Hertsmere residents applying for social housing in the borough will lose out if the council uses new laws to drop its waiting list councillors warned this week.

Hertsmere Borough Council operates a waiting list for people in need of social housing, and gives priority to those who live in the borough, or have relatives here.

But, under the Government's new Homelessness Bill, the council would be allowed to save money by scrapping its list, and handing its responsibilities to housing associations.

Last week councillors agreed to introduce a new system whereby people joining its list will also join the waiting lists for properties offered by Ridgehill and Aldwyck housing associations. The new system was welcomed, but some councillors said they were worried that it could eventually lead to the abolition of Hertsmere's separate list, leaving local people with no priority over those from outside Hertsmere.

Housing associations are not allowed to give priority to local people when they work out who is most in need of housing.

Borough councillor Jean Heywood said: "At the moment Hertsmere can decide who moves into 50 per cent of lettings and all the newly-built housing association properties in the borough.

"At least half of the tenants are people from Borehamwood, but if we move towards not having a list, how do we guarantee that will always be the case?"

Ridgehill's director of housing, Lily Smith, said that, while the association was not able to give priority to people from Hertsmere, all but a few of the applications came from local people anyway.

But she said applications had to be determined according to the needs of the applicant, not where they were from.

The council's new application system will take months to introduce. When ready, applicants will fill in a single form and automatically join the waiting lists for properties offered by all three organisations.

Applicants will be given more choice about where they want to live, and, when an application is considered, the number of points collected will be less important than whether the home offered meets the specific needs of the applicant.

Councillors, Ridgehill executives and homeless charities have welcomed the new form as a way to make the application process quicker, simpler and more efficient.

Malcolm Knights, the council's head of housing services, said the way the waiting lists operated would not change after the form was introduced, and added that it would make the process of applying for housing much easier.

He said that if councillors were unwilling to give up the priority given to local people under the current system, the council would be able to keep its list and still use the new application form.

November 7, 2001 13:45

By CHARLES WHITNEY