Affordable Homes Project

Eligibility for a Sixpenny Handley CLT Affordable RENTED Home

Christchurch Borough Council and East Dorset District Council have agreed a common approach for the allocation of social housing across the two local authority areas. The aim of this policy is to help meet the housing needs of households within Christchurch and East Dorset in the most effective way.

Both Council's will assess applications based on local priorities which are shown in the table below. In addition, applications are based on local and/or village connections.

Local Connection

Applicants will have a local connection with the Council it is applying to by meeting one of the following criteria:
a. Residency Qualification Resident in the Council area for at least 2 years continuous at the time of application.
b. Employment An applicant may be a qualifying person if he/she or his/her partner is in employment in the borough/district.

Village Connection

• Being permanently resident therein for at least four years immediately prior to such occupation
• Having currently resident close relatives (i.e. parents, children, brother or sister) who have lived therein for at least four years
• Having permanent employment and having been employed therein for at least 12 months prior to such occupation
• Other special circumstances which create a link to the given parish (not including resident in a hospital, armed forces accommodation, holiday let, or prison) such special circumstances having first been verified and approved by the borough/district Council.

Note: For the purposes of Sixpenny Handley CLT a band 5 'Village Connection' applicant will usually take priority over a band 1 applicant with no village connection.

Christchurch and East Dorset Council Banding Priorities

Download Christchurch and East Dorset Council Banding Priorities

Band 1	Band 2	Band 3	Band 4	Band 5
Emergency cases –health/wellbeing	Existing social housing tenants under-occupying their current homes	Statutory Homeless Duty	Low medical or welfare grounds	Intermediate home ownership
Emergency cases- welfare	Tenancy succession – under occupation	Placed into temporary accommodation	Prison applicants	Designated keyworkers
Discretionary	Overcrowding – Cat 1 and statutorily overcrowded assessments	Insecure accommodation	Shared facilities	Village connection applicants
	Serious housing conditions	Overcrowding – lack of one or more bedrooms		Hard to let applicants – normally sheltered bedsit accommodation.
	High medical or welfare grounds	Service Personnel
	Supported housing ready to move on	Lack of essential housing facilities
	Management transfers including decants	Medium medical or welfare grounds
	Efficient management of temporary accommodation	Household separation
	Cumulative needs ( 4 or more band 3 reasons)

Links

1. Dorset home choice cbl scheme user guide
2. Christchurch Borough Council and East Dorset District Council joint allocation policy. December 2013 amended September 2014.

Help with Registering on the Housing List

SHCLT will be arranging for EDDC and Synergy to hold a session at the Parish Council Office (date and time yet to be agreed – but what this space) to assist anyone interested in the CLT Affordable Homes and/or local people requiring help in registering on the Housing List, filling in forms, eligibility requirements etc.

Please let us know if you are interested in attending by emailing jenny@sixpennyhandleyclt.org.uk.

Affordability

Please note: It is the Applicants' responsibility to ensure they are eligible to claim Housing Benefit if they need it to enable affordability of either Social or Affordable Housing.

Basic principle of affordability is rent is no more than 35% of gross income.

It is likely that someone moving from existing affordable housing in the village to one of the new homes will find that the rents are higher. This is because of a change (in 2010) in the way rents are set. However, it is likely, but not guaranteed, that this increase in rent would be met by Housing Benefit (if they are entitled to Housing Benefit).

Indicative Rental Costs

There is an upper limit to the weekly rents that can be set – known as the Local Housing Allowance. This is also the maximum that can be paid by Housing Benefit. Anyone earning more than five times this rate is prohibited form registering from the homes.

The relevant figures are currently as follows:

The Local Housing Allowance that applies to Sixpenny Handley	The maximum gross income i.e. 52 x rent/LHA x 5)
One Bedroom Rate: £115.07 per week	£29,918
Two Bedrooms Rate: £143.84 per week	£37,398
Three Bedrooms Rate: £172.60 per week	£44,876

Eligibility for a Sixpenny Handley CLT SHARED-OWNERSHIP Home

The scheme will be administered via South West Homes where applicants are assessed individually. Applicants needs to register with Dorset Home Choice, they will then be referred to South West Homes for assessment.

Basic rules are applicants must be earning less than £60k joint income per annum and have a Local Connection.

Shared Ownership Comparison Costs for Sixpenny Handley (Indicative – actual costs will be produced as the scheme progresses)

Download the information

Property	Size (m2)	House Value £	Equity share %	Equity £	Mortgage per month [Note1] £	Rent per month [Note2] £	Combi -ned costs £	Required income - assuming costs are < 30% of income £	Required income - assuming costs are <35% of income £
2bed 4person house	80	£202,363	30%	60,709	374	325.00	699	27,960	23,966
			40%	80,945	512	278.00	790	31,600	27,086
			50%	101,182	650	232.00	882	35,280	30,240
3bed 5person house	90	£227,658	30%	68,298	426	365.00	791	31,640	27,120
			40%	91,063	581	313.00	894	35,760	30,651
			50%	113,829	737	261.00	998	39,920	34,217
Sales values in £/m2 from Zoopla £2,530 Note 1: The assumed deposit is 5% and interest rate is 6.5% Note2: The rent on SO homes is assumed to be set at 2.75% of the unsold equity (pa)