Getting a council or housing association home

Plymouth City Council operates a waiting list known as the Plymouth Housing Register. This is a register of applications for social rented housing in Plymouth and is done in partnership with a number of Registered Social Landlords (Housing associations and Housing Trusts) who have homes in Plymouth.

Currently the law requires councils to give reasonable preference for the allocation of housing to particular groups of persons as set out in section 167(2) of the Housing Act 1996.

Particular groups are defined as:

• people who are homeless (within the meaning of Part VII of the Housing Act 1996, as amended). This includes people who are intentionally homeless and those who are not in priority need
• people who are owed a duty by any local housing authority under sections 190(2), 193(2) or 195(2) of the Housing Act 1996, as amended (or under sections 65(2) or 68(2) of the Housing Act 1985) or who are occupying accommodation secured by any such authority under section 192(3) of the 1996 Act
• people occupying unsanitary or overcrowded housing or otherwise living in unsatisfactory housing conditions
• people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds
• people who need to move to a particular locality in the district of the authority, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship (to themselves or others)

To meet the above requirements a Tenancy Allocation Policy has been adopted (see documents table below).

The Tenancy Allocation Policy describes how priority and preference is given to particular people with housing needs.

This means that the council and the partner housing associations decide which applicants within a particular category should be given the greatest priority for housing, and how the groups specified above should be prioritised over others.

This is done on the basis of the local conditions relating to demand and supply for social rented homes. In Plymouth this tends to mean that those applicants accepted as being statutorily homeless will be given a high priority along with priority non-homeless cases from the Plymouth Housing Register.

To apply to join the Plymouth Housing Register you need to complete an application form.

Application forms may be obtained from any council or housing association Housing Office in Plymouth, or alternatively from Midland House or the Civic Centre. You can also download an application form from the documents table below.

All applications received are considered by the Housing Needs Team based at Midland House Notte Street Plymouth.

Applications will be treated in accordance with the published Tenancy Allocation Policy.

Once an application has been assessed it will be placed in one of 5 bands of housing need.

The 5 levels of need are:

• Band A - urgent housing need
• Band B - high housing need
• Band C - medium housing need
• Band D - low housing need
• Band E - no housing need

For further information please see the Housing Register Booklet in the documents table below.

Documents

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	Tenancy Allocation Policy - this is the policy for applying for social rented housing and the assessment of housing need. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 616KB
	Application form - to apply to join the Plymouth Housing Register. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 144KB
	Housing Register Booklet - the Plymouth Housing Register is the housing waiting list run by Plymouth City Council and Housing Associations together in partnership. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.35MB

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