Don't forget your Voter ID
If you are voting in person in the General Election on Thursday 4 July, you will need to take an accepted form of photo ID with you.
To apply for a council or housing association home you will need to
In Babergh and Mid Suffolk, council and social homes are managed through the Gateway to Homechoice. This allows you to view all the homes available through the council and each housing association on one website.
If you are accepted onto the housing register, you can ‘bid’ for council and housing association properties in Babergh and Mid Suffolk. Babergh and Mid Suffolk applicants are prioritised on properties in Babergh and Mid Suffolk. They can also bid for home though other partners on Gateway to Homechoice but will not be prioritised for those properties.
The Gateway to HomeChoice online form takes around 30 minutes to complete.
You can save the form at any point and complete it later - even if you are not on your own computer.
You will need to complete the form within two weeks. If not, you will have to start again.
You will need the following information:
Download full list of supporting evidence
The Verification Housing History form must be completed with all of your household members' addresses, for the past 6 years (and for the past 10 years for any property ownership).
It must also include the name and address of your landlords, and the dates that you moved in and out, together with the reasons for leaving the property.
Please complete the form:
The declaration must be signed and dated.
Please download, print, sign and return the declaration. If you are unable to print the declaration please contact us and a paper copy can be posted to you
Download Verification Declaration (PDF)
Email all relevant documents in ONE message. Use consecutive messages for larger households. If you need support to send us your documents please contact us
You will receive an acknowledgement email immediately to confirm we have received your documents.
We do not keep previously sent documents on file, unless uploaded to your online account, so it is important that you gather all of the documents which are relevant to you and send them together at the same time. You don't need to resend any clearly readable documents that you have already uploaded to your online application - you can check these by logging in to your application online.
From the date we receive your full clearly readable set of step 1 documents, we aim to assess your application so that, if eligible, you can place bids within 6-8 weeks.
Your application will be closed automatically if we do not receive a full set of clearly readable and relevant documents altogether within 28 days from the date of your Gateway to Homechoice application.
Additional bedroom entitlement / banding priority can be requested at any time but will only be considered once evidence in step 2 documents have been received. We strongly advise sending step 1 and 2 documents at the same time where possible.
Please allow a further 6-8 weeks for documents in step 2 to be assessed (from the date we receive them) if sending after your basic assessment documents in step 1.
The following applications will NOT be accepted:
After you have registered, we will write to you within 28 days. We will ask you to provide certain documents. This is so we can review your application.
Once these have been received and your application has been approved, we will inform you of: