Private Sector Housing Grants
If you are interested in Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs); please view the following webpage: Find out about Disabled Facilities Grants
Our Adult Social Care team manage this process and will ensure that you get the right help and advice for your situation. No DFG can be given without an assessment and referral from an Occupational Therapist (OT).
If you are an owner-occupier needing advice on repair or other issues with your home (not DFGs); please look at the Help & Advice for Owner-Occupiers webpage. You will be able to complete a form to make contact with professionals who can advise you appropriately.
Financial assistance in the form of grants has been available for a number of years under the Council’s Private Sector Housing Renewal Policy. The different types of assistance that are available, are detailed in the policy below:
Private Sector Housing Renewal Assistance is intended to address a range of strategic housing objectives as funding allows, but is primarily aimed at those households who, by virtue of their age, disability or financial disadvantage, are least able to help themselves. The qualifying criteria and grant conditions applicable to each type of assistance are detailed within the policy.
All grants, except for Mandatory Disabled Facilities Grants, are discretionary and are therefore subject to the availability of funding, which varies from year to year. Qualifying criteria for each type of assistance may be adjusted accordingly, within the constraints of the policy, to ensure that available funds are always prioritised to those most in need. The intention is to award available Housing Renewal Assistance fairly and consistently to those who most need it.
At certain times, some types of grants may be unavailable due to limited funding.
Important notice
Funding for all forms of grant aid is currently severely limited and so assistance will only be considered for any urgent repairs required to remove significant *hazards in homes, and where these *hazards imminently threaten the health and safety of occupiers. Such grants will continue to be made available on a means tested basis, and only where funding is available, in the form of Urgent Repairs Grants, Move On Assistance, and Energy Efficiency Grants to home owners, occupiers and tenants who have full repairing obligations under the terms of their lease or tenancy. The above Policy tells you in what circumstances and how this may occur when funding is available.
No other forms of assistance are available.
*The definition of hazard is that used within the Housing Act 2004, Part 1: Housing Conditions, in connection with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
Aster care and repair
Advice and help on home repairs and home improvements may be available from Wiltshire’s local home improvement agency, Aster Care & Repair, previously called Ridgeway Care and Repair.
If you are able to fund home repairs or improvements yourself, but need practical help and support to arrange and manage this, then Aster Care and Repair may be able to do this on your behalf. They will charge a small fee for this service based on the value of the works being carried out.
For further details, please visit the Aster Care and Repair website.