Issue - meetings

To consider a report by the Head of Customer Service regarding the Council’s Lettings Policy.

approved the revised Lettings Policy to come into effect on 1st April 2013.

With reference to a report by the Head of Customer Services (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) the Cabinet gave consideration to the content of a revised lettings policy which sets out how the Council, in partnership with Registered Providers with properties in the District, will allocate their properties through the “Home Link Choice Based Lettings Scheme”.

Executive Councillors were advised that the amended policy reflected the implications of the Welfare Reform Act on the Housing Benefits System and the flexibilities of the Localism Act for prioritising socially rented houses. Members referred to the recently approved Tenancy Strategy for Huntingdonshire and reiterated the need to move away from the granting of “lifetime tenancies” to fixed length tenancies of two to five years.

Having noted that the proposed policy had been the subject of a consultation exercise with the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Social Well-Being) and interested bodies, the Cabinet

RESOLVED

  that the revised Lettings Policy as appended to the report now submitted be approved to come into effect on 1st April 2013.