Lettings Policy

Tower Hamlets Lettings Policythe information and evidence availableto the case.163. The demand for homes in TowerHamlets is so great that even withdiscretionary additional priority awardyou may have to wait a long time beforeyou will be offered an alternative home.If you are Council or Residential SocialLandlord tenant all other options willalso be considered to assist you that areset out in paragraph 105 onwards.If I want to be considered foradditional priority what should I do?164. We will need to investigate yourcircumstances and gather informationand evidence in order to assess yourclaim.165. First, you should tell your landlord whyyou need to move. If you are not happyspeaking with your landlord about this,you can ask for help from staff in theLettings Team, One Stop Shop, HousingOffice, legal or other voluntary advicecentres in the Borough.166. In most cases, reports on behalf oftenants will be co-ordinated by theirHousing Officer or equivalent. This willensure that the staff managing thetenancy are aware of all issues affectingresidents in their area.167. If you are not a tenant, then a LettingsSustainability Officer will be assigned tothe investigation if it is consideredinappropriate for the investigation to becarried out locally.168. You may ask someone else to make arequest on your behalf. This may be asolicitor, a social worker, or otheradvocate. If a third party makes arequest, it will usually be referred toyour Housing Officer or LettingsSustainability Officer to investigate.169. The officer managing your case will getinformation from all relevant sourcesand then submit it to the LettingsSustainability Team. It is in your interestto present all available information orevidence about the circumstances thatyou feel justifies you being consideredfor a discretionary additional priorityaward and therefore given greaterpriority for housing over other applicantson the housing list.170. We will consider the reasons why youfeel you cannot continue to live whereyou do now. We will also considerwhether it is reasonable for you to livethere, the support you have there and ifthere are actions that can reasonably betaken to help you to continue to livethere. If there is no other effectivesolution available, giving additionalpriority for rehousing you may bedecided upon as the most appropriatecourse of action.171. We will not normally consider referralson grounds of health or overcrowding asprovision for this is already madeelsewhere in this policy.172. The officer dealing with your case willprepare a report that gives full details ofthe grounds for additional priority to beconsidered. This should includeevidence from all relevant interestedparties (such as the Police, VictimSupport, Social Services, Schools, AntiSocial Behaviour Control Unit, healthprofessionals etc). This co-ordinatingrole is important as it ensures that localstaff are aware of issues in their area.173. We receive hundreds of requests eachyear to carry out assessments forpriority on social grounds. The LettingsSustainability Team will make an initialdecision on whether or not yourapplication should be referred to thePanel. You will be told the decision andif you disagree with it you may ask for a27