New choice offered to council home seekers

A Staffordshire council's new choice-based system for letting its affordable homes launches this week.

Instead of waiting for the council to offer a property, applicants can register an interest in properties as they become available.

They will be able to do so either online, by touch-tone telephone, SMS text message, or by contacting Cannock Chase District Council's housing office. Properties will go to the applicant who registered an interest who has been waiting in the highest band of need for the longest time.

The new scheme, called UChoosehomes, is designed to make access to affordable rented properties more straightforward and gives people more choice about where they live.

On Wednesday details of the first properties available to rent will be available online at www.uchoose homes.co.uk or in council receptions and other public buildings. The following day, and every Thursday thereafter, the properties will also be advertised in free weekly newspapers. The deadline for expressions of interest is midnight on Tuesday, July 7. This weekly cycle will then be repeated.

The council's Housing Allocations team has already written to more than 2,000 residents who are currently on the housing register to explain the new system.

Housing Allocations employees have also been answering many customers' questions over the telephone at 01543 462621 and at the Housing Office's reception in Beecroft Road, Cannock.

The council aims to ensure vulnerable applicants have full access to the new service and the Housing Allocations team have ensured the new system is simple to use.

For applicants who wish to use the online service, two PC terminals have been installed in the Housing Office reception where customers can access the UChoosehomes website.

Councillor Phil Freeman, Cannock Chase Council housing leader, said: "We're really excited about the UChoose system. It has been a huge success in other areas and will make the allocation of properties simpler, fairer and easier to understand. Although residents can use technology like the internet and text messaging, this is not the only way to express interest in a property. It can also be done at the Housing Office and by telephone."