Downsizing

We can help any council tenant who is living in a home that is too big for them and wants to move somewhere smaller, either in Islington or somewhere else.

Whatever your circumstances, we can help you to find a home that better suits your needs. A smaller home is easier to clean and manage. You could pay less rent, council tax and heating bills.

You may feel that you need a home with fewer stairs, or may have a medical condition that means you need a home all on one floor, or on the ground floor. If your children have moved away, you may not need as many bedrooms.

Contact us

Contact us by telephone on 020 7527 4140 and choose option 3. 

Alternatively, email rehousing@islington.gov.uk and we can chat through the options. You may also be entitled to £500 for each spare room that you give up, and up to £400 to help you with removals.

We can help and advise you on:

• applying for a move
• bidding for a transfer to a smaller council or housing association property on the Home Connections website
• removals
• clearing your property of unwanted furniture and carpets

Ways to downsize

There are different ways that you could downsize to a smaller home, depending on your circumstances:

• Apply for a transfer as an 'under-occupier'. You will have a higher priority on the transfer list.
• Swap homes with a family who need a larger home through a mutual exchange. Many more people get the home they want by swapping rather than through the transfer list. You can choose where you want to move to, and it can be very quick. If you have 200 points or less this is probably your best option.
• If you're over 55, you can apply for sheltered accommodation
• If you're over 60 you can apply for the Seaside and Country Homes Scheme
• The Housing Moves scheme to downsize and relocate to another London borough gives priority to 'under occupiers'
• The Homefinder UK scheme advertises affordable homes both in London and the whole of the UK.

Beat the ‘bedroom tax’

If you get Housing Benefit, have more bedrooms than are allowed under government rules and you are of working age, your Housing Benefit will not be enough to pay all of your rent. This is known as the bedroom tax. If you move to a smaller home that meets the rules, the tax will no longer apply.

If you receive pension credit you will not be affected by the bedroom tax.

Read more about the bedroom tax.

You can be exempted from the bedroom tax on your first spare room and get council help with paying it on a second room if you become a foster carer.