Tenants have given a mixed reaction to tough new Bristol City Council rules that stop about half of the 19,000 families on its housing waiting list from applying for homes. The restrictions, agreed by Marvin Rees’s cabinet earlier this month, effectively exclude almost 9,500 households deemed to have the least urgent need from the list.
Council leaders were told less than one per cent of those in the lowest priority “band four” were allocated a home through the authority’s HomeChoice website and had been given “false hope” of ever being successful because demand for accommodation far outstripped the available supply. The new policy will mean only a tiny fraction from that group can bid for a property, such as older people in need of sheltered housing, while more people will be assigned a home directly and greater priority will be given for care leavers, tenants looking to downsize, people at risk of homelessness and locals in some areas.
Tenant representative Nigel Varley, of Gilton House, Brislington, accused the authority of trying to “massage the figures” and minimise the true scale of the housing crisis, which people needed to know about. He told a city council housing management board meeting: “The headline for this policy has been bumping 9,000 people off the council housing waiting list.
Read more: Thousands of Bristol families effectively cut from council housing waiting list
“That is a mistake. I know the rationale for it was that they stood absolutely no chance of getting a council house so why give them false hope, but the issue is the 19,000 on the list is an indication of the housing problem in Bristol and there is a massive housing crisis in Bristol which people need to be aware of. There needs to be some way for people who require affordable housing or want a council house, even though they have no chance of getting it, to register that interest.
“If you don’t give them the opportunity to bid, you lose that. We have to have a fight in this city for council housing, we have to fight nationally for council housing and just to massage the figures to make it appear as though it’s a smaller problem than it is is not helpful.”
Bristol City Council head of housing options Paul Sylvester replied: “We are not getting rid of people. That's not the plan. People will still be allowed to be on the housing register but we will restrict their bidding.
“That will enable us to continue to have oversight of need in Bristol. Even though the headlines say that, it’s important that we do know the scale of demand in Bristol, so there was a balance between allowing people to apply but restricting them on bidding.
“So we know the demand but we are saying it isn’t going to happen for you unless there are particular circumstances, like older people housing or maybe some of the build-to-rent initiatives that are coming up. The housing register will be the size it is at the moment.”
Board deputy chairman and council tenant representative Pete Daw told the meeting on Wednesday, April 19, that he supported the new rules and that the task to produce them had been “enormous”. He said: “I take on board the comment that Nigel made about it being reported negatively in the press, somewhat unfairly given the levels of detail and attempts at consultation which have been massive and taking on tenants’, leaseholders’ and prospective applicants' desires to change the system because it is over-capacity.
“Whichever way you look at it we are the last outpost of council housing in the South West and we run it incredibly well. We pick up awards for it, we are used as benchmarks for other cities, but we are still a drop in the ocean of the need that’s out there.
“If we had every single property empty tonight, we would still struggle to fill every family on the waiting list in the city with emergency accommodation tonight. That’s the scale of need. I support the change to band four. Setting unrealistic expectations was not helping anyone.
“I know it’s horrible to have to do it but we do need to do it and it’s a positive step. Alternatives are available and the city will work hard to deliver them.”
My Sylvester said: “The engagement and consultation is something we are very proud of because it was far-reaching and very wide, and I hope people felt they all had the opportunity to have some meaningful engagement with the work we were doing.”
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