Important information: Changes to the Housing Allocation Scheme

Following approval of Solihull Council’s new Housing Allocation Scheme, we are pleased to announce it is now live from Wednesday 24 September 2025. You can read the full document here (pdf 1 mB).

The changes include new criteria which may impact existing applicants who already have an active application.

We have notified applicants who are affected by these policy changes and explained what this will mean for them.

If you need to contact us, you can use our online enquiry form.

What happens next?

When the new Housing Allocation Scheme is launched, we will update the website and customer portal with further clear instructions on what you need to do.

If you have an existing application for the Housing Allocation Scheme (Solihull Home Options), you will need to complete a new application form to determine if you can remain on the Housing Register. You will need to do this by Friday 26 September. If you don’t reapply by that date, your application will be closed.

There are two exceptions to be aware of:

1. 1. If you are homeless and have an active application and have been awarded a homeless banding, your application will be updated automatically by our homelessness team.
   2. If you have a medical banding, you will need to submit a new application, but you do not need to re-submit medical evidence/information with your new application.

You do not need to do anything at this point. Please check for future updates on the SCH website and your Solihull Home Options portal.

Supporting documents

If you choose to renew your Housing Application, you will be asked to provide supporting documents, in particular relating to your income and members of your household’s income. You will have 10 working days to provide these documents, but we recommend that you upload them as soon as you complete your application if possible.

We have a high volume of applications to process and aim to get these completed as soon as we can.

What is changing?

The Council’s objectives for the new Housing Allocation Scheme are to have an accessible, clear, fair and transparent scheme; prioritise and allocate to those in greatest housing need; make best use of social housing stock; offer applicants choice; and reduce the number of people and families becoming statutory homeless.

Here are details of some of the main changes on being eligible to join Solihull Council’s Housing Register (Solihull Home Options).

We will now consider the income of households applying for social housing. This applies to both existing applicants who are re-applying as well as new applicants.

If you are a single person or a couple with a gross income of £45,000 and over, you will no longer qualify to join the Housing Register.

If you are a family household and children or adults are included on your Housing Register application, and you have a combined income of £60,000 or over, you will no longer qualify to join. Income for any adult over 18 within the household will be included in the combined income.

These figures will exclude means tested benefits, but we will look at any assets or savings that could mean that you are able to meet your own housing needs.

There are also several “local connection” criteria changes:

• Applicants must be a resident within Solihull for two years immediately prior to their application to qualify.
• If an applicant is using employment in the borough as their local connection to Solihull, the person must have worked for two years before they apply and will need to have a permanent job and be employed for over 16 hours per week.
• Applicants will now need to confirm that their close relative/s have lived in the Solihull borough for at least five continuous years, and that they have regular contact with them.
• Or they will need to demonstrate if they have a close relative living in the borough that they are giving care or receiving care from that have lived in the borough for less than five years. We may request evidence to support this need.

Close relatives for the purpose of local connection to Solihull Borough is defined as parents, adult children, or adult siblings.

The banding has changed from A–T to A, B, C, and a reduced priority banding of D.

The bedroom standard has also changed. We will now be expecting any two children/adolescents of the same gender under 21 to share a room. It was 16 years before. However, we will now allow an extra bedroom for an expected child once the pregnancy is 26 weeks and over.