HOUSING SERVICES
The Council's Housing Services Department operates the Housing Register as well as a range of other initiatives and services including Keyworker Housing, Shared Ownership, Community Link Alarms and general housing advice.
The Council also has responsibility for the District’s Housing Strategy. The strategy covers private and public sector housing, rural settlements, small market towns and larger urban areas. It goes beyond building new homes and improving existing ones and, linking in with other key strategies and plans, deals with the wider role housing plays in increasing quality of life. We are currently writing a new strategy that will take us to 2013. We believe that the housing strategy must be informed by views of residents, businesses, partners and stakeholders, and we asked you to have your say via our Housing Strategy Consultation Document Looking to 2013. This was a summary of what the Council believed were the key housing issues for Horsham and what could be done to tackle them in the next five years.
We would like to thank everyone who participated in the first stage of the consultation process; we received a wide range of comments, suggestions and feedback from individuals, organisations and agencies. The Draft Housing Strategy is now complete and we would welcome your help in this second stage consultation.
As 31 out of the 33 parishes in Horsham District can be classified as rural, the Council commissioned a specific Rural Affordable Housing Strategy to address housing need in the rural areas of the District. The Rural Affordable Housing Strategy contributes to the strategic vision for Horsham, which is set out in the District’s Sustainable Community Strategy, the Council’s Corporate Plan 2006-2011 and its Core Strategy 2006-2018. The delivery of the Rural Affordable Housing Strategy will contribute to achieving the aims and objectives of these three key documents. It outlines the causes and effects of a shortage of rural affordable housing; the methods used to assess local affordable housing need, and an action plan that sets out how the delivery of new affordable housing in our rural communities will be improved.
The Council no longer has any properties. It transferred its 4,600 homes to a newly formed Housing Association called Saxon Weald in December 2000. It does however have nomination rights to a proportion of these properties that become available for relet. This means that we match up available properties to people who are homeless or are on the Councils general Housing Register. We also nominate people to other Housing Associations which have properties in the district.
The Council's Housing Register and Nominations Policy has been reviewed and a copy is available to download.
If you have just moved to the area or are looking for general information about housing, see our useful Housing Information Pack or other sections of our website, If you would like to speak to one of the Housing Team, please contact the Council’s Housing Options Advisory service on (01403) 215560.
Housing Services Team
Park North
North Street, Horsham
West Sussex, RH12 1RL Tel: (01403) 215560
Fax: (01403) 215243
E-mail: housing@horsham.gov.uk