THERE was plenty of coverage and reaction last year when ‘intimidation points’ were removed from social housing by DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons.

Yet almost no attention has been paid to a far larger reform of the system due to be implemented later this year.

From September, social housing applicants will continue to be allocated points but they will then be arranged into four bands: urgent, high need, moderate need and general need.

Within each band, time on the waiting list rather than total points will be the deciding factor for housing allocation.

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The points thresholds for each band are still being determined and may be flexible – you might be in urgent need with 70 points under some circumstances, or 100 points under others, for example.

But once assessed as urgent, you will effectively be standing in one of four queues.

Everyone in the other three bands is not necessarily standing behind you. The availability of suitable properties in suitable locations means those queues will shuffle forward one by one as well.

This reform aims to make the system fairer by ensuring people are not endlessly passed over.

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