Hundreds of new homes being planned or built in Lockleaze at the moment will be for the people of Lockleaze, the city council’s housing chief has announced. A special new ‘Lockleaze Lettings Policy’, the first of its kind in Bristol, will see anyone on the housing waiting list in or from Lockleaze being given priority to bid for the new social housing being built around the Bristol suburb.
The new lettings policy is intended to make sure people in Lockleaze who need new homes will be more likely to get them. At the moment, people are eligible for social or affordable housing through the council’s housing waiting list if they already live in Bristol - but that means people can often end up getting housed on the other side of the city from where their roots are.
Council housing chief Tom Renhard said the idea of the Lockleaze Lettings Policy was to make sure people in Lockleaze see the benefits of the new housing that’s being built around the area.
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Lockleaze was a 1950s council estate built on farmland between the Stoke Park Estate and the Bristol-Gloucester railway and, like many of the post-war housing estates in Bristol, included large areas of open space between the roads and houses. Now, much of that land, and other brownfield sites, is being developed with hundreds of new homes in the pipeline, including at sites like Bonnington Walk and Romney House.
Many of these developments have a high percentage of homes that are classed as ‘affordable’, and will be let through the council’s HomeChoice system - and that’s where the Lockleaze policy comes in.
Council chiefs have said that if the idea works in Lockleaze, then it could well be rolled out to other areas of the city which are experiencing lots of new housing developments.
A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “This is the first area-wide Local Lettings Policy to be applied outside of a Neighbourhood plan within Bristol. The most recent existing Local Lettings Policy is operating in Lawrence Weston where there is a formally approved Neighbourhood Plan.”
How does it work?
To benefit from the Lockleaze Lettings Policy, people have to meet a series of conditions. They must be already on the Housing Register and deemed to be in housing need to start with, and be able to establish a connection with Lockleaze.
That means they have to meet at least one of these criteria - someone living in Lockleaze now who has lived there for two years continuously; someone who has lived in Lockleaze for more than two years up to two years ago - so someone who is from Lockleaze but recently moved away. Someone who has been employed in Lockleaze for at least the last two years, or someone who is currently of no fixed abode, or living in temporary or supported housing, whose previous address was in Lockleaze and who can demonstrate two years’ continuous residency in the area.
The council said the policy will be applied to all new build social and affordable housing for the first time each home is let to someone, and for 12 months after that if someone moves out.
How many residents could benefit?
Bristol City Council said it’s difficult to know exactly how many people could benefit from this. While the council knows how many are currently on the housing waiting list and living in Lockleaze, the total number of people who would be eligible under the new lettings policy could be more, while it may well be that people who are eligible don’t apply to move into one of the new homes anyway.
In terms of numbers of new homes available for the ‘Lockleaze priority’, the council said that under the new policy 50 per cent of new social and affordable rented properties on any new developments being built within Lockleaze will be allocated to applicants that meet the relevant criteria. In the case of Community Led Housing developments 100 per cent of the new social and affordable units will be allocated in line with the Local Lettings Policy where possible, the council added.
The council said it was initially only for people who are already on the Housing Register, which disqualifies someone who hasn’t registered their need because they know they would be so far down the list, they would not be housed. But for those people, the council has offered hope.
“In order to bid for social housing you have to be eligible to apply and have an active application on the Housing Register,” said a council spokesperson. “Prioritisation of bids is determined by housing need, which is reflected by the assigned band, and the date of application. Any application where acute housing need is identified will always be prioritised, but in general people who join the Housing Register now will be lower down the waiting list than those who are already on it.
“There is, however, a great deal of homes being built in Lockleaze over the coming years, so people who are only applying now may be in a position to apply for later releases,” they added.
Why has the council introduced the policy?
The new developments in Lockleaze have been controversial, with residents mounting campaigns against the losses of their much-loved open spaces.
In many of the consultations with local residents over the developments, council chiefs have been told that local residents said if the area has to have these new homes to help ease Bristol’s wider housing crisis, then people in Lockleaze should benefit.
“There was a high level of local engagement during the creation of the policy, with the council taking part in a number of different community events,” a council spokesperson said. “By allocating social housing in this way, the policy will make a significant difference to local people who currently find themselves in housing need,” they added.
“The policy also aims to address the current challenge of providing homes for both growing families and those who are downsizing, to enable people to move within the area as their needs change over time,” they added.
The council teamed up with the Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust to draw up the policy.
“Adoption of the Lockleaze Lettings Policy is fantastic news and a wonderful example of how all those who got involved have brought about positive change by using their voice effectively,” said Maria Perrett, the chair of the Residents Planning Group. ““Residents have worked closely with Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust and the council to help people in housing need to stay in the area. That’s what makes Lockleaze such a great community and why residents want to continue to live here,” she said.
The council’s housing chief, Cllr Tom Renhard, said that the policy in Lockleaze will be reviewed annually to check how it is working in practice, and it is hoped that it can become a template that can be rolled out to other areas of the city.
“We are committed to the creation of a mixed and balanced community within Lockleaze and it is important to make sure the new developments in the area play an active part in this,” he said. “We recognise the need to strike a balance to ensure that local residents in housing need benefit from the development in their areas as well as others, and believe that this lettings policy will help to make that a reality.
“We welcomed the opportunity to build a strong effective working relationship with Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust and the local residents during this process and look forward to continuing this positive engagement into the future,” he added. “We have worked hard to ensure that the community has driven decision making throughout the development of this policy and have been given the space to provide meaningful input at every stage.”
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