Under the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, a household may apply to one housing authority only, for social housing support, at a time. Furthermore, it is not possible for a household on the waiting list of one housing authority to transfer its application to another authority and to carry the time spent on the previous list.
The Social Housing Strategy 2020 included a commitment to examine the possibility of introducing a “housing passport”. The basic premise is that households in receipt of, or qualified for, social housing support in one local authority area could potentially transfer to, or be allocated, social housing in another local authority area.
My Department is currently developing proposals in relation to this matter, details of which will be outlined when the work involved is complete.