Choice Based Lettings Policy and Housing Register Policy

Your Choice Your Home - our Choice Based Lettings Policy

North Norfolk District Council and its partner Housing Associations have introduced a Choice Based Lettings scheme called Your Choice Your Home, where vacant housing association properties in the district are advertised and housing register applicants are able to bid (express an interest) for a property they are interested in. 

The purpose of North Norfolk District Council’s Choice Based Lettings Policy is to set out clear guidelines to ensure that affordable housing is allocated fairly and according to applicants’ need for housing, while at the same time taking into account effective management of the affordable housing stock in the district.

How Choice Based Lettings Works

A property will be offered to the applicant in the highest band (in the following order Emergency Card, Band 1, Band 2 Band 3, Band 4 or Band 5).  If there is more than one applicant bidding for a property in the same band, it will be offered to the applicant who has a local connection to North Norfolk, if more than one of the applicants in the band has a local connection to North Norfolk the property will be offered to the applicant with the longest relevant date (for Emergency Card and Bands 1 and 2 this will be the date they were placed in that Band and for Band 3, 4 and 5 the date they joined the Housing Register). 

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This does not affect the way rural exception housing schemes are allocated - priority for properties on these schemes will still be given to applicants with the strongest local connections to the parish and immediately adjoining parishes.

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It is important to note that choice based lettings is only a change to the way that housing is let, which is designed to involve applicants in decisions and give them a greater level of choice in their future home. The scheme does not increase the availability of housing in the area, and it does not increase the chances of an applicant being housed unless they change their choices based on the information they are given.

For full details of the policy, please download the document below.