Priority bands

The four priority Bands and their definitions are:

Band A: Emergency and Top Priority Members
This Band is for cases of an exceptional level of need and where there are compelling and urgent reasons for placing them in this top priority Band. This will include cases where this is due to the seriousness of the applicants circumstances, or that there is an overriding and urgent need, from the Council’s point of view to rehouse them.

Band B: Members with an urgent need to move
This Band consists of the housing demand groups that are given high priority by the Council. This high priority status is given because of:
- Statutory duties
- High levels of housing need amongst tenants or homeseekers
- Where tenants need to be decanted from regeneration schemes
- Where it is in the Council’s interest to transfer
- Where special transfer policies have been agreed
- Where there are special needs for supported housing

Band C: Members with an identified housing need – reasonable preference
This Band is for households with an identified housing need, and fall within the criteria set out in the 1996 Housing Act (as amended), which states that reasonable preference must be given to certain types of applicants.

Band D: All other members
This Band will consist of households wishing to apply for inclusion on the Housing Register, but not falling within any of Band A, B or C criteria. Most band D applicants will not be able to bid for properties. If you are a single person over 60 years old, or a couple where one of you is over 60 and the other is over 55, you may bid for sheltered accommodation, even if you are in band D. If you are a single person aged over 50, or a couple both aged over 50, you may bid for properties where the advert says that all members of the household must be aged over 50, even if you are in band D.

Social Welfare Issues
There is a residual discretion for households whose defining features are deemed to be so exceptional that a higher priority is deemed to be necessary and are assessed as such. Where the defining features (including the cumulative needs) of a member are considered so exceptionally severe as to warrant immediate/imminent rehousing, or where it is considered in the Council’s interest, there is a discretion to enable the household to be made a direct offer of accommodation in addition to the advertised scheme.