Housing Register

The Housing Register is the list of households waiting for a home let by the Housing Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network. Every home the Department lets, including every home delivered under the Affordable Housing Programme, is offered to a household on the register. There is no other way to obtain a Department home.

The register opened on 6 September 2026. The 1,860 households already on the waiting lists of member organisations were placed on it at establishment, in the band that corresponds to their existing priority, and keep their original application date. The Department wrote to each of those households on 6 September 2026 to confirm its band. The first offers under the register will be made on 21 September 2026, when the 96 homes completed under the programme become available for letting.

1,860

Households on the register at establishment, carried over from member organisations

4

Bands of housing need, from A (urgent) to D (general)

10

Working days within which a new application is assessed

96

Homes available for the first offers from 21 September 2026

Who may apply. Staff of member organisations and citizens of the Velocity Interoperability Network aged 18 or over may apply, provided they do not own a home they could reasonably occupy. A household may have only one application on the register at a time. Households living outside the Network may apply where a member of the household has accepted employment with a member organisation and will take it up within six months.

The bands. Every eligible application is placed in one of four bands according to the household's housing need. The band is decided on the evidence supplied with the application and may be changed if the household's circumstances change.

The table below shows how the households carried over from the waiting lists of member organisations were distributed between the bands at establishment. The distribution will be reported in each quarterly statistical release.

Applying. Applications are made in writing to the Department and follow the steps below. Until the Department's housing offices at each site open during September 2026, applications and evidence are received by email only.

1. 1

   Step 1: Check that you are eligible

   You may apply if you are a member of staff of a member organisation or a citizen of the Network, are aged 18 or over, and do not own a home that you could reasonably occupy. Only one application may be made for each household.

2. 2

   Step 2: Write to the Department

   Send your name, your staff or citizen identification number, your present address, the names and ages of everyone who will live with you, the site or sites at which you would accept a home and a brief description of your housing circumstances.

3. 3

   Step 3: Provide evidence

   The Department will tell you which of the documents listed below it needs to see. Evidence may be sent by email as a scanned copy or photograph; the original may be asked for before a tenancy begins.

4. 4

   Step 4: Receive your assessment

   Applications are assessed within ten working days of the Department receiving the evidence it needs. You will be told in writing whether you are eligible, the band in which you have been placed, the size of home you qualify for and the date of your application.

5. 5

   Step 5: Wait for an offer

   Offers are made in band order and, within each band, in date order, as homes become available at the sites you have named. You are given seven days to view the home and accept or refuse the offer.

Evidence. The Department asks for the documents below according to the grounds of the application. It does not ask for documents it does not need.

Identity and status

Your staff or citizen identification, and the identification of every adult who will live with you.

Present address and household

A recent document showing your present address, and the names and dates of birth of everyone in your household.

Tenancy and notice documents

Your present tenancy agreement and, where you have been given notice to leave, a copy of that notice.

Medical evidence

Where you ask to be banded on medical grounds, a statement from a clinic of the Health Department or another medical practitioner describing how your present home affects the condition.

Employment confirmation

Where you ask to be banded because you need to move for employment, confirmation from the member organisation of the post and the site at which it is based.

Offers and refusals. An offer is of a home of the size the household qualifies for, at a site the household has named. A household may refuse an offer without losing its place. A household that refuses two suitable offers keeps its band but takes a new application date from the day of the second refusal. An offer is not counted as suitable where the home would be overcrowded, is at a site the household did not name or is unsuitable for a medical reason recorded in the assessment.

Reviews. A household may ask the Department to review a decision that it is not eligible, the band in which it has been placed or the size of home it qualifies for, by writing within 21 days of the decision. Reviews are carried out by an officer who took no part in the original decision and are decided within 20 working days.

Applications, evidence and requests for review may be sent to contact@housing.gov.vin. For the terms on which homes are let, see Tenancies; if you have nowhere to stay or are at risk of losing your home, see Homelessness; for answers to common questions, see the frequently asked questions.