Housing Services
Altogether we spend about £5 million a year on our properties, in adapting, improving and repairing them. We also look at environmental and social improvements. All of this done in consultation with our tenants. We spend over £1.5 million on grants to help pay towards building new homes and helping home owners do works on their houses. We employ about 100 people in the service and are also supported by amongst others the Deane Building Design Group and the Direct Labour Organisation (DLO).
At the moment there are about 2,300 on the Deane Housing Register, a waiting list that we run on behalf of all social landlords in the Borough. We allocate properties weekly. Last year we let 301 properties to new tenants. We can also help people with transfers, mutual exchanges and moving between different authorities.
There are five Units;
- Housing Strategic Services
- Housing Supported Services
- Housing Asset Management
- Housing Property Services
- Housing Operations
Finding a Rented Home - Homefinder Somerset
Taunton Deane Borough Council working in partnership with Mendip District Council, Sedgemoor District Council, South Somerset District Council, and West Somerset District Council as well as local housing associations has developed a new way of looking for social housing. This is called Choice Based Lettings (CBL).
The government wants local authorities to give people more choice about where they live and Taunton Deane Borough Council have developed a new system called Homefinder Somerset aimed at giving more choice to those who need homes.
From December 2008 landlords will advertise their properties through the scheme and applicants will then choose which homes they are interested in applying for.
The points based system will be replaced by a banding system.
Although it will not increase the numbers of homes available, CBL provides a more transparent and accountable way of letting homes, giving customers more choice in where they would prefer to live from the housing that is on offer.
The Homefinder Somerset process has been designed to improve access to social housing, by allowing you to view properties and to place bids against properties that you are eligible for.
Welcome to Homefinder Somerset (external link) - your home, your choice.
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