Changes to Homechoice policy

About Cornwall Homechoice

Homechoice is the choice-based system for letting council and housing association homes. Partner landlords advertise their vacant homes on the Homechoice website. Applicants can choose to bid on the properties they want to apply for.

Shortlising

Shortlisted applicants are those who meet the criteria for the vacant home. Applicants are shortlisted by their band, their local connection and anything else that applies. Landlords will check applicant details before they make a formal offer.

Selection process

Applicants in the most urgent need for housing have the best chance of being successful. There are over 23,000 households registered on Homechoice and we let about 1,250 properties per year.

Consultation on the changes

We involved key stakeholders from the beginning to talk about how the Policy should change. These discussions were then turned into proposals tested through a public consultation. We asked applicants, residents and anyone interested, for their thoughts. We did this through our ‘Let’s Talk Social Homes’ web pages. Lots of documents are available from that page detailing what we did.

Changes to the policy

The old Policy was very out of date. The number of residents seeking help with their housing has increased a lot. This means a lot more residents are bidding on each vacant home. We also needed to add Government regulations and changes into a
new Policy.

The main changes

The main changes we have made are to how applicants are banded and how we use local connection. The number of bids an applicant can make has increased from one to three bids. We are also providing data that can help with decision-making. We have described these changes and others in more detail below. Or you can use the hyperlinks in this paragraph to jump straight to them.

Direct letting

Homechoice remains a choice-based allocations scheme. The ability to direct let homes by up to 20% of all lettings is being introduced. This will help certain groups of applicants to be matched with a home that best suits their needs. For example, matching an adapted property with an applicant that needs those adaptations

Banding

Our banding system needed to change to better meet Government reasonable preference criteria. This has meant a reduction in the number of bands from five to four. Bands A to C are those that aim to meet reasonable preference criteria and local priorities. “Non-Banded” is the ‘General Housing Need’ band for those applicants who do not meet reasonable preference criteria. We still recognise these applicants as being in housing need. Applicants in this band may need to look at other housing solutions. This can include private rented or shared ownership. The chances of these applicants finding a home through Homechoice are less than those in Bands A to C.

Band A

• Emergency Relocation
• Urgent Welfare
• Adapted/Accessible Home
• Care Leavers
• Hospital Discharge
• Under-Occupation

Band B

• High Welfare
• Overcrowding
• Category 1 Hazard Disrepair
• Move-On
• Emergency Decant
• Statutory Homelessness

Band C

• Prevention of Homelessness
• Medium Welfare
• Overcrowding
• Access to Support/Facilities
• Access to Work/Training, including Key Workers

General Housing Need Band (Non-Banded)

• Households who have no reasonable preference

Local connection

Partners had concerns about letting social homes with restrictive local connection criteria. This sometimes meant homes were going to applicants with low housing need. This breaches Government guidance. We sought views on  relaxing the criteria through the public consultation. This means we are housing those in most housing need rather than those with little housing need but a local connection. The new
approach still makes sure applicants can continue to live in the area they need to live or work in.

The tables below show what the policy approach to local connection has changed to:

Note: For rural parishes, Secondary Parish excludes the adjoining town

New homes

For new homes with local connection criteria, the first letting will be as follows. Then it will revert to the above approach on next lets:

Data to support decision making

Information to support decision making should help applicants. It shows how likely they are to be successful when bidding for a home in a very specific area. The number of applicants outnumbers the number of homes that become available. Data shows how many social and affordable homes are available in each parish by
bedroom. Information is also available on the total number of lettings made each year. This should help applicants that will improve their chances of getting a home. Data can be found under the Social Housing section on the Housing Intelligence page. 

Mobility needs self assessment

Applicants are able to self-assess themselves as

• Mobility Group 1 – requires home suitable for wheelchair use indoors and outdoors
• Mobility Group 2 - requires home suitable for people who cannot manage steps and may use a wheelchair sometimes
• Mobility Group 3 - requires home suitable for people only able to manage 1 or 2 steps inside and outside

We have updated the process on how an adapted or accessible property is let. This sets out the different stages and the role that occupational therapists play. Sometimes there are circumstances where adaptations cannot be added. The property may not be suitable for the adaptation. Or it is not cost-effective or reasonable. The offer will then be withdrawn.

Registering with Homechoice

To use Cornwall Homechoice, first you must register as a new applicant. You must have an email address to use the Homechoice website.

Once you have registered with Cornwall Homechoice, we will assess your housing need. We will send you:

• Your banding
• The type and size of property you can apply for.

Bidding on homes

Once your application is up and running you can place a 'bid' on a home that you would like to rent. You must log into Cornwall Homechoice to bid on homes. Bidding cycles run from a Thursday morning to Monday midnight each week. You can place up to 3 bids on a home per bidding cycle. Once bidding has closed, we compile a shortlist of everyone who has applied.

System downtime

So that we can transfer all your details to our new Homechoice IT system, we must close the site for a short time. This will happen from the 6 March to week commencing 14 April 2025. If you would like to make a new application, please
do this from week commencing 14th April 2025. If you are at risk of homelessness, please visit Homeless or at risk of homelessness.

No properties available to bid on

While we transfer to the new Homechoice system, we need to close down bidding on homes. This will happen after the bidding cycle of 17 February closes until week commencing 14th April 2025. We will still be matching applicants to homes through direct letting.