New lettings scheme reaches 1,000th milestone

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

MORE than 1,000 families and individuals have found their new homes through a regional lettings scheme which was launched just eight months ago.

Home Choice Lincs was created through the collaboration of North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire Councils, plus local housing associations Shoreline Housing Partnership, North Lincolnshire Homes and L&H Homes.

All the organisations are non-profit making and have a responsibility in their areas to provide affordable and accessible social housing, ploughing the income they make through rents, back into improving communities.

But last year, the partners came up with a plan to merge their lettings service – providing more choice for people who can now select an affordable home in North or North East Lincolnshire.

Now, every home belonging to one of the housing associations is advertised at www.homechoicelincs.org.uk  and in local housing offices as soon as they become available for letting.

In the eight months since its launch, well over 10,000 people have signed up to the scheme and earlier this month the 1,000^th home was let.

Shoreline Housing Partnership chief executive Tony Bramley said: “It’s fantastic that the scheme is proving to be so successful. Over 1,000 families and individuals have proved that by gaining quick and easy access to a greater range of properties they can take an active role in finding a new home and deciding where they want to live.”

Steve Evans, Head of Housing Management, at North Lincolnshire Homes, said: “Since we launched Home Choice Lincs with the other housing providers, customers have been able to view advertised homes and put their name forward for the one they are interested in. This has been a vast improvement on the old system where people waited for us to allocate a home to them.

“The popularity and success of the scheme is clear from the number of people who have signed up to it and we are thrilled to have provided affordable homes for so many people in North Lincolnshire.”

Home Choice Lincs is an online scheme and is a much fairer and faster way for people to get affordable homes for rent with registered social landlords.

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 are then 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.

The quickest and easiest way of registering with the new scheme is to log onto www.homechoicelincs.org.uk