When you register for a transfer or for housing as a homeseeker, your application will be assessed by your landlord or council. You will be placed in one of the priority bands described below.

If you disagree with your priority band, you can ask the council or housing association which holds your details to review the banding decision. To do this, please put your reasons for a band review in writing to your local council or housing association.

When bids are considered for advertised properties, priority will be given to bids from people in the highest priority band. If people from the same priority band bid for the same property, we will consider first those with a local connection and the earliest priority date. Some applicants in bands A and B have a limited time for bidding. You will be told if this applies when you register.

If your priority band is increased at any stage, your priority date will be the date you went on to the higher priority band. If you move back to a lower band, your priority date will usually revert to your original registration date in that lower band.

Below is a summary of the bands. Please note this is only a general guide, as not every band reason applies in every local council area. If you have a specific query about a band reason you should contact your local council for a copy of their Allocations Policy.

Band A (emergency, urgent priority)

• Accepted homeless households in bed & breakfast or temporary accommodation where the landlord requires the property back or where the temporary accommodation is unsuitable or where it is not possible to find suitable further temporary accommodation
• Accepted homeless households (accepted by their own local authorities only) making their own temporary arrangements or family split due to a genuine lack of accommodation
• Applicants with an overriding medical priority awarded by the council’s Medical Adviser or assessment panel where the housing conditions are having a major adverse effect on the medical condition of the applicant or member of the household as to warrant emergency priority
• Households nominated by social services under a special quota scheme (if this scheme operates in your area)
• Transfer applicants under-occupying family sized accommodation qualifying for the Transfer Incentive Scheme (if this scheme operates in your area)
• Households who are statutorily overcrowded or occupying a property which is subject to a compulsory purchase order and/or where the council has a Statutory Duty to house
• Transfer applicants within their own areas needing permanent decant where the property is imminently required for major repair
• Tenants occupying an adapted property they no longer need but which could be used by someone else or where the existing property cannot be adapted to meet the applicant’s needs
• Members urgently requiring move-on from supported housing or care as part of an agreed care plan that has been approved under a special scheme
• Priority transfers needing to move urgently where there is a serious imminent personal risk if they remain (this only applies to council/housing association tenants)
• Applicants in severe need where exceptional circumstances warrant emergency priority (to be agreed by the housing manager)
• Members whose needs, considered cumulatively, are deemed so severe as to warrant them being placed in a higher priority band (to be agreed by a housing manager).

Band B

• Households / families lacking two or more separate bedrooms
• Successors to a council tenancy and non statutory successors approved by Housing Management for an offer of smaller and/or suitable accommodation
• Management Transfers agreed by Housing Management for transfers on management grounds, to properties of same size and type
• Applicants with a high or very high medical priority
• Retiring council and housing association employees, eg Sheltered Scheme Managers and Residential Estate Wardens where there is a contractual obligation to house
• Ex-tenants whom the council at the time the former tenancy was relinquished undertook to re-house at a future date
• Homeseekers with a dependent child/ren living in insecure accommodation, eg with family or friends, and no bedroom, and lacking or sharing other facilities
• Applicants where housing and children's social services agree the need to provide permanent accommodation on recommendation to enable fostering or adoption (if this scheme operates in your area)
• Members living in accommodation which has been designated as a 'Category One' environmental health hazard and the property owner is unable or unwilling to remedy the defects on the property within a reasonable period of time as specified by and Environmental Health Officer
• Members registered as regularly rough sleeping with an appropriate agency and/or charity
• Members whose needs, considered cumulatively, are deemed so severe as to warrant them being placed in a higher priority band (to be agreed by a housing manager).

Band C

• Households lacking one separate bedroom
• Council tenants under-occupying that do not qualify for the Transfer Incentive Scheme
• Homeless households (or, in certain circumstances, those threatened with homelessness) occupying temporary accommodation on an assured short hold or non-secure licence/tenancy until such time as the landlord requires the property back, or the households needs are no longer met, unless offered permanent accommodation
• Households identified in an adult social care plan where accommodation is required to assist in delivering a care plan or to relieve other social/welfare hardship as agreed between Adult Social Care and Housing
• Applicants with a Medium or Low medical priority
• Households living in other unsatisfactory housing conditions
• Applicants for sheltered housing where there are no higher needs to take into account
• Applicants with a need to move for welfare or social reasons to a particular area where failure to meet that need would cause hardship, eg to give or receive support

Band D

• All other transfer tenants and homeseekers with no identified housing need and not included in the above bands A, B or C
• Key workers with no other housing need
• Owner-occupiers