Our lettings policy

Queens Cross Housing Association has approximately 4,500 rented homes in the north west of Glasgow and our vision is to provide ‘excellent housing in vibrant communities’. Our housing stock is made up of a variety of property types including traditional tenements, multi-storey and new build housing. We are proud to operate in a multi-cultural area and aim to provide good quality rented accommodation to those in housing need. We are committed to building balanced and sustainable communities where people enjoy living.

Maryhill Housing is a charitable, community-based housing association operating in Maryhill and Ruchill in north west Glasgow. Our main role is to improve, build, manage and maintain homes. We have always been very proud of our communities and do much more than simply collecting the rent. We undertake a significant amount of regeneration activity to ensure Maryhill and Ruchill are great places to live. We own over 3,100 homes including tenements, retirement housing and multi-storey apartments.

The aims and objectives of our allocation policies are:

to let good quality homes at affordable rents to those in the greatest housing need
to provide a choice of housing to meet a diverse range of housing needs and where appropriate assist with housing support
to promote, maintain and support sustainable communities through our allocation system
to make the best use of our housing stock in line with good practice (e.g. minimising under-occupation)
to work with Glasgow City Council to address the needs of people affected by homelessness
to provide applicants with comprehensive information and advice about our allocation services and housing options
to embed equality issues into allocation services
to review our allocation policy regularly and to consult with our tenants, housing applicants and other stakeholders if policy changes are being considered

You can view the Queens Cross Allocation Policy here and you can view the Maryhill Housing Allocation Policy here.

Priority bands

Providers of social housing, such as councils and housing associations, are required to allocate their properties to the applicants in the greatest need for housing. This is set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014.

When we receive your housing application, we will carefully consider your circumstances and we will award a priority band based on your level of housing need. If your circumstances change, we will review your priority band to make sure that it reflects your current situation. You may move into a higher or lower priority band following a change of circumstances.

We have four priority bands:

Platinum priority will be awarded to:

Current Queens Cross Housing Association or Maryhill Housing tenants who need to move urgently due to a potential risk to their life (i.e. when they are experiencing domestic abuse, hate crime or serious harassment). Supporting evidence from Police Scotland or another recognised agency would be required before this band would be awarded.
Applicants in receipt of a Queens Cross Housing Wellbeing service where it has been recognised that they would benefit from moving due to their specific support needs.
Current Queens Cross Housing Association or Maryhill Housing tenants who require to be rehoused due to regeneration activity.
Applicants who have an exceptional housing need which is so unusual that it is not covered by our allocation policy.

Gold priority will be awarded to:

Applicants who are homeless and have been referred to us by Glasgow City Council (this is known as a Section Five referral)
Applicants who are leaving care and have been referred to us by the Social Work department
Applicants with complex medical conditions or disabilities that are seriously affected by their current housing circumstances (i.e. they are housebound or their life is at risk in their current home) and this would be alleviated if they moved to a specific house type
Social landlord tenants who are under-occupying their property by two or more bedrooms and want to downsize
Applicants who are overcrowded by two or more bedrooms
Applicants whose property has been assessed as being Below a Tolerable Standard by a Local Authority

Silver priority will be awarded to:

Applicants who have experienced a relationship breakdown
Applicants leaving active service with the Armed Forces
Applicants who live in unsuitable housing due to a medical condition/disability but are not housebound and their life is not at risk due to their current housing
Social landlord tenants who are under-occupying their property by one bedroom and want to downsize
Applicants who are overcrowded by one bedroom
Applicants who need to move to access medical treatment, for employment purposes, due to financial hardship or to be near relatives for support
Private rented tenants who are at risk of losing their home for affordability reasons
Private rented tenants whose property is in a poor condition
Vulnerable tenants who are experiencing serious and persistent Anti-Social Behaviour and who have reported the issue to the relevant parties
Applicants who are sofa-surfing or living in temporary accommodation or are homeless but who have not been referred to us by Glasgow City Council

Bronze priority will be awarded to:

Applicants who are assessed with none of the above housing needs but consider that they are unsuitably housed

Please note that the above is a summary of our priority bands. More detailed information about how we determine an applicant's priority can be found in our Allocation Policies.

Priority awards will be reviewed regularly and may be downgraded if you refuse offers of suitable housing that meet your needs.

Bedroom entitlement

There is high demand for our properties therefore we will seek to select applicants whose household size makes the best use of the property. Only in exceptional circumstances would we allow an applicant to move into a property that has more bedrooms than their household requires.

The number of bedrooms we will allocate depends on the composition of the household. We will calculate this on the following basis:

1 bedroom for each adult and their partner or spouse
1 bedroom for each 2 children (under the age of 10)
1 bedroom for each 2 children (under the age of 12) of the same gender
1 bedroom for any remaining member of the household and their partner or spouse

Applicants who require more bedrooms than we would normally allocate can tell us this on their application form. We will consider each situation on its own merit.

When an applicant is pregnant, we will ask them to provide a copy of the MATB1 form (also known as the maternity certificate) that is issued by a doctor or midwife after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Once that has been received, we will include the baby when calculating how many bedrooms the applicant requires.

Refusing offers

Priority awards will be reviewed regularly and may be downgraded if you refuse offers of suitable housing that meet your needs. Please read property advert details carefully and only bid for properties that you are likely to accept if offered, as refusing offers may result in your priority band being downgraded. Applicants with a platinum priority band will normally be made one offer of a suitable property before their band is downgraded. Applicants with gold or silver priority will normally be made two offers of a property that meets their needs before their band is downgraded.