Sub Regional Choice Based Lettings

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Sub Regional Choice Based Lettings September-Octob
er 2009 HEADLINE RESULTS REPORT
Report author Nicola Lawson Market Research
Team Marketing and Communications nicola.lawson_at_yo
rk.gov.uk
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Background methodology

• Background
• Choice Based Lettings is a different way of
  allocating properties owned by councils and
  housing associations. Instead of the council or
  housing association contacting applicants when a
  suitable home becomes available, the properties
  will be advertised so that these applicants can
  choose which ones they are interested in.
• Seven councils (York, Scarborough, Craven,
  Hambleton, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Selby) and
  their housing association partners have joined
  together to introduce one system which covers all
  their homes. One of the first steps has been to
  agree a common lettings policy across all
  organisations.
• Methodology
• The survey was sent to around 10,000 current
  housing applicants across North Yorkshire in
  September 2009. The general public were also
  given the opportunity to complete an online
  survey hosted on City of York Councils website.
  The closing date for responses was 19 October
  2009.
• 2,246 surveys were completed 2,226 by post and
  20 online. This means the results are accurate to
  within /- 2 at 95 confidence interval. Where
  percentages do not sum to 100, this is either
  due to multiple responses or decimal rounding.
  The figures for each question have been
  calculated after the respondents who did not
  answer the questions have been removed from the
  bases.
• Housing developed the survey in conjunction with
  the councils Marketing Communications. The
  data inputting was conducted by Feedback Market
  Research and the report was written by Marketing
  Communications.

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Sample profile
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Around a fifth of the sample is made up of
respondents from York (22), with a further fifth
of respondents from Scarborough (21).
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The sample is skewed towards female respondents,
those aged 25-74 years old, and respondents
without a disability.
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There are further skews towards White British,
Christian and heterosexual respondents.
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For household composition, the sample is skewed
towards those who do not have any children, with
a third (33) of the sample single and 27
describing themselves as a couple.
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Findings
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New allocations policy Q1 How strongly do you
agree or disagree that we have got the Priority
Bands right?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Applicants will be placed into one of four bands
according to their circumstances Urgent, Gold,
Silver, Bronze (please refer to the Choice Based
Letting guide for full explanations of the four
bands).
Overall, nearly three-quarters (72) of
respondents agreed that the Priority Bands are
correct, with 16 expressing strong agreement and
56 tending to agree. A further 12 of the
sample disagree to some degree that the Priority
Bands are right (8 tend to disagree and 4
strongly disagree). The remaining 16 of
respondents did not express an opinion.
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New allocations policy Q2 How strongly do you
agree or disagree with the way we are assessing
overcrowding (that children of different sexes
should share up to age of ten and for a child
under one to share with their parent)?
Base all respondents who answered the question
58 of respondents agreed with the method of
assessing overcrowding, with 16 actually
strongly agreeing and 42 tending to agree. In
terms of disagreement, 24 disagreed overall,
with 9 expressing strong disagreement and 15
tending to disagree. 18 of respondents did not
express an opinion.
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New allocations policy Q3 How strongly do you
agree or disagree that applicants with children
can choose to live in flats above the ground
floor?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Nearly half (48) of the sample agreed to some
degree that applicants with children can choose
to live in flats above the ground floor (12
strongly agree and 36 tend to agree). A
further quarter (25) of respondents disagree
with the priorities given to applicants with
children. Of these respondents, 16 tended to
disagree and 9 strongly disagreed. The
remaining 27 of the sample did not express an
opinion with regards to applicants with children.
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New allocations policy Q4 Do you have any other
comments about the new allocations policy?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Respondents were given the opportunity to provide
any other comments they have regarding the new
allocations policy, to which 81 of the sample
did not comment. Of those respondents who did
respond, the main comments were agreement with or
support for CBL (18), children should not be in
flats (15) and disagreement with some bands
and/or priorities (10).
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Registering with the scheme Q5 How would you
prefer to register for the Choice Based Lettings
(CBL) scheme?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Respondents were asked how they would prefer to
register for the CBL scheme, to which the most
popular method was by a paper application form
(77). Just over two-fifths (42) said they
would prefer to register through an office
interview with a member of staff, whilst 38 said
via the internet. A third (33) of the sample
would prefer a telephone interview. Less popular
methods of registration appear to be using a
touch screen at your local housing office (15)
and through local newspapers (12).
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Advertising the properties Q6 Under CBL, vacant
properties will be openly advertised. How would
you like vacancies advertised?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Respondents were asked how they would prefer
property vacancies to be advertised, with the
most popular method appearing to be in a property
free-sheet (63). Just under half (47) of the
sample would like vacancies to be advertised on
the internet, whilst 41 said at reception
areas. Two-fifths (40) of respondents would
like to see vacancies in local newspapers, whilst
38 said by telephone. Methods that appear less
popular include text messaging (25) and local
public access points (23). Other (4)
suggestions included post or letter (79 of
other) and email (6 of other).
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Advertising the properties Q7 Adverts will
include information such as type of dwelling,
number of bedrooms, and rent payable. What other
information would you like to see in an advert?
Respondents were asked what other information
they would like in the adverts, to which 45 of
the sample did not respond. Of those respondents
who did, the main suggestions for further
information were general information about the
area and amenities (30) and whether the
properties has a garden(s) (27). Around a fifth
of respondents said information on available
parking or garage (19) and location or street
(18) would be useful. 11 of the sample would
like to know about public transport services,
whilst 10 said both information on the Council
Tax band and type of fuel for the property. 7 of
respondents would be interested in information
about the schools in the area.
Base all respondents who answered the question
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Advertising the properties Q8 How often do you
think properties should be advertised?
Base all respondents who answered the question

• Over half (57) of the sample believe that
  properties should be advertised every week,
  whilst 39 said every two weeks.
• 4 of the sample suggested alternative timescales
  for adverting properties, including
• monthly
• as soon as available
• twice a week
• every six months
• dependent on circumstances

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Bidding for a property Q9 How would you prefer
to tell us which vacancies you are interested in?
Base all respondents who answered the question
The most popular method amongst respondents for
informing housing which vacancies they are
interested in is by telephone (68). Just under
half (48) of the sample said by returning a
postal coupon, whilst 47 said in person at their
local housing office. 44 of respondents would
prefer to express their interest via the
internet, whilst 23 prefer text messaging. 2
of the sample suggested other methods of
expressing their interest, which included post
and email.
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Bidding for a property Q10 Expressing an
interest is also known as bidding for a
property. Do you like this term?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Over half (53) of respondents like the term
bidding, with 27 liking it a lot and 26
liking it a little. 15 of the sample dislike
bidding as term for expressing an interest in a
property, with 8 disliking it a lot and 7
disliking it a little. Around a third (32) of
the sample did not express an opinion.
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New allocations policy If more than one person
bids for a property we will sort them in the
following way priority band, local connection,
making the best use of the size of the property,
how long the applicant has been waiting
Q12 How strongly do you agree or disagree that
this is a fair way to decide who should be
offered the tenancy?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Around four-fifths (81) of respondents agree to
some degree that the allocations policy is fair.
Of those who agreed, 27 actually strongly agreed
and 54 tended to agree. 9 of the sample
disagreed that the allocation policy was fair (6
tend to disagree and 3 strongly
disagree. 10 of respondents did not express an
opinion.
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Results and Feedback Q13 Information on every
property let through the scheme will be made
available to applicants. By which method would
you prefer to be informed?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Respondents were asked how they would prefer to
receive information regarding every property let
through the scheme, to which most respondents
chose multiple answers. Over half (55) of the
sample would prefer information on available
properties to be included in a property
advertising free-sheet. 38 said that their
preferred method is the internet, whilst 35 said
a quarterly newsletter. Receiving information
through an annual report appears to be the least
popular method (9). 6 of the sample specified
an alternative preferred method, including by
post, telephone and text messaging.
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Results and Feedback Q14 How strongly do you
agree or disagree that the new system will be
simpler and easier to understand than the
existing system?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Around two-thirds (65) of respondents agree that
the new system will be simpler and easier to
understand than the existing one. Of these
respondents 19 strongly agreed and 46 tended to
agree. 7 of the sample disagree that the new
system will be an improvement compared to the
current one (3 strongly disagree and 4 tend
to disagree. Over a quarter (28) of
respondents did not express an opinion.
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Results and Feedback Q15 Most CBL Schemes have
a name, such as Homefinder, or Homesearch.
Our scheme doesnt yet have a name, but is known
as North Yorkshire Choice Based Lettings Scheme.
Can you suggest a better name for it?
Base all respondents who answered the question
Respondents were given the opportunity to suggest
a name for the CBL Scheme, to which 67 of the
sample did not respond. Of those who did
respond, the main suggestions included, Home
Choice (12), Homefinder / NY Homefinder (8),
Homesearch / NY Homesearch (5). 3 of
respondents also suggested House Hunter / Home
Hunter / Housing Hunt, and Home Bid / Homes
Bidding.