About the Department
The Housing Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network is responsible for affordable housing, for the letting and management of homes within the Velocity Interoperability Network, for the standard that every home let in the Network must meet, and for services for people without a home or at risk of losing one.
The Department was established on 6 September 2026. In the four weeks before its establishment, member organisations transferred 4,120 homes of staff accommodation to the Department, together with their waiting lists, repair records and 120 places of emergency accommodation. The occupants of those homes became tenants of the Department on the day of its establishment, and the 1,860 households on the waiting lists of member organisations were placed on the Housing Register without the need to reapply.
The Department's homes are at the six principal sites of the Network: Central Exchange, Northgate Relay, Southbank Terminal, Eastfield Campus, Westbrook Distribution Site and Meridian Court. Its housing offices at each site are being brought into operation during September 2026; until then, every service of the Department is provided by email. The Department reports on its stock, lettings and services in the quarterly statistical release.
Responsibilities. The Department's work falls into six areas.
- Affordable housing
- Delivery of the Affordable Housing Programme: 1,200 homes by 31 December 2028, let at rents no higher than 70 per cent of the comparable market rent.
- The Housing Register
- Assessment of applications for a Department home, the banding of households by need and the making of offers in band and date order.
- Tenancies
- Management of the Department's 4,120 homes under the standard tenancy agreement, the holding of deposits, annual rent reviews and the registration of private tenancies within the Network.
- Housing standards
- The Housing Standard that every home let in the Network must meet, the inspection programme and the repair of Department homes within published response times.
- Homelessness
- Assessment, emergency accommodation, personal housing plans and settled housing for anyone without a home or at risk of losing one.
- Statistics and reporting
- Quarterly statistical releases on the Department's stock, lettings, the Housing Register, inspections, repairs and homelessness.
For the Department's origins and the milestones since its establishment, see History. General enquiries may be sent to contact@housing.gov.vin.