Nominations, allocations & lettings

What Is It?

The South Essex Housing Group set up an Allocations Sub Group to develop a Sub-Regional Nomination Agreement Best Practice Guide.

Membership of the group is aimed at the five local authorities and those registered providers with over 500 units across the sub-region. The group was chaired by Kathy Ayres – Basildon Borough Council and Andrea O’Callaghan – Swan Housing Association.

What Are We Doing?

The main areas of focus for the group was to:

• Establish a consistency of approach and practice across the region whenever possible.
• Increase the understanding between LA and RP surrounding issues that may prevent applicants from accessing properties.
• Share social rent and affordable rent best practice to limit instances of when applicants are unable to demonstrate that they can afford the rent.
• Make the best use of any harder to let properties for the benefit of the sub region.
• Share examples of best practice, case studies for discussion and learning.
• Develop stronger working relationship across the sub-region.

A number of meetings, consultations and a dedicated training day took place between November 2017 and September 2018 culminating in the launch and publication of the South Essex Nomination Agreement Best Practice Guide on 1 October 2018 in Basildon. Included are a common set of forms for LA nominations and RP nomination requests which can be individually downloaded below.

More recently Basildon Borough Council has been developing a new Housing Strategy (2023-28) and will include a review of its allocations policy.

Key Links for Further Information

Launch workshop presentation 1 October 2018