Breckland Key Select

Scheme guide

When you register for affordable housing on Breckland Key Select, the system may automatically place you into one of the three housing needs bands as described below. The placement of your application is based on the information that you have provided when you complete the online application form.

Priority/Emergency Band

• Applicants accepted as unintentionally homeless and in priority need.
• Applicants whose properties have been served with a prohibition order or demolition order.
• Applicants threatened with serious and immediate violence.
• Applicants requiring urgent discharge from hospital where their current accommodation is assessed as unsuitable for their needs.
• Applicants with very urgent and serious medical needs.
• Applicants with a combination of high needs or a combination of needs within a household.
• An existing Housing Association tenant who needs to move urgently as their property is about to be demolished or redeveloped.
• Other extreme cases.

Gold Band

• Applicants who are threatened with homelessness within 12 weeks through no fault of their own, who have been assessed as likely to be in priority need, and are engaging with the Housing Options team to prevent their homelessness from occurring.
• Applicants with a high medical need which results in the need to move urgently because the current home is not suitable and cannot be made suitable.
• Applicants occupying a property which has been assessed as posing a high health and safety risk.
• Housing Association tenants within Breckland who are assessed as have two or more bedrooms more than they need and are willing to move to a smaller property.
• Applicants who have been assessed as needing two more bedrooms than they currently have.
• Applicants with a high need to move due to harassment, threat of violence, or abuse.
• Young people leaving Local Authority Care where a young person has been referred as part of their pathway plan for leaving care and have been engaging with the Housing Options team at least six months prior to their 18th birthday.
• Households containing a child or young person for whom another Authority has requested assistance under the Children's Act 1989, section 27, and where a Housing Options officer considers that assistance to be appropriate.

Silver Band

• Statutory homeless households.
• Housing Associations tenants who are assessed as having one more bedroom than they need and are willing to move to a smaller property.
• Applicants who have been assessed as needing one more bedroom than they currently have.
• Applicants assessed as ready to move on from supported accommodation with supporting evidence from the support provider that a tenancy can be sustained.
• Applicants who need to move on social and welfare grounds.
• Applicants who require a larger property due to being accepted as foster carers.

What determines my registration date?

All applicants will be awarded a registration date. This is essentially the date that you applied to join the Breckland Housing Register and the application was fully completed and accepted on the scheme. This date will determine who is successful in being offered a property where two or more people from the same band apply for the same property.

If your housing need band changes due to a change in your circumstances, and you are placed into a higher band, your registration date will be the date that your application goes into a higher band. Where your application moves down in to a lower band, you will keep your initial registration date.

If you disagree with the band that your application has been placed in, you can ask for a review of the decision by a senior officer. You can request a review of the decision within 21 days of the decision date. The review will be carried out within 28 days of the appeal being received.

You will need to request a review by email (Housing.Advice@breckland.gov.uk) or write to:

Housing, Breckland Council, Elizabeth House, Walpole Loke, Dereham, NR19 1EE