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Homelessness and Housing Solutions

The services available to you if you are seeking housing or rehousing in the Borough.

If you believe you are homeless today

Wherever possible, before coming to the offices, please telephone us on 01527 534069 and ask to speak to the homelessness duty team. The offices are open to the public from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and we will respond to you on the same working day within these hours.

Outside of these hours you can call our emergency out of hours service on 01527 67666.

The team will ask you some questions to assess you. They will also try to understand if there is anything that can be done to prevent you becoming homeless today. If not and we believe that you are homeless and it is not your fault, and you will likely need temporary accommodation, you will need to show us that you:

  1. Are eligible to claim public funds (benefits)
  2. You have a local connection (work, live or have close family living here) with some special exceptions
  3. You have a priority need for housing

For more information on these tests go to:

You must also complete an online application form to join our housing register

If you have difficulties in accessing this service, please discuss this with the duty team

If you are not homeless today, but you have been given a notice

If the property owner has given you a valid notice that they want their property back, or your family or friends have asked you to leave, then you are threatened with homelessness. This is not an emergency.

Please make an online application to join our housing register:

You will be asked a series of online questions that will enable the team to process your application and prioritise your housing needs. If you are threatened with homelessness, say so on your application, the registrations team will pick this up and refer you for further contact by the homelessness team who will make further assessments and work with you to prevent you becoming homeless.

If you are struggling to access this service, then please telephone us on 01527 534069 or complete our enquiry form

If you are not homeless or threatened with homelessness

If you are not homeless today, or threatened with homelessness, or are already a tenant wishing to transfer to another social rent property, then you will need to apply to join the Housing Register. You will need to complete an online application form

You will be asked a series of online questions that will enable the team to process and assess your application and prioritise your housing needs according to our Allocations Policy, a summary of which can be found here or the full policy can be found here Redditch Borough Council’s full and formal Allocations Policy.

If you are assessed as having a local connection but low housing needs, for example because you are adequately housed, then you will usually be placed in priority band 5 or 6 depending on your circumstances.

If the team identifies from your application that there may be a higher priority need than another to move, for example, because you:

  • Have a high medical need or disability that makes your property unsuitable
  • Living in exceptional circumstances
  • Are living in a privately rented property that is in disrepair (a category 1 and / or 2 hazard exists)
  • Are a tenant of a social or affordable rent property in the Borough and you are under-occupying or seriously overcrowded and / or have adaptations you no longer need

Then you will initially be placed into priority Band 5 while further assessment and enquiries are carried out and your priority banding is finalised.

You will be updated and notified through your portal, including what you can do if you disagree with our decisions on priority, but if you are struggling to access the service or have any general questions about your application, registration or advertising, bidding, and allocation process, please complete our online enquiry form or phone us on 01527 534069

The demand for social rent and affordable housing currently outstrips supply in the Borough and the Council will always prioritise its housing stock for those most in need of housing.

We can and will discharge our statutory duties out of the area and / or into the private rented sector where it is appropriate to do so.

There is therefore a reasonable expectation that, wherever possible, households should take responsibility for meeting their own accommodation needs in the private sector. This housing solution will always be a reasonable requirement of any Personal Housing Plan. The Council can offer financial assistance and support to so and you may be able to claim benefits to meet housing costs. For more information go to our Renting Privately page

Your right to request a review

Your formal letters issued throughout the processes will advise you about what to do if you do not agree with various decisions made under the legislation, for example, about your final or repositioning positioning on the Housing Register, or the suitability of an accommodation offered.

If you feel that any decision has been incorrectly arrived at, you have the right to request a review. You must submit your written representations, including your grounds for requesting a review within 21 days of the date of the formal letter either by email to housingreviewsandcomplaints@bromsgroveandredditch.gov.uk  or by post to:

Senior Reviewing Officer
Redditch Borough Council
Town Hall
Walter Stranz Square
Redditch B98 8AH