Facts about the Housing Register
There are 7,200 applicants on the housing register. Of these 5,100 are “Live” applications, which are those eligible to bid, and 3,000 of them are bidding regularly (more than once every 3 months).
Last year we had 574 empty homes in the Home4U Scheme, including 160 newly-built homes from Housing Associations. This year we expect 520 empty homes, including 70 newly-built. Next year we expect only 490 empty homes, including only 30 newly-built.
How many applicants are there in Band A and Band B?
Of the Live applications, 4,500 are in Band A (who have higher priority) and 600 are in Band B. Band B is for applicants who neither live nor work in Stevenage, or who have over £16,000 left after they have sold their home. If an applicant has no local connection with Stevenage, they go into Band B.
The only Band B applicants we have housed since the Home4U Scheme began in 2006 are elderly or disabled applicants, who accept our less popular homes where there are no bids at all from Band A. Even so it is on average only six Band B applicants per year. As long as there is high demand from Band A applicants, Band B applicants will never receive an offer, regardless of their points totals.
How many applicants are there for each property?
In Band A there are:
- 11 applicants waiting for each empty studio flat
- 11 applicants waiting for each empty one-bed flat or bungalow
- 7 applicants for each empty two-bed home
- 7 applicants for each empty three-bed home
- 8 applicants for each empty four-bed house
- 19 applicants for each empty five-bed house (but only 1 empty since 2006)
On average there are ten applicants in band A for every empty home, so that for every applicant we house, there are nine more still waiting.
In 2009 there will be significantly fewer empty homes, as housing associations no longer have large building programmes. This year we will house only one in ten applicants in Band A – only one in fifteen applicants on the housing register.
How is the Housing Register growing?
The housing register is growing by 25-30 applications per week. For every applicant we house, three more go onto the register, and two out of three of those are in Band A.
More information about the Housing Register
You can download a more detailed document giving facts about the housing register and showing some of the key information in easy to read graphs by clicking below:
Facts and figures about the housing register
Points Awards under the Allocations Scheme