New housing plans developed to focus resources on helping Adur residents most in need of support
Released: Tuesday, 22 September 2026
We plan to change the way we provide housing so we can focus our resources on helping local residents most in need of support.
As part of our commitment to support the most vulnerable in the community, we want to reshape our housing allocation policy so that more time and resources can be used helping those Adur households most in need.
The proposed changes are designed to make the system fairer, to help people move out of short-term council accommodation and into permanent homes more quickly. This would give the residents more security and would also free up short-term council accommodation so that those who need help in an emergency don't have to be housed in B&Bs or hotels.
The proposals include giving targeted support to help people in overcrowded homes to find somewhere to live rather than becoming homeless, as well as helping vulnerable residents who have overcome problems to move into their own property.
The most significant change would involve the removal of those with no actual housing need from the waiting list. Of the more than 1,000 Adur households on our waiting list for a property, more than 340 are in Band D because they have no actual housing need.
If they were removed from the housing waiting list, our staff would be able to focus on helping those most in need rather than spending time managing the applications of people who would realistically never be provided with a council home anyway because demand dramatically exceeds supply.
Another proposed change would allow families on Adur or Worthing's housing lists to move into empty council homes in either area if they were not needed by local families on the lists.
Councillor Lee Cowen, Adur's cabinet member for housing, said:
“Over the last couple of years we've been able to help hundreds of Adur families on our housing waiting list into new homes, but there are still many more who need support.
“We want to focus our resources on making sure we're doing everything we can to support our local residents who desperately need somewhere to live permanently.”
Since the start of 2024, more than 480 Adur households in need of somewhere to live have been found new permanent homes by us.
In that period, 206 newly-built properties have enabled households on our housing waiting list to move, despite continued soaring demand for support from residents in need. We have also found permanent homes for a further 281 households on the waiting list in that time.
The vast majority of the new social homes occupied in the district since the start of 2024 have been those built by developers after negotiations with us. These include homes in Lancing with Saxon Weald, in Sompting with Worthing Homes, in Shoreham with Southern Housing and in Southwick with Hyde Housing. A further 53 new homes for Adur residents on the waiting list will be completed at Silvertide Point, the former Adur Civic Centre site in Shoreham, in the next few months in addition to over 100 shared ownership properties.
We're currently spending up to £2m refurbishing and improving a large number of our council homes that have fallen empty and which require significant investment before they can be lived in again.
A webpage has been created to provide more information about the proposed changes to the allocations policy. To read about the proposals and have your say, see:
(PR26-085)
Page last updated: 22 September 2026