Shalfleet Parish Council and the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils (IWALC) have called on Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, to look into the administration of social housing allocations for new Island developments.
To give an understanding of the problems that locals have experienced, Steve Cowley, Chair of Shalfleet Parish Council and Helena Hewston, Chair of IWALC provided several examples in relation to a new Shalfleet development.
Shalfleet development
Burt Close, in Shalfleet village, has recently been developed under Sovereign Housing Association (SHA), with the 24 dwellings made up with 13 social housing units and 11 shared ownership properties.
The criteria set up by Sovereign Housing have been agreed and understood by the Parish Council and the local authority (Isle of Wight Council).
No ability to show local connection
They say the problem arises for applicants when they apply through the Island Homefinder Website.
In their letter to the MP, Steve and Helena explain,
“Applicants have to be already registered on the Island Homefinder Website. Where there is no provision to demonstrate how the applicant meets the criteria and prove their local connection to the Parish.
“Another issue being if people registered on the Island Homefinder Website have not accessed it for some time then their account freezes and it can take several weeks for this to be un-frozen, by which time the properties they hope to bid for will in all probability have been allocated, as in this instance, they were only on the Homefinder Website for one week.”
They go on to say,
“The Parish Council have been informed that once people apply through the Island Homefinder Website (which we have been told had a copy of the Local Connection attached to the properties) they had to then phone the Sovereign Call Centre on the mainland to demonstrate their connection.
“Not an easy task in itself.”
No Burts in Burt Close
One of the examples of local people who have been unable to secure social housing in the Parish is one of the parish councillors.
Alex Burt, is married with a young family. He has very strong ties to Shalfleet, farming in the area.
The development is named after his family, but he has been unsuccessful in securing a home there, while others from outside the area have.
“People on Mainland didn’t have a clue what was going on”
Referring to another example, Steve and Helena added,
“The Parish Council have been told that the applicant tried to phone the Sovereign Call Centre, as directed and they told her that the IWC allocate the properties. She tried again the following day and asked to speak to someone in Sovereign on The Island that dealt with rentals. She said ‘the people on the Mainland did not have a clue as to what was going on’.
“She left a message asking for someone to phone her – they never did, despite her being told by the Call Centre staff they would send an email to the person concerned asking them to do so.
“This person never had a call back and was given no opportunity to demonstrate how she met the criteria for the properties; main one being she works in the Parish. How can the allocation process adhere to the criteria if people cannot show how they meet it?”
Cowley and Hewston: “Allocation system is flawed”
The letter to Bob Seely ends with,
“We appreciate the issues are complex and decisions taken in good faith but it does appear the allocation system is flawed and needs to be more robust.
“Please give it your attention.”
Questions to SHA
News OnTheWight has written to SHA with a number of questions relating to the allocation process and will update once we hear back.
Image: Diogo Brandao under CC BY 2.0
