Eligibility

• You must not be able to buy a home suitable for your housing needs within a reasonable travelling distance of your work place, without assistance
• You must be a British or EU/EEA citizen or have indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Applicants without indefinite leave to remain and interested in purchasing a home, must be able to demonstrate that they are able to raise a mortgage with an acceptable lender and that they can afford and sustain home ownership in the longer term. These cases will be assessed based on their individual circumstances.
• You must have savings or access to at least £4000 to cover the cost of buying a home
• You must be employed on a permanent contract of employment or;
• If you are a key worker we can consider you if you are employed on a temporary contract as long as:
  • there are at least 6 months remaining on the contract
  • the contract was issued at the outset for at least 12 months
  • there is a reasonable prospect of the contract being extended
• You must sell your existing property if you own one
• You must have a good credit history

• You have had rent arrears during the last 12 months or are in breach of your current tenancy agreement.
• If you are a key worker, you cease to be a permanent employee in a qualifying profession before you complete your purchase.
• You have an adverse credit history.
• You are in receipt of housing benefit OR you are receiving housing benefits.
• Individual circumstances will be considered :

• Be employed in a qualifying key worker profession
• Have a household income that does not exceed £60,000 p.a.
• Have at least 5 years to serve prior to retirement.

• Applicants meeting the eligibility criteria for key workers (see above).
• Applicants that have an offer of employment within a qualifying key worker profession that is due to start within 3 months
• Applicants who do not have indefinite leave to remain but have their passport stamped with at least 6 month leave to remain in the UK
• Trainee probation officers
• NHS clinical staff
• Police community support officers
• All trainee key workers
• Ministry of Defence Employed Full Time Reserve Service Personnel

• Be permanent employees of one of the following:
  • NHS Primary Care Trusts
  • NHS Trusts
  • NHS Ambulance Trusts
  • NHS Mental Healthcare and Social care Trusts
  • The National Blood Transfusion Service
  • NHS Direct
  • NHS Professionals Strategic health Authorities
  • NHS GP surgeries
  • Health Protection Agency
  • NHS Dental Practices with NHS Body status

• Have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
• Be employed as a qualified teacher, Deputy Head, Head teacher or Nursery Nurse in a grant maintained nursery, primary or secondary schools including:
  • City Technology Colleges
  • City Academies
  • Schools for children with special needs

• Be a serving Police Officer who has completed the initial training at Hendon, or a Police Officer transferring from another constabulary who cannot be housed in police quarters
• A member of police staff who is directly employed and has been in post for six months and is in one of the following priority posts:
  • Communications Officer
  • Scientific Support Team
  • Crime Analysts
  • Station Reception Officer
    (staff undertaking this role and based at Lewisham, Bromley and Sutton Station are excluded as they are employed by a private sector organisation)
  • Civilian Gaolers
  • Police Community Support Officers are eligible for New Build Homebuy and Intermediate Rent.
    (having successfully completed their 6 months probationary period including 3 weeks initial training).
    Police Community Support Officers will be eligible for Open Market Homebuy from April 06.
  • Royal Parks Constabulary employed Police Officers

• Be a Police Officer or Community Support Officer who has been employed for by the BTP for at least 1 year (for Key Worker Homebuy)
• Have successfully completed initial training , i.e. 32 weeks (for the Intermediate Rent and New-Build Homebuy Schemes)

–  Crime Analysts
 –  Senior Crime Analysts
 –  Communications Officers
 –  Scenes of Crime Officers
 –  Community Race Relations Analyst
 –  Communications Officers
 –  Occupational Health Advisers

• Serving Police Officer who has completed initial training or;
• A Police Officer transferring from another constabulary who cannot be housed in police quarters
• A Police Community Support Officer who has completed the initial training and completed their probationary period.

• Prison Officers and related grades;
• Instructional Officer
• Operational Support Grades (OSGs);
• An Industrial Officer. Within this group, the highest priority will be given to first line and other managers with experience elsewhere. The next highest priority will be the direct recruitment of staff in the grades listed above to the prisons listed above
• An Educational Officer
• Nursing staff
• Industrial staff

• Regular service personnel (regular service personnel including Military Provost Guard Service, in the Navy, Army and Air Force)
• Clinical Staff (with the exception of doctors and dentists)
• MoD Police Officers
• Uniformed staff in the Defence Fire Service

• Full Time Reserve Service (Full Commitment)

• Senior Probation Officer
• Probation Officer
• Probation Service Officer
• Trainee Probation Officer (eligible for Intermediate rent only)

• Be a uniformed member of staff.
• Have successfully completed initial training
  17 weeks training – Firefighters
  10 weeks training – Control Officers

• Employed in a London Local Planning Authority (LPA) as a planning officer in one of the following grades:
  • Level L1 Basic Professional
  • Level L2 Experienced/Senior Professional
  • Level L3 Principal Professional – manage a single function or small team
  • Level L4 divisional Head
• Employed as a Social Worker and have attained the recognised professional Social Worker degree/diploma. Unqualified Social Workers (including Graduate trainees) are eligible for Intermediate Rent only as long as they are registered with the General Social Care Council (GSCC) and are currently working towards attaining a social worker qualification. Other staff employed in Social Services Departments – other than Occupational Therapists and Educational Psychologists – are not eligible.
• Employed and qualified as a Speech & Language Therapist
• Employed as a qualified Occupational Therapist
• Employed as a qualified Educational Psychologist
• Employed as a qualified Nursery Nurse
• Employed as Local Authority Clinical Staff
• Employed as a Rehabilitation Officer for the Visually Impaired
• Employed as an Educational Officer Of Looked After Children
• Employed as a Phenotyping Officer
• Employed as a Connexions Personal Advisor, employed by a Local Authority or Connexions Partnership. (Connexions Personal Advisors employed by a Private/Voluntary Sector organisation are not eligible).

• Employed as a fully qualified Social Worker/Guardian

• Qualified Environmental Health Officers/Practitioners who work in a local authority, government agency, NHS or other public sector agencies.
• They must hold either an EHRB Certificate of Registration or an EHRB Diploma in Environmental Health

• Supervisor (On road and Off road)
• Traffic Officer
• RCC Operator

• Either a key worker or public sector tenant (willing to vacate their rented home) with an income of up to £60,000, or
• A first time buyer with a household income not exceeding £60,000. Please note that Shared Ownership leaseholders are not public sector/housing association tenants and therefore are not eligible for MyChoiceHomeBuy.
• First time buyers who meet the criteria specified by the Regional Housing Board

– occasionally a highly pointed applicant on the council’s housing waiting list could qualify. Only a small number of London Local Authorities allow waiting list applicants to buy through MyChoiceHomeBuy. Please check local arrangements with your HomeBuy Agent
– similarly some local authorities will consider applications from applicants that are Foster Carers. Please check local arrangements with your HomeBuy Agent.

You will need to have sufficient household income to be able to afford at least 50% of the cost of the type of home you would want to buy on the open market. Prices for homes can vary substantially from one area to another and from one postal code to another in the same local authority area.

As a rough guide, to assess if you can afford to buy a 50% share of a home, multiply your household income by 3.5 times if two of you are buying together and by 4 times if you are buying on your own. This sum will indicate the maximum mortgage amount that you’d be able to borrow. If this is equal to 50% of the cost of the home you would like to buy then we may be able to help you. If it is less than 50% of the cost of the home you want to buy you will need to look for a home in a more affordable area or consider an alternative option, such as New Build HomeBuy. If you are not sure whether to proceed at this stage, contact us and we can advise you.

• Live in housing that is unsuitable for your needs.
• Have long term disability e.g. learning disability, mental ill health, physical disability.
• Be over 18 years of age.
• Be eligible for Income Support or Incapacity benefit for at least 39 weeks.
• Have access to set up costs of £3000.

If you are not yet registered with Wandsworth please contact the Home Ownership Unit on 020 8871 6016

Priority 2
Housing Association tenants occupying studio or 1-bed accommodation (for properties that we have nominations rights to, i.e. in this borough and parts of the Hounslow borough)

Priority 3
Accepted homeless applicants – Housing Register applicants with a high number of points that reflects their priority for housing – therefore in points order

Priority 4
Customers with special needs identified by the borough

Priority 5
Key workers, according to the DCLG definition, plus ambulance and
bus drivers, who work in this borough and at hospitals serving a substantial number of borough residents

Priority 6
Other key workers living or working in the whole sub-region

Priority 7
Applicants on Housing Register (prioritised by points)

• Live in or near London or;
• Work in or near London; or
• Aspire to live in London.

• They owned the home with a partner and that relationship broke down
• They need to move into an area because of their job and cannot afford to buy outright
• They are shared owners whose income has fallen and they can only stay as home owners by moving to a smaller, cheaper home
• They are shared owners whose family has grown but cannot afford to buy outright
• You are currently living in unsatisfactory rented accommodation or able to show your housing need

• The applicants preference
• Household income and affordability – If you are not a key worker or public sector tenant your maximum household income cannot exceed £58,600.
• Household size. Applicants will be offered a home with up to one bedroom above and over their current needs.

Eligibility criteria are set on a local level by your landlord. It is not a statutory scheme and not all landlords will currently be offering this assistance.

To find out if your landlord is offering Social HomeBuy and what the eligibility criteria is please call your Housing Officer who should be able to advise you.

• Treat all people equally, whatever their race, colour, ethnic origin, national origin, religion, sex, age, sexuality, physical or mental disability, state of health, appearance, marital status or family circumstances.
• Give all members of staff equal opportunities’ training.
• Help ethnic groups who are disadvantaged in housing and employment, by encouraging members of these groups to apply for jobs and homes.
• Keep a record of the ethnic origin, sex and disability of everyone who applies to us for a house or a job.
• Keep in mind our commitment to equal opportunities when we decide who serves on our committees.
• Make sure everyone we work with or works for us knows about our policy and keeps to it. If any of these people have their own policy, we will make sure it fits in with ours.
• Take account of developments in equal opportunities when we update our housing and employment policies and procedures.