London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham

The two main systems for permanent social housing allocation (direct offer and choice-based lettings) are imperfect. Direct offers require significant Council resource investment to manage the waiting list and offer properties, while CBL leads to ‘point-gaming’ of the system in an attempt to get better offers. Both systems also require significant officer time to be spent gathering and validating documents which may or may not impact expected waiting times.

We want to look into the current challenges that Local Authorities face with both types of allocation systems and work with a behavioural insight firm to apply current academic research and create an alternative system which reduces back-office processing and encourages clients to what is best for everyone (not just themselves).

The financial impact of an inefficient allocation process is significant. H&F, alone, currently has over 2,400 households on their register waiting a direct offer of accommodation, with an average waiting time of 4 years. Of these, 1,400 are in temporary accommodation which costs the Council, on average, £3,500 per household.

If there is a cheaper, more efficient and better way to allocate permanent properties, this would be applicable to all LAs in England.