THE deadline for people on the current housing list to register to stay on it has been extended.

Dorset Council is urging people who are on the housing register to re-register as soon as possible to ensure they keep their place.

The original deadline people needed to re-register by was October 1, but that has been extended to December 1 to help ensure everyone who wishes to remain on the list has time to re-register.

The council has created the new Dorset Council Housing Allocation scheme to replace legacy policies and housing registers. The new, more user-friendly system, will reportedly make it easier for people to apply to be on the housing register, receive information about their application and to bid on properties.

Existing housing register applicants can continue to bid for properties that become available on the current system until the end of November.

People who are new to the register and want to sign up can do so via the new system. The council will prioritise the assessment of all those who are carrying out a re-registration process in the first instance, but new applicants who submit their application and required documents early will benefit from an earlier effective date. Those new applicants will be able to bid for properties from December 1.

Councillor Graham Carr-Jones, portfolio holder for housing and community safety at Dorset Council, said: "We opened for re-registrations in July this year and the initial response rate was slow which may have been affected by summer holidays.

"We have continued to promote the need to re-register since the summer and the response rates have increased. By making sure our current applicants re-register in time, it means they will keep any waiting time they have already accrued.

"We need people to re-register their current details so that our new register holds the most up-to-date information and applicants are in the banding that accurately reflects their current housing need."

For help completing the application, go to the Dorset Council website and search for the digital champions.

For more information about the re-registration process, visit www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/re-registration-process