Council to Remove 5,000 from Housing Waiting List

MORE than 5,000 people will be removed from Bournemouth’s housing waiting list as the council seeks to cut the number to a manageable level.  Currently more than 8,335 households are on the housing register and officially waiting for a council or housing association property to become available.  Now the council is proposing to remove all those people that have no realistic chance of ever being offered a property and reduce the waiting list to less than 3,000 households. It plans to do this by changing its allocations policy, prioritising local people in housing need and on low incomes, people who are making a positive contribution to the local community and applicants who have recently served in the HM Forces or who are foster carers.  Out of the 8,335 households currently on the waiting list, 35 per cent are not deemed to have a housing need and 16.5 per cent have no local connection.  These families have a less than two per cent chance of being offered accommodation.  Read more on the Bournemouth Echo website.