We are committed to making the change our residents want and need in housing.
The high cost of housing makes it difficult for some residents to access suitable homes that meet their needs. Insufficient government funding for affordable homes, including adapted housing for older and Disabled residents, means that some residents are less able to stay in the borough.
Access to good quality housing is central to social mobility and enabling the delivery of wider ambitions in this plan.
When housing costs spiral, they drive in-work poverty, divide communities along economic lines, and push down housing standards.
Building homes is not just about bricks and mortar, and that’s why our housing ambitions are framed in a suite of plans that sit alongside our Housing Strategy, which have been co-produced with the views of residents at their core.
Through our Climate and Ecology Strategy and our development programme, we’re targeting achieving net zero carbon council owned and operated buildings by 2030, helping to reduce residents’ bills and improve air quality across our borough, starting with 3,000 new energy efficient affordable homes constructed or underway by 2026.
This approach also maximises housing land to ensure that accessible, high-quality green spaces are available throughout the borough.
Our ambition
Our ambition is to continue to work with residents to provide more affordable, accessible, safe, and sustainable housing.
We will take a holistic, community-minded approach to meeting housing needs to ensure we have the right mix of affordable housing options that are accessible, of high standards, and fully integrated with the rest of the borough.
Short term goals
In the short term, we will:
- deliver a suite of strategies including our Older and Disabled Peoples’ Housing Strategies, Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy, Tenancy Strategy, Private Rented Sector Policy, and our Local Plan
- embed within each development project the principles of co-production and the Defend Council Homes Policy to avoid loss of permanent homes
- continue with our shared equity affordable home ownership solution for residents and workers in the borough
- deliver a range of comprehensive measures to tackle rogue landlords and improve the quality, accessibility, and security of all housing tenures as far as possible.
Long term goals
In the long term, we will:
- deliver our target for 50% of new residential dwellings to be affordable with a focus on genuinely affordable family housing
- develop a Family Housing Strategy to increase the number of family-sized homes in the borough across all tenures
- grow our own development programme and influence the market to enable 3,000 new energy efficient affordable homes to be built or underway by 2026
- deliver the aspirations of our Local Plan, including 16,000 new homes by 2029
- in line with our Retrofit Strategy, improve the energy performance of our housing stock, as well as adapt it for a changing climate
- explore the feasibility of creating a council owned housing company to support an increase in affordable homes for residents who do not qualify for social housing and cannot afford the open market.