Gerrans Hill Development: An update on allocation procedures

Roseland Online has heard that Gerrans Parish residents have been understandably anxious about the allocation process for the flourishing Affordable Housing development in Gerrans Hill, Portscatho. For this reason, Roseland Online has had extensive talks with the Affordable Housing department to get to the bottom of the allocation process.

From the 27th March 2010, Cornwall Homechoice took over as the one register to apply for social housing vacancies and affordable housing in Cornwall. All the existing former district registers no longer operate; they use the new Cornwall Homechoiceinstead.

There are some helpful FAQs on the Cornwall Housing website about the new Homechoice scheme which you can look at here. Also there is a property search page here which you may well like to add to your bookmarks as it is where you will need to go once the houses become available. There are also other properties available there at the moment in case you wanted to look at alternative accommodation possibilities.

As to the allocation process for this scheme, when the properties are nearing completion and ready to advertise, the Homechoice team will work within the requirements of the Section106 agreement. Needless to say, those meeting the qualifying Parish connection criteria and local needs will be the first priority. But how that will manifest is hard to put an exact mark on at this time. It very much depends on the needs at the time of allocation so much could change for a household between now and the development’s completion.

The most important thing to do is ensure you are registered with Cornwall Homechoice. The best way to register is online. There are many questions that residents can find answers to by visiting the Homechoice website, where you can also make an online application to the register.

As soon as information becomes available, the team have promised to keep Roseland Online updated and there is also the possibility that a rural surgery will be held in the locality. Once again, Roseland Online will report on any upcoming events like this well in advance.

To clarify on a question that has been on many people’s lips: one bedroom accommodation is not being built on this scheme. The reason for this is to allow single people, or couples as yet without children, to have room to grow. They have learnt from past lessons when single bedroom accommodation was built, only to find that a year or two on, residents outgrew their accommodation and needed more room. For this reason they are ‘over compensating’ to allow for natural growth of singles/couples and small families; hence the two, three and four bed houses being built. It is not the case that single people or couples without children will receive no allocation because no single bed accommodation is being built.

The main thing for someone wanting to be considered is to make sure they are signed up to the Homechoice scheme – the best way to do this is online. Once the council have opened ‘bidding’ for the new houses an applicant must put in their bid. It is an applicant’s circumstances at that time that will determine their qualification for one of the new development properties.

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