Mr Perplexed of Plaistow, has contacted Parish UpDate asking - "Is it true that only local people will be living in the new houses in Ashfield?"

Parish UpDate has investigated this with Hyde-Martlet Homes and Chichester District Council and the answer is Yes.

Ashfield, including the new houses, are what is known as an H9 site. This means that the site is an identified site within the Chichester District Local Plan as being a site for local people with a housing need. There are criteria set down to establish whether a person is local –

• Do they live in the Parish now?
• Did they live in the Parish but had to leave because they couldn’t afford housing in the Parish?
• Do they have direct close relations in the Parish?
• Do they work in the Parish?

Chichester District Council said ‘In the unlikely event of there not being a local person with housing need to take up the new homes in Ashfield, then a wider radius is set, spreading out from the Parish, in a five mile radius every time’.

The initial allocations are made by Chichester District Council whose responsibility it is to manage and maintain the Housing List. Potential tenants are passed to Hyde-Martlet who investigate the ‘local connection’. (This used to be verified by Parish Councils also but under the Data Protection Act, the names of potential tenants cannot now be disclosed). Properties are advertised in the magazine ‘Home Move’, where the need for a local connection is repeated. Applicants with a local need are then able to bid and the property is allocated to the person with the highest housing need and a local connection.

Are you in need of local housing and do you meet the criteria of local need? Are you on the District Council’s Housing List? If you need more information , you should contact Sam Irving, Chichester District Council’s Rural Housing Enabler, on 01243 534699 or one of the helpful members of the Housing Team on 01243 534734.