Housing for Teachers

Old Etonians

Details of this scheme have not yet been published. The first phase will be to provide a small number of equity loans to teachers. There is no requirement for applicants to be in housing need, but the scheme will be targeted at school leaders initially.

Equity loans of £100,000 can be used to pay up to 50% of a mortgage on a property within 10 miles of Islington. Teachers must be on an income of between £30K and £57K although the upper limit may be flexible.

Priority will be given to:
school managers from schools in special measures, with serious weaknesesses or receiving priority support
teachers from schools with high staff turnover
teachers from schools with vacancies for two terms or more

Full information will be circulated to schools in the next two weeks (by mid November 02). Contact sarah.rees.cea@islington.gov.uk for more information and to apply.

The next phase of the scheme will be to convert properties into one and two bedroom flats to be let at affordable rents to teachers.

The keyhomebuy website is now online and contains more detailed information, Metropolitan Home Ownership can be contacted on 020 8829 8000, but to contact the keyhomebuy but team directly, ring 020 8920 4450 / 4451 or 4452 the out-of-hours number is 0800 0565210. this has now been largely superceded by the Key Worker Living Housing Scheme, visit www.keyworkerliving.co.uk or ring 020 8920 7777 for more information.

There will be a "Cheese and Wine" Evening - beginning at 4:30pm - at Barnsbury on Tuesday 10th May 2005. There will be information provided by Metropolitan Hosuing Association and any questions can be answered.

Islington Housing Initiatives - these properties tend to be allocated quickly, and you may not be eligible in subsequent years.

For each of the last five years London Borough of Islington has allocated 30 properties to "key workers" ~ fifteen for teachers and fifteen for hospital staff. This year (2005-2006) another fifteen have been allocated to teachers.

Unfortunately, as the scheme is part of the overall recruitment strategy the scheme is not open to all staff. To be eligible, teachers must be new to Islington (appointed between 1/4/04 and 31/3/06) and have a permanent contract. They may be newly qualified or experienced teachers.

The flats on offer will be single bedroom flats, mostly intended for single people, although single parents or couples could be considered if they agree to being offered a flat smaller than that which a housing authority might usually offer. Most of the available Islington housing stock is in estates and most properties do not have gardens, so people should bear this in mind when applying.

The properties are going to be offered on a first come first served basis and applicants will usually receive only one offer. For an application form contact Sarah Rees at Recruitment and Retention Dept, CEA@Islington Laycock St N1 1TH .     

In the future, we hope to persuade Islington Council that teachers with families need housing too, as well as those who are already working in the borough. To this end, the unions have jointly argued for a working group to be set up to look at the factors affecting whether teachers can afford to work here. As this was also a recommendation from the Islington Education Commission, this has been successful and the unions will be represented on the new Recruitment and Retention Committee.In order to press for more such provision, however, evidence of hardship, of teachers leaving Islington or indeed of never taking up posts here is desperately needed.

Without this evidence we cannot argue for more housing provision. With the changes in government housing policy and the transfer of housing stock away from councils, there may never be a better time to secure arrangements with the authority. Please send any useful information to Greg Robbins (Islington Secretary).

National Housing Schemes (This section is old, but the information may still be useful)

The Housing Corporation has a budget of £230,000,000 to aid teachers  and other key workers to gain their own secure housing in London and the South-East. They have effectively sub-contracted the task to a number of agents - mainly registered social landlords (RSLs or housing associations) who were able to offer their own schemes. These are expected to predominantly include shared ownership (such as DIYSO) and equity loans. Unfortunately there are no plans to offer interest free loans - despite speculation in some newspapers and the Housing Corporation's own publicity ! After Christmas RSLs will be free to offer new schemes if subsequent bids are successful.

Now as to the question of who is eligible, the scheme is targeted at "high priority" groups such as teachers, nurses, health workers and police (but other "lower priority" groups such as firemen, bus drivers and other public service workers may also apply.) in London and the South East. Targets have been set for teachers as follows:

1,588 in London
   132 in Berkshire
     85 in Buckinghamshire
     87 in Oxfordshire
    200 in Hampshire
    142 in Kent
    129 in Sussex
    157 in Surrey
      50 in Cambridgeshire
      68 in Hertfordshire
      19 in Bedford
      98 in Essex
60 others in the South West
Total 2,815

Scheme managers have been appointed for each area -  this information should be available at www.housingcorp.gov.uk . Information on Islington in particular and London in general is below, or you can phone 020 7393 2000 for information directly.

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