Cumbria Homechoice

The new Cumbria Choice system is almost a year old! Due to the volume of applicants who are currently active on the system, Teams will be looking to remove those who are on our system whom have not placed a bid on a property over the past 12 months, as per our Allocations Policy. This will be a process and you will receive correspondence regarding this. 

Those applicants who are in a Band A and have not bid in the past 3 months, will also be assessed and may have their banding removed.

If you have any questions about the correspondence you may be receiving, please contact the Partner who is managing your application.

Local Government Reorganisation- 1st April 2023

Further to our previous post regarding the changes to local government whereby the 6 existing district Local Authorities of Allerdale, Barrow, Carlisle, Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland, with join to form Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council, please see below message regarding what this will mean for the Cumbria Choice system:

The Government has agreed a period of up to 2 years to review and make any changes to the policy for how we will allocate affordable rented housing.  Westmorland and Furness, as the lead Authority int he Cumbria Choice Partnership, intends to carryout a review of the Allocations policy in 2023/24.  Further updates will be provided on this website.

This means that there is no change currently to how people apply for affordable homes or the criteria that need to be met to decide a local connection .

Applications for social and council owned housing will therefore be considered in the same way that they are now until a revised policy is adopted by us.

You do not need to do anything with regards to your current application unless your circumstances have changed and the information we hold is no longer accurate.

What is LGR?

From 1 April 2023 local government in Cumbria will change. The current six district councils and Cumbria County Council will be replaced by two new unitary authorities- Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumberland Council.

Government announced its decision to create two new unitary councils in July 2021. Since then work has been ongoing to develop and implement a transition plan.

All seven local authorities, supported by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, are collaborating on the complex operation to create the two new authorities. This entails a considerable amount of work to ensure that people in Cumbria receive the high level of service and delivery they expect and deserve.

All those involved in leading this project are committed to ensuring that local people are kept fully informed and engaged in this process as we move towards April 2023.

What does LGR mean for me?

In terms of the Cumbria Choice Allocation Policy, the process itself will not change. However, in terms of your local connection criteria, this will change from your sovereign district council to your new unitary authority. This will be reflected in the updated policy which will go live from 1st April 2023.

To find out what LGR means for you, please see below link: 

What does LGR mean for me (newcouncilsforcumbria.info)

Link to LGR Website and FAQ's:

This website explains the transition programme that will move us from seven councils to two new unitary councils. It doesn't set out the priorities or operating models for the two new councils as they will be decided once the councils are elected.  

This website will hold all the latest public information on that work and the next steps, so please return regularly for updates.

Home (newcouncilsforcumbria.info)

FAQs (newcouncilsforcumbria.info)