The Gateway to Homechoice scheme was set up to provide a better system for allocating council and housing association properties for rent.  The system has been in place across Babergh, Braintree, Colchester, Ipswich, Maldon, Mid Suffolk and Suffolk Coastal since 2009.  Waveney District Council joined the scheme in early 2011.

The scheme has been designed to make the allocation of social housing more transparent and offer greater choice to applicants. 

If you are looking for social housing in one of the areas stated above there is only one application form to complete.  To register for the new scheme please use the link below:
Gateway to Homechoice 

Your application will be assessed and you will receive a banding letter along with a Scheme Guide containing further information.

Your needs will be assessed against the same clear set of criteria regardless of where you currently live and you will be able to bid for properties that you would like to live in.  Offers are made in line with the new policy, first looking at priority bands, followed by effective dates.

If your circumstances have changed and your housing situation has become worse you should contact the CBL Assessment Team on 01376 552525. If you are threatened with homelessness or are homeless you need to contact the Housing Options Service on 01376 552525.

What is Choice Based Lettings?

Choice Based lettings (CBL) is a new way of allocating social housing - both council and housing association properties. 

Braintree District Council, along with 7 other local authorities operate a common CBL system.
The local authorities that form the partnership are:
- Babergh District Council
- Braintree District Council
- Colchester Borough Council
- Ipswich Borough Council
- Maldon District Council
- Mid Suffolk District Council
- Suffolk Coastal District Council
- Waveney District Council

This partnership has many advantages. It allows us to standardise the way in which people apply for housing. We are also able to use a common method for assessing housing need and it allows people to apply for homes that become empty outside the traditional district and county boundaries. Previously, people without a connection to a particular area were accepted onto the Housing Register but had little or no priority for housing.

Local Connection

Some affordable homes in rural areas are built on rural exception sites to specifically help meet the housing needs of local people and are therefore let differently than other affordable homes.

When applying for these homes, the strength of applicants' local connection takes priority over banding.  The computer system recognises applicants in order of highest band but staff need to examine the details of each applicants local connection and assess it against the local connection cascade developed by the parish council and local authority.  Homes are let first to households with the strongest proven local connection to the parish, followed by banding.

When bidding for these properties, queue positions can often change as some applicants may have mistakenly indicated a local connection on their application form, or the system has recognised an applicant as having the highest banding but the assessment of the local connection, which will take priority over the banding, is still being carried out by staff.

The formal shortlist of applicants is only produced once staff have assessed applicants against the local connection cascade.