There are several ways of reducing the council's housing list - one is to build more council and social housing, something that Andy Burham has said he wants to do. Another way is to change the criteria for admission to the housing register to make fewer people/families admissible - something that Brent has done in the past.
In 2024 Brent launched a campaign urging homeless residents to move out of Brent to move to affordable private rented accommodation elsewhere in the country. LINK
Following a re-registration exercise aimed at people on the D Band - families who do not qualify to bid for homes under the Locata system - it appears that some still wished to remain on the list nevertheless and so Brent now wants to remove that band entirely, Alongside this a 'one offer' rule would be introduced. Families would be expect to accept that offer and if they don't could be moved down the priority list or lose access to further offers. This is likely to put pressure on families to accept an offer even if it doesn't match their needs and be interpreted as 'accept or else'. Additionally bedroom sharing rules are proposed to be changed so that same sex members of a household who are over 21 years old will be expected to share a bedroom rather than have separate rooms.
None of this would reduce the actual housing need but would improve the figures that recently have been publicised to the detriment of Brent's reputation.
Brent Council has launched a consultation on its proposals during the summer holiday - not an ideal time!
Pete Firmin, a long time Brent tenant and campaigner said:
I encourage everyone to fill out this consultation. As ever, Brent may ignore comments, but if we don't submit any, they can claim there are no objections to their proposals.
The big flaw behind their proposals is that they are proposing to restrict the access to Council housing at the same time as the new Prime Minister is saying he wants a massive council home building programme. So, instead of cutting access, Brent should be encouraging that.
The individual proposals in the consultation are awful: 1) abolishing band D on the waiting list - i.e. telling people they are rejected as having any chance of ever getting a Council home. Compounded by the comment in the accompanying papers by the statement "There are lots of resources to help you find a suitable home in the private rented sector, including family homes and shared housing." Have they actually looked at the cost of private rented? They know most of the people on Brent's waiting list are there because they cannot afford the rents the private sector is asking for.
2) Proposing that those on the waiting list are only made one offer. There are too many examples of people being made unsuitable offers, such as flats inaccessible for disabled applicants, distance from children's schools etc for this to be acceptable.
3) "The council is proposing that same-sex adults aged 21 and over who are part of the same household be expected to share a bedroom". Really? Is that even a serious proposal?
So far only 11 people have taken part in the consultation. Go to LINK to take part. The consultation closes on September 13th 2026.
BRENT COUNCIL FAQS ON THE PROPOSALS
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