule is the higher the “need “the higher you will be placed on the register. Most local authorities “band “the applicants on the housing register, and the “band “that the applicant is placed in matches their need. If a persons circumstances change then they can be moved up the register, as they become more of a priority.
Those applicants that are given preference are:
(a) People occupying unsanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions
(b) People occupying housing accommodation which is temporary or occupied on insecure terms
(c) Families with dependent children
(d) Households consisting of or including someone who is expecting a child
(e) Households consisting of or including someone with a particular need for settled accommodation on medical or welfare grounds
(f) Households whose social or economic circumstances are such that they have difficulty in securing settled accommodation.
If you present as homeless or are threatened with homelessness you will, if found to be unintentionally homeless and in priority need, be owed a duty to be housed immediately without being placed on the housing register.
What to do if you are homeless…
A useful site for looking at the Housing Act (1996, amended 2002) is the Office of Public Sector Information.
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