Online estate agency will aid search for affordable homes

The long-awaited scheme involving councils across England’s largest county will go live a week today to provide a more streamlined approach for anyone searching for an affordable house in seven districts.

The £350,000 scheme, dubbed North Yorkshire Home Choice, represents the biggest overhaul of the county’s system of providing affordable housing.

As many as 14,000 people are on council waiting lists for affordable housing across York, Richmondshire, Hambleton, Ryedale, Craven, Scarborough and Selby.

And applications for affordable homes have risen dramatically as house-hunters have been unable to secure mortgages during the ongoing credit crisis.

North Yorkshire Home Choice project manager Ian Taylor said: “We have seen more and more people coming to local authorities and making applications for affordable housing in recent years as many are having difficulties in securing mortgage finance.

“The new project will allow them to have clear information and advice about affordable housing in North Yorkshire, which is especially important given the current economic situation.”

The new choice based lettings scheme is aimed at helping house-hunters looking for homes in some of England’s property hot spots, including York and the Yorkshire Dales.

Latest figures from the National Housing Federation have shown that the average property price in North Yorkshire is £209,903, while the average annual income is just £18,933.

The new scheme will mean there will be a single application form wherever the applicant is, along with an overarching lettings policy and waiting list.

One of the key elements of the project is the launch of a website to provide up-to-date details of available properties in a move to mirror the boom in virtual house-hunting online.

Descriptions of the property and the surrounding neighbourhoods will be included, and anyone interested in a house can submit a formal bid online or through their local council.

Lists of available properties are also due to be posted out to people living in remote communities, and applicants will be able to make bids via the telephone.

The scheme will incorporate strict criteria to ensure those most in need, such as homeless people, single parents or anyone living in crowded or sub-standard properties, are prioritised.

Mr Taylor claimed that choice based lettings projects elsewhere in the country had proved extremely effective at matching up vacant properties with suitable tenants.

The concept of choice-based lettings originated from the Netherlands and was embraced by the previous Labour Government.

About 70 per cent of local authorities nationally are involved in the schemes, including Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Hull.

However, North Yorkshire’s own project has been delayed after it was due to go live last autumn amid protracted talks to provide an over-arching policy for seven councils and three housing associations.

The initiative was first discussed in 2007, and North Yorkshire’s vast geographic spread with often rural communities has complicated its development.

It is one of only about a dozen sub-regional choice based lettings schemes nationally, which include Greater Manchester and Essex, with the majority of the other projects tailored to a single housing authority.

Harrogate Council is the only district authority in North Yorkshire that has yet to sign up, but it is understood that hopes remain that it will sign up once the project has gone live.

A website, www.northyorkshirehomechoice.org.uk, will go live on Thursday next week.