Sheffield Property Shop

Your Views Matter! We are reviewing our Allocations Policy, and we want to hear your views!

Earlier this year, we asked for your thoughts on how we could improve our Housing Allocations Policy and how we could ensure fairness when allocating social housing.

We’ve listened to your feedback and created a new draft of the Housing Allocations Policy. You can read the full consultation report here.

We would welcome your thoughts on the draft Housing Allocations policy to make sure we’ve got it right. 

We want to know what you think about the proposed changes, including:

• Who can join our Housing Register.
• How we prioritise housing applications.
• Who gets offered a home.
• What happens when an offer is refused.
• How we allocate highly adapted properties
• Who can be offered a property on our older person independent living schemes (OPIL).
• How we determine the number of bedrooms a household needs.

You can read the draft Housing Allocations Policy or read the summary of proposed changes here Summary of proposed changes table.

Our current Allocations policy can be found here Allocations Policy - Sheffield Property Shop

What is the Allocations Policy?

The Allocations Policy explains how we decide who will be offered available social housing (both our own and those of partner Registered Providers). It explains:

• Who can join our Housing Register. Only those who meet certain eligibility and qualification criteria can join.
• Where someone will be placed on our Housing Register. We use a banding system to help us decide between people’s housing needs.
• How those with an urgent need to move will be assessed. This is called priority rehousing.
• Which households are given ‘Reasonable Preference’. This is explained later in this survey.
• How expressions of interest in a property will be ranked. In Sheffield, people express their interest in a property through ‘bidding’ on the Sheffield Property Shop website.
• Who will be offered the properties that are advertised. We prioritise those with the most urgent housing need.
• How we respond with people who refuse an offer of a property. We have specific procedures in place for this.

How to get involved?

This survey is open to everyone. We want to hear the views of Sheffield residents, organisations, community groups and Registered Providers across the city. 

It's important for us to hear from all Sheffield residents, whether you're already on the Housing Register or not. We are committed to reaching and engaging with a wide range of people including those who didn’t take part in the earlier consultation in March.

You can respond to the consultation by completing the online survey here: Housing Allocations Policy Review | Have Your Say Sheffield

We have also produced a list Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to support you in completing the online survey.

What happens next?

Following this consultation, we will consider the responses received and take them into account to make changes to the draft version of the Housing Allocations Policy. This will then be considered by the Housing Policy Committee in early 2026, seeking approval to adopt this as our new policy.

We will publish the results of this consultation as part of the Committee report in early 2026.

The changes that are included in the draft Housing Allocations policy could mean:

• Some applicants who currently qualify to join our Housing Register may no longer do so.
• Some applicants would only be eligible to bid for smaller properties than they could previously.
• We can better prioritise those with the most urgent housing need and those that fall under the reasonable preference categories set by Government. 
• Better bidding support for applicants who have priority for rehousing.
• More efficient allocation of social housing stock, including adapted properties and specialist housing, to those who need it the most.
• Everyone is treated consistently across all bands when they are offered a property. 
• Everyone on our Housing Register will need to place bids on properties that are advertised for which they are eligible. 
• Our Housing Allocations Policy continues to meet its aims and objectives.

What happens to my feedback?

The survey will be carried out in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) which sets out how your information can be used and helps make sure it is kept safe.

More information about how we collect personal data and store it can be found here: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/utilities/footer-links/privacy-notice

The Phase 2 consultation is live until close of Monday 17th November 2025.