Choice-Based Lettings (CBL) Schemes are designed to give social housing tenants more choice and control over where they live. They are a different from the traditional way of allocating housing via a waiting list.
Communities and Local Government (CLG) have set a target that by 2010 all local authorities will have implemented a CBL scheme. They want schemes developed which cross local authority boundaries, and which coordinate all social landlords in an area to offer much wider possible housing choices for tenants and applicants.
New applicants, or tenants who want to transfer, are able to apply for vacancies which are advertised widely, in special publications or on a website. Applicants are able to look through the full range of properties that are available and can apply for any home to which they are matched (e.g. a single person would be eligible for a studio or a one-bedroom flat, but not a four-bedroom house). While priority is given to those with urgent needs, properties are also allocated on the basis of who has been waiting the longest.
In the future, we would like to see existing and new CBL schemes go further than coordinating lettings of social tenancies and work with private rented sector landlords to offer PRS tenancies. This will give greater choice to tenants, and provide local authorities with a more holistic method of planning housing allocation across their borough(s).
More information
http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingmanagementcare/choicebasedlettings/