Terminology, statutory guidance, and legal frameworks differ between nations, impacting how housing is allocated and applicants are prioritised. Despite these variations, the overarching goal remains to ensure fair and impartial allocation based on applicants’ circumstances and suitability for social housing.
Social housing remains a popular choice for many, with nearly six million households renting from social landlords in the UK and around two million waiting for allocation.
Housing allocation is a devolved matter, granting national governments separate legislative powers for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, while England retains its own.
While there are commonalities, such as eligibility for social housing being fixed by immigration law, there’s also significant divergence, like prioritising people for an allocation.
In England and Wales, local authorities, regardless of whether they’ve transferred their housing stock (or established an arm’s length management organisation), are primarily responsible for housing allocation duties. English and Welsh housing associations also have some legal responsibilities (regulators of social housing for each nation fail to mention this within their regulatory standards, and their regulatory oversight doesn’t extend to non-stockholding local authorities). In contrast, in Scotland, all social landlords, regardless of whether they’re local authorities or housing associations, are responsible for allocation duties, and stock-transfer local authorities have no duty to allocate social housing (with the Scottish social housing regulator having oversight of both types of social landlord for housing allocation matters). None of these arrangements are ideal, and Northern Ireland has the best position with a common housing allocation scheme for the entire province.
Another key difference is the legal name of housing association (the term ‘housing association’ is commonly used for all non-local authority social landlords). In England, they’re known as Private Registered Providers; in Northern Ireland, Registered Housing Associations; and in Scotland and Wales, Registered Social Landlords.
Each nation’s government publishes statutory guidance with varying scope and content. English and Welsh local authorities have substantial statutory guidance, but housing associations that own and manage stock in those nations don’t. Northern Ireland has guidance on social housing allocations for housing associations but no specific guidance for the local authorities (perhaps due to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive being responsible for housing allocation). Scotland’s statutory guidance applies to all social landlords, local authorities and housing associations.
Key terminology varies between nations. In England and Wales, legislation and statutory guidance use ‘housing allocation schemes’ and ‘housing waiting lists’ for local authorities, while ‘housing allocations rules’ is used for housing associations. In Scotland, legislation and statutory guidance use ‘housing allocation rules’ and ‘housing list’.
When allocating social housing, local authorities and housing associations are considered public bodies. Those administering housing allocation functions must act impartially and ensure they fully understand public law procedure requirements and housing allocation law. Decisions must be based solely on relevant evidence and disregard irrelevant information. Decisions must consider the applicant’s circumstances at the time of application, not their historic circumstances. Decisions must focus on the allocation of social housing and the applicant’s appropriateness to occupy it, not heir historic behaviour and actions. Regardless of the application’s origin, applicants must be informed of their rights to appeal in court or make a complaint to the relevant ombudsman.
Housing allocation policy and practice by local authorities and housing associations must comply with data protection legislation. This gives social housing applicants the right to be informed of the information held about them and to request a copy. Any information requested from third parties must be relevant to social housing allocation and limited to matters specific to the allocation and occupation of social housing. Irrelevant information should not be processed or requested. Therefore, it’s improper to pursue extensive information unrelated to an individual’s appropriateness for social housing.
Local authority and housing association administration of housing allocation functions is subject to the public sector equality duty. Individuals must be informed of their rights to make a complaint to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, so if they believe a prejudicial decision has been made, they can challenge it.
Court decisions and ombudsman rulings indicate a significant gap between housing allocation legal requirements and actual administrative practice. There’s a lack of best practice advice on social housing allocations from membership bodies for local authorities and housing associations, and there is no specific training requirements for individuals employed to make housing allocation decisions. This creates a challenge for housing allocation administrators in making robust and reliable decisions.
However, the various pieces of statute from across the four UK nations provide sufficient information and guidance for local authorities and housing associations to pick from to make decisions that are logical and legal decisions that offer appropriate latitude to people seeking an allocation of social housing.
