If you are a social housing tenant in Barnet, you may be eligible for a payment of up to £15,000 if you downsize to a property with fewer bedrooms through our Fresh Start Scheme.
Assistance to help you move
To help make the move as smooth as possible, our Fresh Start Scheme also offers to:
- Pay your moving costs
- Pay for the installation of your white goods, including washing machine and cooker
- Pay for your mail to be redirected for three months
- Provide B&Q vouchers to help you to redecorate.
On top of this, our Fresh Start Scheme operatives are on hand to guide you through the process, and to help you to find a new home that you want to live in, which suits your needs.
The financial incentive
Through the Fresh Start Scheme, Barnet Council now offers £2,000 for every bedroom that you downsize by, up to a maximum of £10,000. For example, moving from a 4 bed to a 2 bed would gain you £4,000, whilst moving from a five-bed to a one-bed would gain you £8,000.
We also offer additional payments up to £5,000 for property types that we need most. Currently, we offer payments of £2,000 for partially adapted, wheelchair accessible properties, or £5,000 for fully adapted, wheelchair accessible properties.
Find out more!
To find out more about the scheme, whether you are eligible, and how to get involved. Please visit our website barnethomes.org or call 0208 359 4695.
Case study
Barnet Homes tenant Mrs DM aged 84, had lived in her three-bedroom family home in Muswell Hill with her husband for 17 years, but when he passed away she was alone and far from family.
With the help of her granddaughter Leighanne, and Denise Bracken, the Fresh Start officer from Barnet Homes, Mrs DM decided to move to Essex through the Fresh Start Scheme.
Leighanne told us “My nan is now happily settled into her beautiful 2-bedroom bungalow only minutes from us in Clacton-on-Sea.”