Accessible Social Housing in Gwent: A review of allocations systems

This comprehensive report, produced for the Gwent Health and Social Care Partnership, examines the practices, policies and systems that enable effective allocation of adapted and accessible social housing across the five Gwent local authority areas.

Embedded in the Common Housing Registers, the research showed an extensive variation between each of the Accessible Housing Registers and how they operated locally. Furthermore, it highlighted differences between matching systems of those local authorities that do not have an Accessible Housing Register operating in their area.

Drawing on the experiences of disabled tenants, allocations teams, OTs and Home Improvement Agencies, the research brought to the fore the fact that there was no industry standard or a definition of an accessible housing register, which would provide a benchmark against which an assessment could be made as to which registers should actually be classed as Accessible Housing Registers. In addition, the effectiveness of accessible housing registers researched also varied. The report shares a selection of good practice in Wales (as well as Scotland and England) but suggests introducing a standard to help assess the extent to which the Accessible Housing Registers were well-developed and effective.

The report makes the following recommendations:

• Local authorities and Registered Social Landlords to embed independent living principles into assessment and allocations policies for social housing, to ensure real choice and control.
• Local authorities to significantly increase their knowledge of existing accessible social housing stock, and develop specialist support and information services to facilitate suitable matching.
• Local authorities to apply best practices on the use of Accessible Housing Registers, with the longer-term aim of the use of a standard methodology across all local authorities.
• The Welsh Government to publish standards and monitor and publish effectiveness of Accessible Housing Registers.