Fundamental changes to the way housing is allocated are to be introduced by a major inner-city landlord for the first time
Edinburgh council has announced plans to launch three new pilot schemes aimed at ensuring the city's recently or shortly-to-be regenerated estates are filled with tenants from a variety of backgrounds.

The authority is thought to be the first major landlord in the UK to scrap the principle of allocating by need, claiming the current system is failing. Every year it makes around 12,500 offers of accommodation, two thirds of which are turned down.

Instead, it is aiming to introduce a new co-ordinated allocations policy administered by the city's 28 housing associations, as the authority's 30,000 homes are transferred under the New Housing Partnerships strategy.

The council is looking to try out an advertising system - the so-called "Delft" model which has been adopted by a number of smaller English authorities - on one of its major estates.

The common allocations policy will be tested in Craigmillar, where four housing associations are carrying out extensive regeneration, and the homeless allocations policy will also be overhauled.

New studies and comprehensive tenant consultation are to be carried out over the next nine months, before a final report is prepared in November.

Edinburgh's head of housing management Jackie Watt said: "At the moment two out of every three lettings offers are rejected. The system is not currently working, and it has to change."

Source

Housing Today