Affordable housing in rural areas and local connection

Greenfields are undertaking developments in a number of villages including:

• Capel Close, Rayne
• Prospect Close, Hatfield Peverel
• Alexandra Road and Parkfields, Sible Hedingham

These sites are not on land outside the village envelope, so are not subject to any section 106 agreement binding them for people with a local connection.

However, we have agreed with Eastlight Community Homes that they will give priority on first letting to local people.

Principle of the lettings

Eastlight Community Homes will give priority to qualifying households:

• with a high housing need, in bands A to C and
• with a strong connection to the village

A strong connection to the village includes:

• people who live in the village
• people whose place of work is in the village and work there for at least 16 hours per week
• people who have lived in the village for at least five out of the last 10 years
• people with close family living in the village who have lived there continuously for at least two years.

We define close family in our allocations policy including parents, children and siblings.

Procedure for lettings

The procedure for letting these properties is:

• Eastlight Community Homes will advertise the properties on Gateway to Homechoice
• only applicants who have registered can express and interest and ‘bid’ on the properties
• we will consider people who have a local connection and are in bands A, B or C first
• Eastlight Community Homes will let each property to the highest eligible banded applicant who has been waiting the longest and has a connection
• we will not consider or give extra priority for the strength of the connection
• we will not allow under-occupation. People can only bid for properties that meet their needs unless we state otherwise in the advertisement

If no applicant with a strong local connection qualifies for a property, we will offer it in the usual way. This will be to the highest eligible banded applicant with the longest effective date who has made bid for the property.

Eastlight Community Homes will apply their normal procedures to the lettings, including for example:

• how they invite applicants to view the properties
• the right of the housing association to bypass applicants with a poor tenancy history