Housing applications for people not in 'statutory housing need' in Shropshire set to be paused for this reason

More than 7,500 households are currently on the waiting list for homes in the county, but councillors say the online Shropshire Homepoint system used to process applications has been a hurdle to families who are in urgent housing need.

An announcement at this week’s meeting of Shropshire Council revealing upgrades are now underway was welcomed by Much Wenlock councillor Dan Thomas, who said more than 50 families in his division were awaiting an outcome on their applications.

“For me this is a huge issue, I’ve got lots of friends as well as residents who can’t stay in Wenlock when they’d like to, and it pains me to see them leave the town,” he said.

“The affordable housing stock in Wenlock is good, but there is a need for me to keep young families in our town.

“The recent extension of Callaughtons Ash has brought in 12 affordable homes for local people, but using Homepoint was a traumatic experience for a lot of people. It took 10 weeks for people’s applications to be approved, the website is not user friendly and the phone line isn’t answered promptly.

“I welcome the upgrades to Homepoint and how it will improve opportunities and be more user friendly to the people of the Much Wenlock division and Shropshire as a whole.”

Portfolio holder Councillor Dean Carroll admitted staffing issues with the Homepoint team had led to some delays in applications, but added the new system would speed up the process of applying by allowing customers to update their applications via a new customer portal.

“The [homepoint] team have been operating with several vacancies which does impact on the time taken to process an application. However, regardless of this, households in housing need and to whom the council have a statutory duty are fast tracked so their application is registered as soon as possible,” he told a meeting of Shropshire Council this week .

“We are committed to constantly improving the service for those who need to use it, at what we understand will be a very difficult time for many. As part of this, the Shropshire HomePoint IT system is in the process of being upgraded.

“As agreed at February council, as part of the Medium Term Financial Strategy, we are also looking to close the housing register temporarily to anyone whom the council does not have a duty to house. This will mean that for this period, the team will be able to concentrate on delivering the system upgrade and catch up on outstanding applications and focus on those who are most in housing need.”

Councillor Carroll, added that currently the register is 'open' and takes applications for everyone who wishes to be rehoused including those out of county.

"This causes a significant amount of work for the team who have to administer the applications for households who are not in housing need," he said.

"The aim is to pause the applications to everyone bar those who are statutory homeless, in order to ensure that the scarce resource of social housing is allocated to those most in need.

"It is important to note that no one will be removed from the register and so the current 7,500 applicants will remain active and able to bid.

"The pause is currently for a period of four months but the date of it being activated is yet to be confirmed."