There is no such thing as a Council House “Waiting List”.

There are many numbers published that are described as such, and quantify its perceived “length” but they don’t bear close examination. Derby Homes differentiates between a Housing Register (‘Homefinder’) and a “Waiting List” yet reports the number of applicants on the Register as the “Waiting List”. To clarify…

The reported numbers on the “Waiting List” for Derby ( published by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities from input from Derby Homes) at 31 March 2022 was 6557. Internally, Derby Homes reported: ” At the end of March 2022 there were 6,633 applicants on the housing register.

The comparable figure at September 2022 was 6416. However, 1494 applicants hadn’t made a bid within the last 12 months.

Note: An applicant registered on Derby Homefinder (Register) can express an interest (‘bid’) on up to 3 properties per week. It is only through bidding that an applicant moves forwards in securing a Council House ( except in a few exceptional circumstances)

According to the Derby Homes Allocation Policy, if someone hasn’t bid for 3 months, then they are given a further 3 months to bid. If no bid is forthcoming “we may close their application”.

Of the 4922 ( 6416 – 1494) applicants which Derby Homes refers to as “active”, 571 haven’t bid for over 6 months so, should have been removed from the Register through inactivity, leaving 4351 people potentially active on the register.

It is well understood that there are very few Council Houses becoming available at any one time. During the 6 months to September 2022, there were just 231 property adverts; this is 2.3% of the total Housing stock ( excluding Supported Living).

In detail the number of new adverts is, on average, by property size:

• 1 bedroomed properties – 6 per week
• 2 bedroomed properties – 2-3 per week
• 3 bedroomed properties – 1 per week

98% of the people on the Register are in the 2 highest priority categories. This means that they are, for example, homeless (i.e. sofa surfing) / threatened with homelessness, care leavers, fleeing domestic abuse, unsanitary conditions, armed forces, financial hardship, medical issues etc). No one should be on the register who wants a Council House as a “lifestyle choice”. Given this level of Need then one would expect that they would be actively bidding, on a weekly basis, to secure any opportunities that arise.

Of the 4351 active people referred to above, only 2712 had bid in the last month. There is no obligation on anyone to bid on the first property, of the right size, that becomes available.

Using Derby Homes’ definition of “active” – 1995 people are seeking a one bedroomed property. During the 6 months to 30 September 2022, 138 adverts were posted. On average just 75 people bid per property – 3.7% of the applicants!

The comparable figures for other property sizes were:

• 2 bedroomed – 7%
• 3 bedroomed – 22%
• 4 bedroomed – 16%

It is interesting to note in the 6 months to March 2022, for one bedroomed properties that ~14,000 bids were made on 300 adverts; in the 6 months to Sep 2022 10,500 bids were made on 138 adverts. Even when there are 11 adverts a week, those people who have applied for a 1 bedroomed Council House only bid, on average, 7 times in a 6 month period. In that period they had the option to bid 78 times – on average they’re “wasting” 90% of their bidding capacity. An alternative perspective, is that there ~200 active bidders out of the 2000 on the Register,

Who qualifies for the Housing Register

Many of the qualifications are standard across Councils. The one that is discretionary is the applicant’s financial resources.

In Derby, if an indiviual earns less than £35k ( couple £60k) and has savings of less than £75k then they qualify. In other cities the threshold’s are much tighter and more consistent with other means test criteria. In Nottingham someone wouldn’t qualify if they had savings greater than £16k. In Leicester an applicant’s salary must be less than £25k ( couple £34k). This would mean that, all other things being equal, Derby would, potentially, have more people on the register, who have adequate financial resources.

Comment

Being on a “Waiting List” implies that someone is engaging with the process that could result in them successfully getting off the waiting list – and that process is ‘bidding’. The data demonstrates that the majority of the people on the Housing Register are not actively bidding…and so aren’t truly “waiting”.

The opportunity for people who are in genuine need, is to bid as often as possible. People who don’t bid perhaps, don’t understand the bidding process and /or assume that the Council will contact them when a house is available, or have the time to be choosy over the properties they bid on.

Thus, the “waiting list” is only as long as the number of people bidding on a specific size and specification of property at any point in time. In principle, the “waiting list” for a 1 bedroomed property is only 75 people long as, on average, that is the total number of people bidding to ‘get off the list’. The other 1900 people who are on the Register ( for a 1 bedroomed house), and didn’t bid are, by definition, not on the “Waiting List” for that specific property.

A tactic for some people is to be on the Register as a “placeholder”, hence the number of people with very few bids. They bid, just often enough, to avoid being automatically removed and accummulate “period of time waiting” – which increases priority.

To make the process more focussed on the right people, it would make sense to significantly reduce the financial resources threshold, and remove people from the register who haven’t bid within 1-2 months without good cause. This would ensure that the available Council Houses were being made available to those in genuine, urgent need.

An individual applicant can’t do much to influence the time it takes to be secure a Council House. The use of the term “Waiting List” reinforces the myth that they are in a queue. The misleading publication of the number of people registered as the “Waiting List” is distracting. The statistics are clear – the 10-20% of the people registered, who actively bid, weekly, will significantly reduce the time that they wait for a Council House.

As the saying goes ” You have to be in it , to win it”.