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Key Workers

What is a Key Worker?

A Key Worker is a person in a job designated as providing an essential service to the community, who due to low wages needs help to find housing. Key Workers are assisted in accessing housing because if they cannot afford housing locally they will move, leaving essential services understaffed. Who qualifies as a Key Worker depends on which housing programme a person is applying through. These definitions and the related programmes are explored further on.

Key Worker Housing Need in Basingstoke and Deane

Following a report carried out in April 2002 on solutions to key worker accommodation shortages, a second report was commissioned to look into the housing needs of Key Workers in the Borough. 'ATIS REAL Weatheralls' carried out the report on behalf of the Council in 2002/2003 which was published in November 2003. Weatheralls contacted 21 organisations that employ Key Workers in Basingstoke and Deane and 9 of the 21 responded (43%).

On the basis of research, using our criteria and definition of housing need, we have determined that 177 (5%) Key Workers employed in the organisations surveyed are in housing need and will require assistance from the Council or other agencies, in order to obtain the accommodation that they require each year.

We believe that the figure for Key Worker housing need across the borough is higher than this because not all organisations who employ Key Workers participated in this study.

Key Worker Living

Key Worker Living is a Government initiative set up in 2004 to assist workers in essential services in the South East, to obtain housing local to their employment. A zone agent was designated for each County in the region; in Hampshire the agent is Swaythling Housing Society (part of Oriel Housing Group).

What is available under this scheme?

  • Key Worker HomebuyEquity (loans up to 30,000)
  • Key Worker Newbuild Homebuy (shared ownership)
  • Key Worker Intermediate Rent (new homes for rent)

You will no longer be eligible for help if you cease to be a Key Worker.

Due to a high number of available units in North Hampshire, the ODPM has expanded the definition for the area. The following professions now qualify for assistance under Key Worker Living: 

  • Health workers (NHS staff including Social Workers etc)
  • Teachers, including FE teachers (not private sector)
  • Police officers - 'operational' and 'operational support' staff
  • Prison officers and some Prison Service staff (Winchester only)
  • Probation Officers, Senior Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers (Trainee Probation Officers for Intermediate Rent only)
  • Armed Forces Personnel (Newbuild HomeBuy and Intermediate Rent)
  • LA Social workers (qualified)
  • Connexions Advisers
  • LA Occupational Therapists
  • LA Educational Psychologists
  • LA Planners & National Park Authority Planners
  • LA Speech & Language Therapists
  • LA employed clinical staff (eg nurses)
  • Rehabilitation Officers for the visually impaired
  • Qualified nursery nurses employed by an LEA or NHS
  • Uniformed staff in Fire & Rescue Services
  • Environmental Health Officers/Practitioners
  • Traffic Officer Staff of the Highways Agency Traffic Officer Service

Not everyone in these groups qualifies as it depends on the specifics of your post type. For further information or to apply please contact Swaythling as per the details at the bottom of this page.

Other Key Workers

In April 2002, the Council adopted the following definition of a key worker:

“...employees in essential, universally accessible public and private services, without whom those services would operate at below optimal levels, and workers in those sectors whose income is insufficient to allow them to access reasonable accommodation in the private market, or who do not receive priority assistance through the relevant housing legislation...”

The Council has chosen this broader definition as research has shown that the biggest issues where recruitment is linked to affordability of housing are in services other than those identified by Key Worker Living. Services such as refuse collection and hospital cleaning, which are essential to the well being of our community, have workers who have been priced out of the housing market.

This definition is used to allocate shared ownership accommodation built specifically for key workers, but not as part of Key Worker Living.

To find out if you qualify as a key worker or what options are available to you please contact the zone agent for Hampshire, Swaythling Housing Society via the link below:

http://www.homesinhants.co.uk

or email: info@homesinhants.org.uk

or telephone: 02380 628000.

For more general information on key workers please contact Ian Smith, Housing Strategy and Enabling Officer, on 01256 845760 or email ian.smith@basingstoke.gov.uk; or Michael Kelleher, Housing Strategy and Enabling Manager, on 01256 845395 or email michael.kelleher@basingstoke.gov.uk