ABSTRACT
Allocations and lettings combine to represent one of the core activities of social landlords. In 2003/4, local authorities and housing associations in England together let 383,000 ‘general needs’ properties. This chapter starts with an outline of the legal basis on which local authorities provide housing generally. Central to the government’s aim of creating a single route into social housing, was the duty imposed by the 1996 Act on local housing authorities to set up and maintain a housing register and to make allocations therefrom to ‘qualified persons’ through an allocations scheme. The lack of choice associated with conventional allocation models, together with problems of low demand in particular parts of the country and a desire to achieve sustainable communities, has prompted an interest in ‘alternative’ systems of housing allocations, all of which depart from the traditional model with its focus on allocating housing according to measured need.
