Housing Applications

Hampshire Home Choice

Winchester City Council is changing the way in which it allocates social housing to anyone applying for housing or applying to transfer: Hampshire Home Choice is the new choice based lettings system that will be live in Spring 2009.

The government has asked all local councils to introduce a new method of letting social housing that incorporates choice for the applicants by 2010. In order to meet the legal requirement for allocations of social housing as set out in Part VI of the Housing Act 1996, amended by the Homelessness Act 2002, Hampshire Home Choice is being introduced by Winchester City Council.

Hampshire Home Choice will change the allocation process for the benefit of our applicants - instead of Housing Officers matching you with properties, you will be able to "bid" for vacant properties suitable for your needs on the website or via an automated telephone line. A bid means indicating an interest in a vacant property; no money is required to bid. A User Guide explaining how the new system will work will go out to all applicants in the New Year.

Hampshire Home Choice is a partnership between Winchester City Council, East Hampshire District Council and Havant Borough Council, which means that you can bid for properties in any of those three areas.

Once implemented Hampshire Home Choice will:

• Provide a single system of allocations across the whole sub region, enabling people to move across the three areas
• Applicants can take a more pro-active role and have the choice of bidding only for the properties that interest them
• Provide a system that applicants can understand and which is both open and fair as applicants can view all vacant properties available and the number of bids for each property
• Enable people to move across the three areas
• Assist applicants in the highest assessed need and minimise homelessness
• Ensure that vulnerable applicants and difficult to reach groups are supported in being able to participate
• Increase the sustainability of local communities.

Please select "How it will work" on the left for further details on the new scheme.

Consultations
Consultations and information sessions are now underway. A schedule is available soon. We will ensure that inclusive and representative findings from the consultations are used to inform the decisions we make. Consultation findings will be published soon.
If you would like to leave your feedback and are an existing tenant or an applicant on the waiting list please fill in our online questionnaire: Click Here to take survey
If you would like to leave your feedback and are a housing provider or another organisation please fill in our online questionnaire: Click Here to take survey

Further Information
If you would like further information about the scheme please contact Customer Services by email on customerservices@winchester.gov.uk or telephone on 01962 840 222.