Community

The Localism Act gives local authorities greater freedom to set their own policies about who should qualify to go on the waiting list for social housing in their area. Under the previous system social landlords were normally only able to grant lifetime tenancies.

The Government has protected the security and rights of existing social housing tenants, including when they move to another social rented home. However, provisions in the Localism Act allow for more flexible arrangements for people entering social housing in the future.

Social landlords are now able to grant tenancies for a fixed length of time. The minimum length tenancy will be two years in exceptional circumstances, with five years or more being the norm. There is no upper limit on the length of tenancy, and lifetime tenancies can still be offered.

The Localism Act required us to prepare and publish a Tenancy Strategy setting out the matters to which social landlords operating in our area are to have regard for when formulating policies relating to:

• The kinds of tenancies they grant
• The circumstances in which they will grant a tenancy of a particular kind
• Where they grant tenancies for a term certain, the lengths of the terms
• The circumstances in which they will grant a further tenancy on the coming to an end of an existing tenancy.

pdf Download a copy of our Tenancy Strategy (opens in new window) (284 KB)

Amendments to s146 and s147 of the Housing Act 1996

At this stage we are giving consideration to the options for amending our statutory allocations scheme, and discussing these with other housing authority representatives within the Home Choice Plus Partnership.

Reform of Homelessness Legislation

People who experience a homelessness crisis need somewhere suitable to live. Local authorities have a duty to house people who are eligible, in priority need and unintentionally homeless.

Under the previous rules, people who became homeless were able to refuse offers of accommodation in the private rented sector. 

The Localism Act now lets local authorities meet their homelessness duty by securing a suitable offer of accommodation in the private sector. Guidance has been issued governing what can be regarded as suitable.

National Home Swap Scheme

There are lots of reasons why people move house; to take up a new job, to be nearer to family members who need care, to give a young family more space to grow or to find a smaller, more manageable home in later life.

The Localism Act paves the way for a national home swap scheme. This will enable people who would like to swap their social home to access details of all other tenants who may be a suitable match. For more details visit the HomeSwap Direct website (opens in new window)

Reform of Social Housing Regulation

The Localism Act provides social tenants with stronger tools to hold their landlords to account.

Social landlords are now expected to support tenant panels, or similar bodies, in order to give tenants the opportunity to carefully examine the services being offered.

The Localism Act also abolishes the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) and transfers its remaining functions to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). The Localism Act also changes the way that complaints about social landlords are handled.

Currently, there are two separate ombudsmen (the Local Government Ombudsman and the Independent Housing Ombudsman) handling social tenants' complaints about their landlord.

In the future, a single watchdog (the Independent Housing Ombudsman) specialising in complaints about social housing will ensure greater consistency across the sector. This has been launched in April 2013.

Community Safety Partnerships are legally required to carry out Domestic Homicide reviews (DHR) as part of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. DHR’s are started where the death of a person occurs, which is thought to involve either violence, abuse, or neglect by a family member or a member of the same household. 

DHR’s are conducted by the partners included in the CSP to whom the case is assigned. Partners involved in Malvern Hills CSP would include the local Health care service (Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust), West Mercia Police and other community organisations that are able to contribute to the review process. 

The review team will consider what occurred leading up to the death and what could have been done differently. The review team does not seek to proportion any blame to a single organisation or person but rather recommend future actions that should be acted upon to improve responses to domestic violence situations in the future.   

Once completed reviews are published by the CSP conducting the review which are then made available to all members of the public to read. 

Completed South Worcestershire DHR’s:

The review team will consider what happened and what could have been done differently but will not seek to blame any individual or organisation. They will also recommend actions to be taken to improve responses to domestic violence situations in the future.

The findings and recommendations are then published by Community Safety Partnerships which are legally responsible for overseeing DHRs, see below:

• document Read DHR Case No 6 Report (207 KB)
• document Read DHR Case No 6 Executive Summary (97 KB)
• pdf Read Worcestershire DHR response from Home Office (118 KB)

"No single organisation can hope to reduce the incidence of crime. Local organisations need to work together to develop comprehensive solutions to improve the community's quality of life" (The Audit Commission)

The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act require that all responsible authorities must develop a strategy to tackle crime and disorder in their local area. Responsible authorities include Local Authorities, the Police, Police Authority, Fire and Rescue Authorities and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).

Three Community Safety Partnerships were initially set up in South Worcestershire in Worcester City, Malvern and Wychavon. However they agreed to merge in 2003 to form the South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership (SWCSP).
The SWCSP meets quarterly and oversees the work done by the local district operational partnerships who meet on a monthly basis (see operational chart below). 

SWCSP representatives come from a varied number of agencies and organisations including:

• Worcester City Council

• Malvern Hills District Council

• Wychavon District Council

• Worcestershire County Council

• West Mercia Constabulary

• West Mercia Police Authority

• Worcestershire Youth Offending Service

• Worcester Community Housing

• Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service

• Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority

• Worcestershire PCT

• West Mercia Probation Trust

• Worcestershire Substance Misuse Action Team (SMAT)

• South Worcestershire Magistrates

• West Midlands Ambulance Service

• Neighbourhood Watch

All Partnership members work together to develop communities that are safe and feel safe.

The South Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership works to reduce crime and disorder, deliver projects to tackle the agreed county wide priorities of reducing reoffending, domestic abuse and sexual violence, harm reduction including anti-social behaviour, hate crime and preventing violent extremism and working to tackle drug and alcohol misuse.

Our Priorities

1. Reduce Crime and Disorder
2. Protect Vulnerable People
3. Reduce Offending and Reoffending

What is it?

Assets of Community Value, which was established by the 2011 Localism Act, came into force in September 2012.

Read Assets of Community Value on GOV.UK

Read 2011 Localism Act

The right gives eligible groups the opportunity to identify and nominate assets that are of value to the local community, and gives them a fair chance to make a bid to buy them on the open market if the owner decides to sell.

A community could use this right to buy a local asset like a village shop, community centre, library, children's centre, allotment or pub. The right covers private as well as public assets.

We are required to keep a list of assets of community value in Malvern Hills district, and a list of assets nominated unsuccessfully.

Who can make a nomination?

We will only accept requests to include assets on the list from eligible community groups.

Eligible groups must have a local connection to the land or property they wish to nominate, and be one of the following types of organisations:

• Parish or town council
• Unincorporated community groups with at least 21 members who are registered to vote within the Malvern Hills district
• A neighbourhood forum, set up in accordance with section 61F of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
• A charity
• A community interest company
• A company limited by guarantee
• An industrial and provident society

We will not accept nominations from any other bodies.

How to make a nomination

If you want to nominate an asset of community value please fill in our nomination form. 

The form has three main sections covering: your organisation, the asset you wish to nominate and why you believe the asset is of community value. Please read our guidance notes before you start filling in the form.

We will use the information you provide on the nomination form, to assess whether your nomination meets the requirements of the legislation for designating an asset of community value.

What will we do next?

• When we receive a nomination, we will consider and check its eligibility, we aim to assess nominations within eight weeks of receipt. We will inform the nominating group of the outcome.
• If we feel the asset does have community value we will add it to our list of assets of community value. Assets will remain on the list for five years and a land charge will be registered against the property.
• We will advise the nominating group that the asset has been listed and the date in five years time when it will be removed, when the five years have expired eligible groups can submit a new nomination.
• If we decide to list a property the owner can ask for a review and there will be a process for an appeal to an independent body. We will provide further details in a letter to the property owner.
• If a nomination is ineligible, we will write to the nominating group with an explanation as to why it was unsuccessful. In such circumstances the property will be added to our list of assets nominated unsuccessfully and will remain on the list for five years.
• Nominees cannot appeal the decision made in respect of the asset, however, groups can make a complaint through our complaints procedure if they feel we have not followed the correct procedure.

Making a bid

• If an owner of a listed asset wants to sell it they will be required to notify us. We will inform the nominator and publicise this on our website.
• If an eligible group wants to make a bid they must inform us within six weeks of us telling them that the property is available to purchase. Not all groups mentioned under ‘how to make a nomination' are eligible to place a bid.
• Unincorporated groups cannot bid as they unable to legally own property.
• Eligible groups will then have six months to put together the bid (please note - this is not from when you inform us but six months from when the owner advises us of their intention to sell (this is known as the moratorium period).
• If there is more than one community group interested in purchasing the property we will encourage the groups to work together.
• At any point before the end of the six months the eligible group(s) may enter into negotiations with the property owner providing the owner is willing to do this. We ask that we are kept informed of developments.
• At the end of the moratorium period, if a group has successfully put a bid together, the owner will have the option to either accept the bid or sell the property freely on the open market.

Useful documents

• pdf Download Nomination Form (130 KB)
• document View Assets of Community Value: Register (169 KB)

The process

• pdf Read Guidance Notes (215 KB)
• pdf Learn about nomination and listing process (141 KB)
• pdf Review decision to list process (265 KB)
• pdf Read Compensation process (128 KB)
• pdf View intention to sell moratorium process (133 KB)

Support available

For further information about the Council's process contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

For more information about the Community Right to Bid and assets of community value and the support and advice available to communities visit My Community Rights website.

Independent support regarding how to use the Community Right to Bid, including grants, is available from Locality, a national network of over 700 community-led organisations. View Locality website.