Why we consulted

Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996 requires the local authority to have a scheme for determining how it will allocate social housing. Before we make any major changes to this scheme we should provide stakeholders a reasonable opportunity to comment.

Welsh Government policy developed plans to align services and work towards the Rapid Rehousing approach. This prompted the review of our Allocations policy towards the end of 2022. Since April 2023 we have been piloting the Emergency Allocations Policy. This has allowed us to trial this new approach to allocations and identify any issues with our proposed changes to prioritise those in greatest housing need to produce a new long-term policy.

The purpose of this consultation exercise is to allow further input from multiple stakeholders allowing us to ensure individuals’ housing needs are met, and that any period of homelessness is rare brief and unrepeated.

Consultation Outcome

The Scrutiny Committee considered a report detailing the findings of a twelve-week consultation exercise undertaken on the development of a new Social Allocation Policy for Carmarthenshire to replace the current Emergency Allocation Policy developed by the Committee’s Task and Finish Group in 2023.

The timeline of when the policy is going to various meetings for approval is as follows:

September 2: Pre cabinet

November 18: Cabinet