Shropshire Council’s Tenancy Strategy and Tenancy Policy have been reviewed to ensure sustainable communities where social housing tenants have security of tenure and social housing is genuinely affordable to local people in housing need.
The Council is required by the Localism Act 2011 to produce a Tenancy Strategy which sets out its expectations to Private Registered Providers (the majority of which are housing associations) in relation to tenancies and rents. The draft revised Strategy requests Private Registered Providers to provide Lifetime Tenancies as default (following any Starter Tenancy) and to set rents below or in line with the relevant Local Housing Allowance (LHA). Thereby aiming to ensure sustainable communities and that affordable housing is genuinely affordable to local people in housing need.
Where a local authority wishes to use Flexible (or fixed term) Tenancies for its own housing stock it must produce a Tenancy Policy. In 2015 the Council adopted a Tenancy Policy which introduced Flexible Tenancies for the dwellings managed by its ALMO, STAR Housing. The draft revised Tenancy Policy proposes to phase out the use of Flexible Tenancies. This is on the basis that there is no evidence that Flexible Tenancies solve housing need or result in substantial additional dwellings for re-letting.
To read the Tenancy Policy please follow this link the Shropshire Councils website:
shropshire.gov.uk/get-involved/tenancy-strategy-and-tenancy-policy/
The consultation period is from 7 November 2022 to 6 January 2023.