Mystery as 8,000 families disappear off housing queue Queries about council waiting list for homes
THOUSANDS of Birmingham families have ‘disappeared’ from the city council’s official housing waiting list after they were asked to re-register earlier this year.
There were 17,040 households queueing up for council houses in Birmingham before a new housing allocation scheme was launched in April.
Under the new policy they were required to re-register but according to a report to the city’s housing scrutiny committee, almost half of them (46 per cent) failed to complete their application.
A further 20 per cent were assessed as not being eligible for a council home and 14 per cent were still completing applications as the figures were compiled.
It means that just 5,876 households currently remain on the register.
Committee chairwoman Victoria Quinn, Labour councillor for Sparkbrook, was concerned about the 7,941 households that had apparently disappeared and a further 2,386 whose applications were still under consideration.
Another 3,408 applied but were refused. Councillor Quinn said that the breakdown showed very high rates of the ‘disappeared’ households in areas like Sutton Four Oaks, Kingstanding, Stockland Green and Bournville rather than the usual inner city areas where there is high demand for council housing.
“We have a large number of people, up to 60 per cent in some wards, who seem to have disappeared, fallen off the register,” she said.
Having been told the housing department was still working out why people were not re-applying, she was scathing of officials.
“We have worked out the trends. The council has been talking about homelessness prevention, and we need to know why so many people have disappeared,” she demanded.
Opposition housing spokesman Gary Sambrook, Conservative councillor for Kingstanding, said: “All we know is that 12,000 people are no longer on the register – but we need to know how that has happened.”
Director of housing Rob James said officials were approaching those who had not reapplied.
The new register was drawn up to reduce the housing waiting list to those in greatest need and those with a realistic chance of securing a council or social housing property.
In April the council’s Labour cabinet member for housing Peter Griffiths said: “For too long we have had a meaningless waiting list of thousands of people who in reality will never be made an offer of a council house or registered provider’s home.
“This new scheme will give a fair assessment of someone’s housing need and a realistic evaluation of whether they have sufficient priority to get a home.
“We will, of course, continue to offer housing advice to help people explore all their options.”