How We Allocate Homes

We assess your application in line with Renfrewshire Common Housing Allocation Policy and Bridgewater Housing Association Addendum to the policy which came into effect on 1 May 2019. This has been developed by Renfrewshire Council in partnership with Bridgewater, Linstone, Paisley and Williamsburgh housing associations.  The policy has been developed with a clear focus on meeting housing needs and introduces a common approach to how we allocate homes that are available to let. Applicants still need to register with each partner organisation separately and Bridgewater will continue to operate and manage our own housing list.

We know that once your application has been assessed you are keen to find out when you might be made an offer of housing.   

Understanding your priority

This can be difficult to predict as it depends on a range of factors. These include: 

• Your priority for housing – if it’s critical (Priority A+ or A), high (Priority B+ or B), moderate (Priority C+ or C).  If you have no housing need you will be placed in group D or 5 if you are a BHA tenant.
• The size and type of house you need –  the number of these properties that we have in our ownership (it could be only a few or it could be many). 
• The demand for the size and  type of property you want  – the number of  applicants who are on the same list as you, and the level of their priority –  which could be higher than your own, or they could have the same priority as you, but applied to us for housing before you did. For example, if you have recently applied to us for housing and have a Priority B for a 2 bedroom house, around 18 applicants will be on the list ahead of you.  
• The turnover of the property you want – how often these become available for re-let. Some larger properties and bungalows for disabled persons rarely become available for re-let.  For instance we only re-let one 4 bedroom property in 2022-23 – this has been the case for the last 3 years and the year before that we didn’t relet any. 

Our Housing List 

We have many more applicants on our waiting housing list (832) than the housing that is available to let, and the demand for all of our house types far outstrips the turnover of our empty properties. Some people may be waiting for a long time before we can offer them a house, and unfortunately we will be unable to re-house the majority of people who want to be re-housed by us. Our staff aim to give applicants realistic advice about the likelihood of being re-housed based on the choices that applicants make. We also provide information on opportunities to find housing with other local providers. 

Turnover of our Empty Properties 

Table 1 below shows that during 2022-23, we re-let 71 properties.  This means that out of a housing list of around 832 applicants, only 71 people got a house from us.  The lets we had were made up as follows: 

Table 2 below tells you the level of priority that people generally needed to be successful in getting a house during 2022-23. This will help you make a comparison with your own priority however, it is important to remember that unless you have a high priority, there could be many people ahead of you on the list.  

Allocating an Empty Property – Target Lets per Year 

We allocate housing by setting annual targets for each of the 5 Priority Groups: 

• Group 1 Statutory Homeless 
• Group 2 Mobility  
• Group 3 Housing Need 
• Group 4 Transfers 
• Group 5 All transfer applicants with no housing need  

The targets are a percentage of the overall lets in the year and show the lets we aim to give to each group. During 2021-22 our targets were: 

In addition to this, we aim to let 5% of properties to ‘Supported Living’ applicants, who are people who need support to live in the community.  

When a property becomes available for re-let, we will first of all check if it is suitable for someone with mobility needs. This is to ensure that we make best use of our purpose built, adapted and level access properties. 

To understand what the targets mean to you, we’ll use the following example. If you are in Group 3, we aim to let 30% of the general needs properties to your list. This is 30% of the total general needs lets, which is approximately 14 lets overall to the group. This is across all of the sizes and house types which people in Group 3 have asked for.  

Properties Available for Re-let  

The lets we make in a year are driven by the empty houses which become available for re-let, and this can vary from year to year. 

The table below gives a breakdown of the types of properties which became available for re-let during 2022/23, and the number of re-lets that were achieved. This will let you see what the turnover is like for the property you want, although this can vary from year to year. 

What This Means for You 

As you can see, a lot of factors require to be taken into account when we allocate a house. We hope that this information note has been useful in helping you understand more about your priority for housing with us, and your prospects of being re-housed.