For section 26 (restriction on residential requirements) there shall be substituted the following sections—

“26Admission to housing list.

(1)

In considering whether an applicant for local authority housing is entitled to be admitted to a housing list, an islands or district council shall take no account of—

(a)

the age of the applicant provided that he has attained the age of 16 years ; or

(b)

the income of the applicant and his family ; or

(c)

whether, or to what value, the applicant or any of his family owns or has owned (or any of them own or have owned) heritable or moveable property ; or

(d)

any outstanding liability (for payment of rent or otherwise) attributable to the tenancy of any dwelling-house of which the applicant is not, and was not when the liability accrued, a tenant; or

(e)

whether the applicant is living with, or in the same dwelling-house as—

(i)

his spouse ; or

(ii)

a person with whom he has been living as husband and wife.

(2)

Where an applicant—

(a)

is employed in the area of the islands or district council; or

(b)

has been offered employment in the area of the council; or

(c)

wishes to move into the area of the council and the council is satisfied that his purpose in doing so is to seek employment; or

(d)

has attained the age of 60 years and wishes to move into the area of the council to be near a younger relative; or

(e)

has special social or medical reasons for requiring to be housed within the area of the council,

admission to a housing list shall not depend on the applicant being resident in the area.

(3)

Where an islands or district council has rules which give priority to applicants on its housing list it shall apply those rules to an applicant to whom subsection (2) above applies no less favourably than it applies them to a tenant of the council whose housing needs are similar to those of the applicant and who is seeking a transfer to another dwelling-house belonging to the council.

(4)

In this section and in section 27 of this Act " housing list" means a list of applicants for local authority housing which is kept by an islands or district council in connection with allocation of housing.

26AAllocation of local authority housing.

In the allocation of local authority housing an islands or district council—

(a)

shall take no account of—

(i)

the length of time for which an applicant has resided in its area; or

(ii)

any of the matters mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (d) of section 26(1) of this Act; and

(b)

shall not impose a requirement—

(i)

that an application must have remained in force for a minimum period ; or

(ii)

that a divorce or judicial separation be obtained; or

(iii)

that the applicant no longer be living with, or in the same dwelling-house as, some other person,

before the applicant is eligible for the allocation of housing.”.