 Implementing
a choice-based lettings system for social housing tenants
This is a sample from Allocate
or let? Your choice: Lessons from Harborough Home Search
by Tim Brown, Alan Dearling, Ros Hunt, Jo Richardson and Nicola
Yates, published for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the Chartered
Institute of Housing (ISBN 1 903208 29 7, price £13.95).
Concern about unfair, bureaucratic allocation of social housing
is widespread among housing providers, councils and tenants. Harborough
Home Search (HHS) was designed to replace a points-based allocation
system with a lettings service that homeseekers could understand,
and to provide more choice and involvement in selecting a new
home. This choice-based lettings service was developed from the
Delft Model, operated in 85 per cent of the Netherlands. Current
government guidelines in England suggest that choicebased lettings
offer tenants a greater role in deciding where they wish to live
and when they want to move. The Government’s Housing Green
Paper and other policy initiatives are encouraging social landlords
to offer more ‘choice’ in lettings. This report by
Tim Brown and colleagues charts the development and initial implementation
of the first district-wide UK choice-based lettings system based
on a common housing register. The study found that:
- Harborough was ready for a ‘culture’ change in
the way social landlords deal with tenants and prospective tenants
seeking a new home. The district council was committed to a
more customer-oriented approach, and involved tenants, housing
staff, councillors and local organisations in the process.
- All 3,100 social housing properties in the Harborough DC
area were included in the HHS scheme involving four social landlords
in partnership.
- Choice-based lettings were based on six principles, including
clear provision of information on available properties, eligibility
and placing the initiative on the customer.
- 80 per cent of HHS users who could compare it with the old
points-based service said that they preferred HHS.
- Older people, people with mobility problems and voluntary
groups strongly supported greater customer choice. They understood
more clearly the basis on which properties were let, and how
long they would have to wait for an offer.
- Customers liked choice, even though it was very constrained
because of the high-demand rural housing market in Harborough.
- HHS has contributed to an improvement in the council’s
re-let times.
- Monitoring choice-based lettings assisted HHS landlords to
plan and prioritise modernisation, adaptation or demolition
of existing properties, the building of new properties, and
neighbourhood regeneration.
JRF Findings
Background
Empowering consumers to choose their new homes is central in
any choice-based lettings system. Yet in areas such as Harborough
where there are shortages of social housing stock, that choice
is highly constrained. This was the reality that faced the partners
in the Harborough Home Search scheme.
The HHS scheme was established to enable a shift
for homeseekers and social landlords, from:
- point-hunting to home-hunting;
- dependency to empowerment;
- artificial boundaries to real housing markets;
- an organisational to a customer focus.
Since the model was new in the UK, it was also important to
see how far the principles of the Delft model of choice-based
social housing lettings could work in a different country. The
process of establishing HHS was one of identifying both opportunities
and constraints. It relied on a high level of consultation and
promotion among landlords, customers and with the wider community
of housing professionals and local organisations.
The scheme involved the establishment of a partnership between
Harborough District Council, three housing associations (De Montfort
Housing Society, East Midlands Housing Association, and LHA –
the Housing and Regeneration Agency), and Leicestershire Disabled
Persons Housing Service. The Centre for Comparative Housing Research
at De
Montfort University helped to develop HHS and subsequently monitored
the scheme.
The overall aims of HHS were to improve:
- customer choice and satisfaction;
- the effectiveness and performance of the allocations system;
- the availability of detailed information to inform the local
housing strategy.
During the research, neither Harborough District Council nor
its partners in HHS received significant external funding. This
is typical of the situation facing the majority of local authorities
and social landlords considering a change from points-based allocations
systems.
By the end of the research, HHS was one of 27 choice-based lettings
pilot schemes chosen for financial support from the Office of
the Deputy
Prime Minister. These pilot schemes are running from April 2001
to March 2003.
What are the principles of Harborough
Home Search?
Among many customer comments about HHS recorded in the research
were the following:
"People are treated as people rather than
numbers."
and
"We can make choices [about lettings]
when we want to."
(Users of HHS)
These comments typified the way in which the Harborough social
landlords made a significant shift in their ‘culture’.
Instead of allocating points and properties, they handed a degree
of choice regarding new homes over to their existing and new tenants.
Essentially, the landlords relinquished some of their power over
access to social housing.
Gary Kirk from LHA suggested that there was a real need to move
away from allocations being made behind closed doors. He said
that:
"The beauty of this model is that people
will be able to see how many people expressed an interest in a
property on offer and the criteria used for the selection of the
successful applicant ... it’s an open, transparent system
for the public ... a better and fairer system."
The partner landlords implemented the process of change by adopting
the six principles on which the HHS scheme is based. These principles
were adapted from the Delft model, and are flexible rather than
a
blueprint. They are as follows:
- Putting the initiative on the customer –
the initiative to apply for a particular property is taken by
the customer, rather than the housing officer offering a property.
- Providing the customer with market information
– information on the popularity of particular types and
locations of property is provided. This helps homeseekers to
make realistic choices. In addition, HHS provides
information on other housing options (such as Care and Repair)
to help customers to make informed choices on how best to resolve
their
housing problems.
- Offering information on the property and neighbourhood
– as well as basic information on available properties,
the information provided
gives more detail about property features such as central heating,
garden, location, schools and so forth, and offers ‘real
choice’ as in the owneroccupied sector. This helps customers
to make more informed responses to advertisements, for properties
that are more likely to suit their needs and preferences.
- Supporting vulnerable groups – mechanisms
such as priority cards, targeted advice and support, or a banding
system based on ‘levels of need’ can be used to
protect vulnerable people and improve their housing opportunities.
This kind of support also ensures that people in the most urgent
need can be helped. HHS adopted the system of priority cards
and enhanced proactive advice.
- Operating transparent selection criteria
– straightforward conditions are used to decide which
customers are eligible to come onto the register to JANUARY
2003 be considered for housing. Transparent criteria are used
to assess needs and award priority among homeseekers (for example,
separating applicants into broad bands of need and waiting time).
- High-quality communications – the
quality of communications between landlords and homeseekers
is central to the system. A wide range of advertising channels
can be used, such as regular mailings, telephone and personal
responses to customers, use of information and communication
technologies and websites, and the establishment of property
shops (similar to estate agents).
When the HHS partners made the decision to adopt their modified
version of the Delft model in Harborough, a whole range of issues
needed to be confronted. In addition to customer apprehension,
these issues included the need to: ‘take on board’
staff and members to become committed to the new approach; set
up a new system of advertising properties and matching homeseekers
to properties;
and establish safety nets for vulnerable people with priority
needs.
 How
does HHS work?
Figure 1 shows the Harborough Home Search process. Homeseekers
have to show evidence of ‘need’ to be able to qualify
for the housing register. Needs are divided into three categories:
priority needs, general
needs, and no needs. This last category comprises households not
eligible for the common housing register.
What information is provided by HHS?
The heart of the HHS scheme lies in mailing out property details
to all existing and prospective tenants who have registered. Homeseekers
are able to make up to two choices of property from each twoweek
advertisement cycle.
In the first year of operation studied, 1,540 homeseekers received
information sheets detailing available properties. Property details
usually included:
- location;
- landlord;
- rent and service charge;
- brief details of the property type, including number of bedrooms;
- council tax band;
- heating system;
- unique or important features (e.g. sheltered housing, links
to lifeline/control centre, and closeness to amenities and facilities).
Information was provided on which types of households were eligible
to apply (e.g. new or transfer applicants, household type) and
any other
restrictions (e.g. no pets, suitability or unsuitability for children).
What do homeseekers look for?
The study found that homeseekers’ geographical search
patterns were extremely localised, stable and clearly defined:
- Between 75 and 80 per cent of homeseekers
expressed a preference for a home in either the
same ward or an adjacent ward to where they
currently lived. This preference was also reflected
in their responses to advertisements and their
choices of a new property.
- By the end of the first year of HHS operation,
homeseekers still preferred to wait for their ‘ideal’
home, rather than modifying their search
behaviour and opting for a second-best choice.
The implications of this were that the majority of homeseekers
in Harborough were clear about where they wanted to live and knowledgeable
about the properties concerned. Feedback from focus groups, surveys
and one-to-one dialogue suggested that some
customers would like additional information on room sizes, internal
layout and garden details.
Issues for housing managers
Feedback from staff highlighted examples of conflicts between
adopting a customer focus and business performance requirements.
Balancing customer choice and managerial efficiency has not been
straightforward to resolve. For example:
- some customers commented that they would like
more information;
- older people requested more time to make choices
and consider offers;
- landlords felt pressured to emphasise costeffectiveness
in the provision of information, and the need to speed up re-let
times;
- the housing association landlords had more problems of adjustment
to HHS, probably because their properties were more geographically
spread
and their allocations systems more diverse;
- problems over re-let times were experienced when
a property was rejected after being viewed and
offered to a customer;
- there were concerns over the time taken over the
matching process;
- re-lets and voids were regarded as ‘too narrow’
performance indicators;
- there was seen to be a general increase in
paperwork.
However, council staff said that they were gaining more job
satisfaction, since they now:
"… feel we are helping customers ..."
and
"Customers like choice and say that they
are satisfied
because it is better than the council selecting
tenants." (Harborough DC housing staff)
Future development of HHS
Partly as a result of the monitoring and evaluation carried out
for the research during the period April 2000 to March 2001, specific
new initiatives are being rolled out, including:
- a one-stop Property Shop offering face-to-face
contact and advice for homeseekers;
- an HHS website (http://www.harborough-homesearch.
com), which provides enhanced information on advertised properties
and
information on other housing options;
- advertising shared ownership, low-cost home ownership and
other mixed-tenure options through HHS;
- encouraging more of the 90 voluntary agencies in
the area to become active participants in HHS.
Nevertheless, the achievements of HHS need to be put in context.
The major issue facing the local area is the lack of social housing
of the right type in a suitable location for customers. For example,
there are only 23 four-bedroom social rented properties in the
district. Large households, therefore, have little if any choice.
There are also many villages where there is no social rented property
available. These problems cannot be addressed through the implementation
of a choice-based lettings system.
About the project
Preparation of the report on HHS was part of an action research
process. The team from the Centre for Comparative Housing Research
at De Montfort University, led by Dr Tim Brown, and Nicola Yates,
Chief Officer (Community Services) at Harborough DC were actively
involved in developing and implementing the HHS scheme as well
as in analysing its effectiveness and outcomes. After the initial
findings had been collated, the original author team was joined
by Alan Dearling, a senior research consultant to the Chartered
Institute of Housing/Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
How to get further information
The full report, Allocate or let? Your choice: Lessons
from Harborough Home Search by Tim Brown, Alan Dearling,
Ros Hunt, Jo Richardson and Nicola Yates, is published for the
Foundation by the Chartered Institute of Housing (ISBN 1 903208
29 7, price £13.95).
The following Findings look at related issues:
- An evaluation of the ‘Homebuy’ scheme
in England,
Jul 01 (Ref: 751)
- British social rented housing in a European context,
Feb 02 (Ref: 232)
- Mutual exchange as a means of moving home for tenants,
Sep 02 (Ref: 932)
Published by the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Homestead, 40 Water End, York YO30 6WP
Tel: 01904 629241 Fax: 01904 620072
http://www.jrf.org.uk
ISSN 0958-3084
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is an independent, non-political
body which has supported this project as part of its programme
of research and innovative development projects, which it hopes
will be of value
to policy-makers, practitioners and service users. The findings
presented here, however, are those of the authors and not necessarily
those of the Foundation. |