COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 09, 2013

MOTION NO. 7

MOTION: Councillor M. Duff

That this  Council calls on the Manager to ensure that the Choice Based Letting scheme is fully explained again to all housing applicants on the waiting lists and that Pin Numbers are made known to and available to all on the lists. To further provide a manned dedicated computer terminal at the Customer Services desks in Tallaght and Clondalkin,, on Friday, Monday and Tuesday and to request that all the Libraries in the County and the Community Centre Network, facilitate and assist customers who wish to check availability of housing on the website, on the same days.

REPORT:

The Council issued Choice Based Letting information by letter to all housing applicants, in tranches from October 2011 to February 2012, this information provided personal Reference and PIN number with step by step guide to use the CBL system.   New eligible housing applicants are given a verbal explanation of the system and provided with written information (as above) at time of housing assessment appointment.   The Council's Customer Staff and Library staff were given extensive training to assist housing applicants with accessing the CBL system.  The Customer Care Staff assist housing applicants weekly in the process.  Reference and PIN number are regularly re-issued to housing applicants either at Customer Care or sent by post from Allocations Section.

To date the Council has advertised 301 dwellings through the CBL system with 21,452 expressions of interest - all dwellings have been tenanted. The introduction of Choice Based Lettings system has proved a huge success for both the  applicants and the Council. In terms of the Council's operations  it has saved on staff resources, reduced the allocation of units and turnaround time significantly.The outcome is an extremely low level of Council owned vacant units - currently at  No.51 _ (0.5% of SDCC Housing stock)  which is among the lowest in  the county.

The  Allocations Section are conscious of those who never access CBL and will embark on an awareness campaign  later this year having researched the trends,and statistics available on the C.B.L.system .