7,000 people with 'no chance' of getting Northumberland council house to be axed from waiting list

Councillors have signed off plans that will see more than 7,000 people without an “identified housing need” wiped off the housing register.

Bosses say the move, which will cut the size of Northumberland County Council’s housing register by more than half, is needed to help focus the efforts of local authority and housing provider staff on those in greatest need of a new home – such as those with medical issues or who are living in overcrowded or unsanitary conditions.

Critics had branded the overhaul “cruel” when the proposed reorganisation was unveiled earlier this year.

But the Tory-run council’s cabinet agreed to the new policy this week, which will delete the 7,088 people currently in the lowest priority Band 3 of the housing register.

Colin Horncastle, the council’s cabinet member for housing, said he expected “a lot of kickback” to the reforms but that the current system “doesn’t make sense in the modern world” because it forced staff to trawl through thousands of housing bids that had no chance of success.

He said: “You might think it is not a problem, but it is. Anyone in Band 3 can bid for a home on Homefinder. These people have no chance of being allocated a house.”

Coun Horncastle added: “It will give our officers double the time to concentrate on the people that actually have a real housing need. It is a win-win situation.”

Currently, the Band 3 applicants represent almost 58% of the total 12,275 people on Northumberland’s housing register.

Conservative councillor Guy Renner-Thompson said that he had received complaints of people from Manchester and Glasgow applying for council homes in Seahouses and causing “absolute uproar” among locals.

Nick Oliver, the Tories’ cabinet member for finance, added: “It (Band 3) is a bit like waiting to win the lottery when you have never bought a ticket. It is something that is not going to happen.”

The council’s revised housing allocation policy will also mean that applicants without a verified local connection to Northumberland will no longer be eligible to join the housing register, with the exception of Armed Forces leavers.