SARH offers support to Stafford homeseekers wishing to move to smaller accommodation

Stafford and Rural Homes is making it easier for people to move from a house that is too big into one that is a more appropriate size.

Following feedback from customers SARH has amended its Homes First choice based lettings system to give even greater priority to customers who under occupy their current home.

Amanda Nicklin, housing choices manager for SARH, said: “We want to ensure that we make the best use of our housing stock by increasing the availability of larger accommodation for families who need them.

“This change to our policy will potentially increase the number of SARH tenants making successful bids for smaller properties and release larger properties to make sure our customers are living in the most appropriate and cost-effective accommodation for their needs.

Under the choice based lettings system those applying for social housing can bid for vacant properties owned by SARH.

The successful applicant will be the customer with the highest priority under the scheme, which is allocated using a banding rather than a points based system.

This helps applicants understand their priority for housing more easily and identify more clearly why they have been placed in a specific band.

Since Homes First was first launched in 2009, 545 SARH properties have been allocated to customers across the borough.

“Choice Based Lettings provides a simpler more transparent way of allocating social housing and the system has been extremely successful in finding new homes for hundreds of our customers,” said Amanda Nicklin.