Fairer, faster lettings scheme welcomes first new tenants

Published by Shoreline for Shoreline Housing Partnership in Housing and also in Communities

Home Choice Lincs – northern Lincolnshire’s new choice based lettings scheme – is celebrating its first letting in North East Lincolnshire.

Coleen Whittaker and Nick Shelvin have been handed the keys to their chosen Shoreline home, just days before Coleen is due to give birth to the couple’s baby.

Home Choice Lincs has replaced the existing housing lists for North East Lincolnshire Council, North Lincolnshire Council, Shoreline Housing Partnership, Longhurst & Havelok Homes and North Lincolnshire Homes.

The online scheme is part of a national initiative and promises to provide people seeking social housing a much fairer and faster way of finding an affordable home to rent.

Receiving the keys to their Grimsby home Coleen said: “We’d had a bad day but we logged onto Home Choice Lincs, this was the first home we bid on, a week later we got a call to say we could view it and here we are receiving the keys.

“It’s fantastic - Home Choice Lincs is really quick and so easy to use.”

Choice based lettings schemes have been successfully launched across the country.

It works in a similar way to an estate agency. Every week, all available homes for rent are advertised online and in housing and council offices. People on the register can then bid for any home they are eligible for, regardless of whether it is in North or North East Lincolnshire.

People can bid for up to three homes every week. Homes will be offered to those bidders who have the highest level of housing need and have been on the waiting list for the longest period of time.

Shoreline service development manager Andy Tyler said: ”Home Choice Lincs allows anyone seeking a home to see what properties are available across the region. They don’t have to sit and wait for a property match and they don’t have to register with each individual landlord.

“The scheme allows them quick and easy access to a greater range of homes so they can take a more active role in deciding where they want to live.”

Anyone seeking a home can register quickly and easily simply by logging onto www.homechoicelincs.org.uk