Solihull Council’s objective for its housing allocation scheme are that it;
Meets local need
Helps the most vulnerable
Provides an accessible, understandable and transparent scheme
Makes best use of its housing stock
Allows social tenants that have a housing need to be able to transfer to properties that will meet their housing need
Helps assist the council’s safeguarding responsibilities
Promotes the development of safe, sustainable communities
The allocations scheme, Solihull Home Options, has a banding scheme whereby households are placed into different priority categories. This ensures that priority for the allocation of housing is given to applicants with the greatest housing need.
Solihull does also allow an urgent priority bandings to be awarded to those social housing tenants that are under occupying their home to encourage release of that property for those that are seeking larger family homes.
There are two categories that can be awarded where a applicant is under occupying their home;
- Band A will be awarded where the persons are releasing 3 or more bedrooms in a house or ground floor flat/maisonette in a council or partner housing association properties within the Solihull Borough
- Band B can be awarded where the applicant is releasing 1 bedroom in a house or 1 or more bedrooms in a flat or maisonette in a council or partner housing association properties
There are three banding categories that can be awarded where overcrowding exists:
- Acute overcrowding – Where the applicant and their household are living in a property which is acutely overcrowded according the bedroom standard, 3 or more bedrooms less than the household requires to meet their housing need
- Applicants overcrowded by 2 bedrooms according to the bedroom standard for overcrowding can be awarded a Band B
- Those applicants that are overcrowding by 1 bedroom short of their housing needs will be awarded a Band D
The bedroom standard within Solihull’s Allocation Policy is based on the ages and composition of the family. Under this standard a separate bedroom is allocated to each:
Married or cohabiting couple
Adult aged 21 or over
Pair of adolescents aged 10-20 years of the same sex.
Pair of children under 10 years regardless of sex.