Housing Allocations Review - Questionnaire Analysis
June 2003.
334 Questionnaires Returned
Question 1.
Who would you re-house first?
PRIORITY / Short-term accommodation / Sharing accommodation / Properties in disrepair / Waiting list for a long time / Health affected by housing1 / 13 / 7 / 22 / 52 / 60
2 / 15 / 23 / 11 / 30 / 61
3 / 14 / 21 / 37 / 35 / 36
4 / 7 / 24 / 32 / 36 / 30
5 / 16 / 27 / 34 / 25 / 25
6 / 19 / 26 / 38 / 16 / 19
7 / 17 / 27 / 31 / 19 / 13
8 / 40 / 50 / 18 / 15 / 8
9 / 42 / 37 / 16 / 22 / 7
10 / 65 / 18 / 28 / 8 / 3
PRIORITY / Harassment,
Neighbour problems / Currently overcrowded / Over-occupiers / Homeless / Homeless No Children
1 / 20 / 5 / 30 / 48 / 9
2 / 23 / 25 / 19 / 29 / 25
3 / 25 / 32 / 10 / 18 / 18
4 / 23 / 29 / 16 / 25 / 15
5 / 21 / 28 / 19 / 13 / 22
6 / 15 / 12 / 9 / 12 / 7
7 / 30 / 37 / 24 / 22 / 18
8 / 23 / 14 / 22 / 20 / 26
9 / 27 / 20 / 20 / 20 / 35
10 / 18 / 6 / 26 / 5 / 46
Question 2.
Which system do you think is fairer?
Points System / Date Order SystemTotal / 137 / 156
Percentage / 47% / 53%
Question 3.
At the moment we give 500 points to top priority cases until they are re-housed. Do you think it would be fairer to put a time limit on this priority?
Yes / NoTotal / 111 / 64
Percentage / 63% / 37%
Question 4.
If an applicant is offered a suitable property in an area they have chosen, do you think they should be penalised if they refuse?
Yes / NoTotal / 181 / 92
Percentage / 66% / 34%
Question 5.
If yes, how many times do you think we should allow people to refuse a property?
One / Two / Three / FourTotal / 54 / 122 / 54 / 11
Percentage / 22% / 51% / 22% / 5%
Question 6.
How much priority do you think should be given to applicants from outside the Borough?
High / Medium / LowTotal / 11 / 52 / 244
Percentage / 4% / 17% / 79%
Question 7.
Have you been made aware of the Home Choice Scheme?
Yes / NoTotal / 166 / 135
Percentage / 55% / 45%
Question 8.
Are you a Home Choice member?
Yes / NoTotal / 88 / 200
Percentage / 31% / 69%
Question 9.
If yes, how satisfied are you with the scheme?
Very Satisfied / Fairly Satisfied / Unsatisfied / Very UnsatisfiedTotal / 7 / 54 / 23 / 17
Percentage / 7% / 53% / 23% / 17%
Question 10.
How do you think the scheme could be improved?
Question 11.
We are considering extending the Home Choice scheme across the whole of Poole so that applicants can choose which properties they are considered for. Would you prefer this rather than properties being selected for you based on information given in your application?
Yes / NoTotal / 187 / 54
Percentage / 78% / 22%
Question 12.
How would you like to receive information about properties?
Local Newspaper / Free Newsletter / Website / Housing Reception / OtherTotal / 25 / 245 / 130 / 44 / 10
Percentage / 5% / 54% / 29% / 10% / 2%
Question 13.
The Council is not able to re-house everyone who applies. If we were to provide information on other options available, would you consider these as a way of being re-housed?
Securing Private Rented / Moving to another part of the CountryTotal / 185 / 49
Percentage / 79% / 21%
Question 14.
Thinking about the process of applying for accommodation within the Borough of Poole. How would you rate housing and Community Services in terms of the information available to you?
Very Good / Fairly Good / Fairly Poor / Very PoorTotal / 56 / 164 / 60 / 36
Percentage / 18% / 52% / 19% / 11%
Question 15.
Overall, how satisfied are you with the application and allocations service?
Very Satisfied / Fairly Satisfied / Fairly Unsatisfied / Very UnsatisfiedTotal / 38 / 136 / 77 / 58
Percentage / 12% / 43% / 24% / 18%
Question 16.
Do you have any further comments or suggestions for changes, which you feel would improve the service?
1. May be a quarterly newsletter to explain how houses have been allocated for that quarter, so that people like myself who are at the bottom of the list can see that there is some movement on the list.
2. People over 60 having the offer of sheltered accommodation. Many people who are still couples have problems as most are for single people.
3. There seems to be a severe lack of communication between Social Services and Housing relating to the provision that is required for young people with physical and learning disabilities.
4. To make exchange books in reception valid for 12 months instead of 6 months and to be kept more up to date.
5. I think if you have been on the waiting list for longer than 3 years, you should be given something. I have been on the waiting list 10 years and still nothing has been offered.
6. I have been a home choice member for well over a year now and in that time I have only received two, which I didn’t get. More choices would be an improvement.
7. People with disability, give people more choice. Homeless people offering homes, disability should be looked in to.
8. Yes we are interested in low cost home ownership but we have not had anything from you (not one.)
9. To give people who are on their own in a three or four bed house, who wishes to move to smaller property a better chance so as the council has a family home, for a family with children.
10. Look at long term residents who have been waiting, myself my husband would like to part own a property but after investigation there are none in the area.
11. As a housing applicant I’d like to see more homes for the single people in this area and cheaper rented accommodation.
12. More understanding, help and support is required from the interviewing offices, we felt they were uninterested in our situation. Council properties are hard to obtain due to council houses being sold off in the past, maybe there should be a scheme in which the council has first refusal to buy back the property when it gets sold, instead of property developers who do them up and then rent them for the same rates as private renting.
13. I feel strongly about fraudulent claims and people allocated council property when they brag to their neighbours about the property they own and are currently renovating whilst all their family stay in the council property with them.
14. Build low-income houses for newly weds and school leavers.
15. If the same rule applied to everybody for example I was about to be evicted and offered B&B, yet I know of another single mum who lives with her mum and has been offered two properties already with Housing Associations.
16. I feel that people have too many offers. I have a friend who had five houses offered to them within the space of 4-5 months, 3 of them were inadequate for what they wanted but they just kept getting offered place after place. This is not right.
17. To be informed more about your applications process.
18. Think more about the people who were born down here and a bit less about outsiders and asylum seekers etc.
19. Asylum seekers should not be re-housed in any circumstances – if they wish to live in Britain they should be able to fend for themselves.
20. I think that if people such as myself who have been waiting patiently for a number of (7) years should be given priority not points, if they want to come out of private accommodation because of high rent. Also I am a carer or my Special needs son.
21. To have areas of housing for non- travelling families. As have harassment from travelling families who have moved to the area and made our life hell by their anti -social way of life.
22. Buy more Council properties, i.e. run down properties.
23. If people need to more area due to School allocation, e.g. Catholics need to travel to St. Mary’s or St. Joseph’s. This may near a long journey due to no alternative affordable housing.
24. The people who are on the Council list for a long time and have never asked to be housed, and then if they find him selves in need of a Councils help by housing. They should get help. A.S.A.P
25. We feel that there is not enough consideration given to applicants who have been on the waiting list for a long period of time, and those who rent in the private sector seem to be over looked, or told they do not have enough points. Local connection (i.e. family should also be taken into account.)
26. We need more housing in Poole
27. More news for any people who have been in Council houses for at least 15-20 years. Who might need more bedrooms, how getting more help to get an exchange as points system does not help.
28. I think that a higher priority should be considered for first time buyers who live and work local to Poole as for many, this is the only opportunity available to them)
29. Could money for further housing be raised from second homeowners? There are too many people in the South who are unable to get accommodation whilst, at the same time there are too many properties left empty and only used occasionally. Full Council tax to all properties or even more for second or third homes may help.
30. I think people with bigger houses than they need should be made to move to smaller properties then people like myself would have a suitable property to move to as I have been on the waiting list for two years and not yet been offered a house because of these selfish people refusing to move to smaller properties. I really think something should be done about this.
31. Priority- split households with children should be homed before the homeless or anyone else.
32. Me and my partner have been homeless for some time now and haven’t been offered anything from Poole Council, please write to us to let us know how many points we have and when we will be likely to be housed as my health is being effected.
33. Automatic referral to H/A’s who have waiting lists for shared ownership resale properties. I am supposed to be on several lists but I don’t receive very much information on re-sale properties. It seems that after strict prioritisation of those eligible to buy S/O in the first place (i.e. those being nominated) there is very little monitoring or encouragement. Distribute info or prioritise as re-sale properties come up for sale. When I have approached new S/O developments I have not been considered a priority. Subsequent details of re-sale properties have been minimal.
34. There should be more help with advice regarding exchanges. I moved to a property in Sanford that was awful; no heating, kitchen in disrepair. I am a single parent and was not told how bad Purbeck Council is. Currently the points system seems to be non satisfactory. It is hard to move from Turlin Moor, I am hoping to move to Oakdale.
35.Yes, More priority should be given to single people who find themselves homeless through no fault of their own. The question of properties available to potential tenants is poor and extremely slow. Lastly ‘Home Choice’ who wants either estate offered? Come on better thinking and better located and managed estates.
36. I am a 28-year-old male living in my parent’s house. I have a 24-year old girlfriend with who I enjoy a stable and settled relationship. We both have a degree of learning disabilities but are able and enthusiastic to live independently. We are both in full-time employment and are desperate to be given a chance to succeed as a couple. We need to be given a chance in life.
37. Anything! We have been overcrowded for years on an estate in an awful road – no chance of a swap, no chance of a decent future.
38. I’m living in a very small upstairs flat, the council are paying £400 plus council tax for me as I am on incapacity benefit. Although I have been on the Council House waiting list for two years I have not ever been offered alternative accommodation. Maybe stopping free accommodation for single girls may stop them getting pregnant just to get away from home.
39. There is no point in suggesting anything, I was sharing a room with my brother and my daughter in my parent’s house and nothing was done, it took me five years to finally find a private place.
40. I am 86 yrs old and would like to sheltered accommodation, have been waiting some time, I have was born in Poole 1917 and think local persons born in Poole have priority because I have seen people having moved relatives in then say overcrowded and get priority.
41. People like myself you rent accommodation they can’t afford which if you are on income support, sick and on housing benefit and bills are high takes most of money to live on. Never get any where with Council Housing.
42. I think it would be improved if all areas and housing was offered on the scheme as Turlin Moor, Borne Estate were too far from where I work and my daughters Schooling I moved to Poole and have been on housing list 8years. Training to be a nurse.
43. When I originally applied I was informed that I had enough points – unemployed, nowhere to live, twins on the way. The information and help was very haphazard and now I have had to involve the local M.P.
44. Regular updates on how applicants are progressing on the housing register. Advice on how applicants can obtain cheaper housing themselves. Reasons for the number of points allocated to an application.
45. We have been on the housing waiting list for 3 ½ years and have had nothing, we live in rented accommodation which is very expensive and we get hardly any housing benefit which is very unfair as we have very little income, but it seems you will only consider people who have been made homeless and nobody else which is poor.
46. I have been on the waiting list years and have not been offered 1 flat I expect I will be in the morgue before you offer me anywhere.
47. Stop housing non-British citizens who enter the country on a banana boat.
48. Don’t say you’re next for a flat when you cannot provide this I’ve been told last Christmas I’d have a place by New Year and that’s over a year now still waiting.
49. A higher priority should be given to people who make the effort to work.
50. Perhaps more single person accommodation for people who cannot afford the high rents and do not get help as they have no family.
51. I would like to see you take into consideration peoples debt problems, both my partner work and our 1 year old daughter is walking and we have a bed-sit so need more room but unable to spend more on private rent in the private sector for a bigger place. Plus I get the impression you have to be disabled to have a chance of moving. Thanks.
52. If you had someone to come around to see people instead of relying on letters and forms, I have only one solicitor worker in four years to see me. It would be a better service.
53. Having served in the armed Forces for 22years and never been able to settle in areas for long periods, I feel some consideration should be given to service people when they leave the forces, I left my hometown some 26 years ago and have moved around different areas whilst serving with the marines.
54. It would be good if there were more properties available for part rent/part buy for people on low income and more council housing available to all people not just high priority.
55. Better options for divorced couples that find themselves new partners but are unable to afford anew mortgages. Perhaps given better options on houses rather than being put at the bottom of a list behind families with 3 or 4 children.
56. People who have no children should not be put at the bottom of the housing list. I have lived in Poole most of my life and deserve to be re-housed even though I have no children.
57. Personal interviews with families/individuals would probably reflect the overall needs of people better than paper-work, n.b. stakeholders days are of little use to people with work commitments.
60. Well single people of ages 20 plus single don’t stand a chance. Why not give the high-rise 1-bedroom flats to them. I would be over the moon if offered that.
61. People who are over 70 whose relatives buy the house for them benefit and do not live in the house. So the elderly are not protected.
62. To take into account the amount of people with friendly doctors, who are being given far too many points, just to jump the housing queue. The person’s doctor should fill out a far more detailed form given by the council with a home visit.
63. I have now been privately renting for 1-½ years, we have a six-year-old son who is constantly woken by noisy neighbours. Life is very hard in our household with all my money given out on rent and other bills. I also think it is very unfair that we are forced to live like this. Please could you revise my application? We would accept any 2-bed property in Hamworthy, Upton or Poole.
64. Overall, the Poole Housing under the Borough Housing is very good, helpful, co-operative and informative.
65. Single mothers seem to be able to get accommodation just because they have a child when people like me who only need 1 bedroom flat don’t stand a chance.
66. My wife and I have now been on the waiting list for 14 years. We are both working, we have 2 sons. We believe if given a Council or HA house we would be prepared to look after it. Have you seen some of the people you put into perfectly decent homes only for them to completely wreck them, surely changes have to be made in the way you allocate properties.
67. I feel that if you are employed you have more rights; if you are a one parent family you get more rights. I feel that decent people who work do not fit into the Council’s book and decent people are not even thought of, you think more of better people.
68. It would make me (as an applicant) for whoever answers the phone to be more open and helpful with any questions put to them. I always feel very degraded and the lowest of the low whenever I have phoned.