Help in finding a private rented home

There are now almost 4,000 households on the housing register, but we can only rehouse around 400 households each year with housing associations through the Your Choice Your Home scheme - we simply do not have enough housing association homes to rehouse every applicant.  The private rented sector has therefore always been an important source of housing to many of our applicants, as the majority of households on the housing register need to seek other solutions to meet their housing needs.

In September 2011, we added privately rented properties to the Your Choice Your Home scheme by encouraging private landlords to advertise their properties through Your Choice Your Home.  Private rented properties now appear alongside affordable rent and social rent properties ('Private Rented' properties appear with the 'PR' icon, above).

If you make a bid on a private rented property, we will contact you to check that it is affordable, and that it will suit your housing needs.  We then provide a shortlist of eligible applicants to the landlords, who will contact those on the shortlist to arrange an interview and a viewing of the property.  Private landlords retain the right to let the property to a tenant of their choosing, which is why we are unable to include private rented properties in our Feedback Report.

All private landlords will initially offer an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) for a minimum period of 6 months, which can be renewed indefinitely. 

We offer extensive help and advice to landlords, existing tenants and prospective tenants - See Housing Options and Information for private landlords and tenants for more information.

Other useful websites
Other useful websiteshttp://www.rightmove.co.uk/   – Helpful property buying/renting website
http://www.edp24.co.uk/  – Eastern Daily Press website with up to date property information