Housing allocations policy consultation

In April 2020, Buckinghamshire Council became a single unitary council, replacing Buckinghamshire County Council and Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe District Councils.

We are proposing to reflect this in the housing allocations policy by removing the legacy district areas and instead creating a Buckinghamshire-wide housing area within which local connection will be determined.

Currently, an applicant can only qualify to register for the legacy district areas to which their local connection applies. For example, an applicant with a local connection to the legacy Wycombe District area will at present only qualify to register for rehousing in the legacy Wycombe area, and not in the rest of the county.

The proposed change to remove legacy district boundaries will result in an applicant’s local connection being assessed against the whole Buckinghamshire Council area. This would mean that an applicant with a local connection to anywhere in the Buckinghamshire Council area will automatically qualify to register for rehousing anywhere in that area. For example, an applicant living in High Wycombe will be able to bid on properties advertised in other parts of the county.