The Housing Selection Scheme Consultation Paper - Northern ...

Background
The Housing Selection Scheme
The Housing (Northern Ireland) Order, 1981 (Article 22) provides the statutory
framework for the Housing Selection Scheme. The Housing Executive must
submit a scheme for determining the order of allocation of Housing Executive
tenancies. Any amendments to the statutory scheme must be submitted to the
Department for Social Development for approval.
In 2000 the Housing Executive and Registered Housing Associations in Northern
Ireland, having established a Common Waiting List for all social housing in
Northern Ireland, agreed to participate in a Common Selection Scheme and
since then the Housing Executive’s Housing Selection Scheme has been used as
the basis on which all social housing is allocated in Northern Ireland, whether
owned and managed by the Housing Executive or any of the registered Housing
Associations.
The Housing Selection Scheme is first and foremost a tool for assessing and
ranking the need of individual households who apply for social housing in
Northern Ireland and allocating homes on the basis of that assessed need and
ranking. In addition, tenants who wish to transfer within their landlord’s stock or
across the pool of social housing are also assessed and ranked as applicants
under the rules of the Housing Selection Scheme. The Scheme provides for the
award of points to applicants for housing need factors such as insecurity of
tenure, housing conditions, and health/social well-being, with the overall
accumulation of points determining the position and ranking of an applicant on
the waiting list.
A full copy of the current rules of the Housing Selection Scheme can be found on
the Housing Executive’s website at:
http://www.nihe.gov.uk/housing_selection_scheme_rules.pdf
Proposals for Changes to the Housing Selection Scheme 3