Information for existing applicants

There is no set formula for the length of time you’ll have to wait before being allocated a council home. The three most important key variables are the number of houses that become available for new tenants, the housing ‘category’ that you’ve been allocated to, and your position in that group.

There are other factors which you have more control over that will also influence the time you’ll have to wait. These include:

• the size of house you need
• the type of house you want
• the area you want to move to

The more choices you include, the sooner you are likely to be offered a house.

It’s impossible for us to predict with absolute accuracy when you’ll be offered a home. We don’t remove anyone from our lists unless they ask us to. When you’re at the top end of a list and a home comes up that matches your criteria, we’ll be in touch.

Every year, we receive hundreds of applications for a council home.

We are not able to re-house everyone who applies for housing. Our housing allocations policy makes sure that we allocate council homes in a way that is open, transparent and fair.

If you’ve been allocated to our ‘waiting’ or ‘transfer’ category we recommend that you also apply to housing associations in your area of choice.

Download our housing allocation policy

When you apply, you’ll be allocated to one of four groups. These are:

• homeless – people who have been assessed as homeless by our housing options team
• strategic – people who are not homeless but have an urgent or exceptional need for a home. They might have just left the armed forces, or have been discharged from prison or long-term care.
• transfer – current Stirling Council tenants and tenants of housing associations in the Stirling area. These are tenants who wish to move home but their current accommodation is suited to what they need.
• waiting – all other applicants, whether they currently live in the Stirling Council area or not

We use the answers you give in the application form, and the information we gather from other organisations where that’s appropriate, to decide which category you fall into.

Our aim is to be fair to everyone, while recognising that some people have a greater need for a council home than others. So we allocate a different percentage of all available homes to each category.

The table shows the target percentage of homes allocated to each category.

You can see from the table that we allocate the largest percentage to those with the greatest need.

If you’re in the homeless or strategic group your position on the list will be governed by the date you joined it. So, if you were to apply today, you would be the last person on whichever of these lists you were allocated to. There is no action you can take to improve your position on these lists.

Your position on the waiting or transfer list will depend on the number of points you have been allocated. Points are allocated for a variety of reasons and are designed to be fair and reflect the level of need for each applicant. For example, someone who is experiencing domestic abuse would be given a high number of points.

It’s possible that your circumstances might change, and the number of points you’ve been awarded needs to be increased. This might happen if you suffer an accident or develop a condition that means you need an adapted or accessible home. If your circumstances do change, and you think you are eligible for additional points, get in touch.

For more information on applying, housing categories and the points system, download the Applicants Guide.