Waiting time once on the register?

If you are successful in qualifying for inclusion on our housing register, you are not guaranteed an offer of social housing. This is because demand far outweighs supply.

 

Several factors influence whether a household receives social housing and if so, how long they were waiting before receiving an offer. These factors include:

  • supply of newbuild and existing social housing (i.e. re-lets),
  • size of property required,
  • preferences or needs regarding location and property type (i.e. tower-block flats, houses, bungalows, adapted/non-adapted, ground floor, with/without a garden),
  • whether they are interested in and/or meet the age criteria for living in sheltered (older persons) housing – which is less popular. (Those in lower bands are more likely to be housed if they will consider sheltered housing).
  • whether they have a pet/the pet criteria of the housing they are interested in
  • the frequency with which the applicant is placing bids/expressing an interest in available social housing.

 

Of those allocated social housing in 2023/24, the average number of days between registration and allocation is shown below:

Accessible property:

  • Non age restricted = 646 for minor adaptations, 1,017 for fully wheelchair accessible homes
  • Older persons (sheltered) housing = 237 for minor adaptations, 236 for fully wheelchair accessible homes

 

Non age restricted properties – average days to be housed from initial registration (includes adapted):

 

Bedroom size

Band of priority

Studio

1 Bed

2 Bed

3 Bed

4 Bed

5 Bed

Emergency

 

 

 

621

 

 

One suitable offer (owed the main homelessness duty, direct let)

111

379

852

751

680

 

Band A

240

347

238

775

423

 

Band B

 

339

932

1246

 

908

Band C

 

1200

2589

     

Band D

   

98

     

 

Older persons (sheltered) housing – average days to be housed from initial registration (includes adapted):

 

Bedroom size

Band of priority

Studio

1 Bed

One suitable offer

85

51

Band A

420

170

Band B

89

162

Band C

216

323

Band D

129

100

 

A breakdown of the number of properties we let in 2023/24 is shown below, as can be seen, those in lower bands of priority are rarely allocated non age restricted sheltered housing.

Band of priority

Non age restricted

Sheltered (older persons)

Total

Emergency

3

 

3

One suitable offer

62

4

66

Band A

81

21

102

Band B

28

40

68

Band C

5

47

52

Band D

1

17

18

Grand Total

180

129

309

Details regarding allocated properties, including the band of the successful applicant, their effective date, the number of bidders and a photograph of the property can be found by clicking ‘Properties and search recent lets’ -> ‘Recent Lets’: Search properties - onthemove (southend-on-the-move.org.uk)