Housing Moves is the Mayor of London’s lettings scheme that enables social housing tenants of London councils and housing associations to move within the capital.

The challenge

The Mayor of London worked with the Greater London Authority (GLA) to set up a pan-London housing mobility scheme, through Housing Moves – a GLA service that was already helping many London social tenants to move through Seaside & Country Homes.

The scheme would set aside a small proportion of social housing in London for tenants who wish to move to a different borough, whether it be for work or training, to downsize into a smaller property, or to care for a family member or friend.

It would require a multi-borough online register and bidding system that would feed into the systems of all local authorities and housing associations that are a part of the GLA.

The GLA appoints Home Connections to build it’s a pan-London common Housing Register and Choice Based Lettings system

GLA decided to trust us at Home Connections to build and implement a housing register and choice-based lettings system to support the pan-London mobility scheme, as well as a dedicated website.

We built a CBL system and pan-London common housing register that enabled the GLA and landlords to have better monitoring capabilities over moves into and out of each borough, with in-depth management reports functionality. The common housing register approach also offered better move-on routes for those fleeing domestic abuse.

It also enables tenants to have a level of control over their application, including checking its status, making amends to and cancelling the application.

The results

By enabling nearly 2,000 households to find new homes within London, the Mayor’s Housing Moves scheme was able to achieve its aim of increasing the mobility of social housing tenants in the capital. Since 2022 and in response to an overwhelming demand for the scheme, Housing Moves refocused the scheme on two of London’s most in-need groups: tenants fleeing domestic abuse and former rough sleepings who are moving on from supported accommodation.