I have been quite vocal about the lack of Social Housing in the borough, the regular sales of Social Housing and housing being anything other than affordable.

 

I will now go one step further and condemn the Choose Your Home Scheme as being in-effective for the needs of the borough.

 

I will also again express my concern with regards homelessness in the borough and further express my concern on this issue.

Prior to the Council Housing waiting list being handed over to the care of Choose your Home, the waiting list consisted of a total of

5287 on 30/11/06 waiting to be housed

The waiting list was changed to Choose your Home in December 2006.

In an effort to be fair, I have waited almost 13 months before making a comparison of the old system to the new,

I can now confirm that the Choose Your Home waiting list now consists of

9064 as of Monday 28th January 2008

This is an increase of 3777 on the new system.

This indicates that the Choose Your Home System is not adequate to cope with the needs of the borough to increase by so much in such a short time.

Historically, when the housing register was in operation households were advised that the average wait to be rehoused into social housing was between 6-12 months.

 

At the start of Choose Your Home, those that registered were often informed it would take 12 months for them to be rehoused, this is far from being the case.

 

The last quarter has seen an increase in households in temporary accommodation

Oct – Dec 2006 saw 129 in temporary accommodation

The period for 2007 saw

131 households in temporary accommodation and a further 12 households choosing to remain with friends or family total = 143

 

Again displaying that the new system is not functioning as well as the old.

A total of 112 households are registered on Choose Your home in the urgent band, this is 112 households in the borough that are statutory homeless.

 

However, there is no method of accurately counting those that are homeless, but not statutory and rough sleeping or those that are sofa surfing.

 

An additional failure of the Choose Your Home Scheme is the banding. Residents have been moved from one band into another without being informed and when you are moved from one band into another, you join another list from that date.

 

This could cost those registered considerable waiting time, only made worse when staff do not understand the points system themselves.

 

The lack of Social Housing within the borough is further enhanced by property sales and the lack of replacements.

 

The most recent example is the recent sale of Manor Heights in Hadley. Previously owned by the Wrekin Housing Trust and contained approximately 60 flats.

 

It is said the Housing Trust have a policy of selling one property and replacing it with either another two or four, the amount depends on who you speak too, therefore, Hadley should be looking forward to at least 120 flats for Social Housing.

 

As no one is not holding the trust to account, properties could be sold and not replaced or sold in one area and replaced in a completely different area in no particular time scale.

 

I Now Formally call on our MP’s David Wright, Mark Pritchard, the leaders of all political parties to arrange a housing summit to address the dire shortage of Social housing within the borough and to address the homelessness issue.

 

This has been promised once and not arranged, we cannot allow these issues to worsen.

 

As I do not expect a reply to this piece, I will be writing to MP’s, Councillors, Residents and various agencies formally myself to get the ball rolling.

 

 

 

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3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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Telford Council Watch