Cabinet backs strategy for Affordable, Available and Decent Homes

17 Sep 2024

A new West Suffolk housing strategy, setting out actions to try to address affordability, living conditions and homelessness, has been backed this evening.

Earlier this year, West Suffolk Council asked residents, town and parish councils, housing associations, local NHS trusts and developers to give their views on the various challenges around housing as well as some of the possible actions that the council could take to try to address them.

That shaped a draft Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy which Cabinet members discussed this evening, agreeing to recommend it to council to adopt when it meets on 19 November. 

If adopted, the strategy would also be supported with funding. The council, whose strategic priorities include Affordable, Available and Decent Homes, has already pledged over £1m to support its housing ambitions. A further £612,000 will be invested once the strategy is adopted to help deliver the actions and changes.

Cllr Richard O’Driscoll, Cabinet Member for Housing at the council, said: “We work wherever we can to prevent households from becoming homeless. And where we cannot prevent this, we support households through this very stressful and disruptive time, in temporary accommodation while they await a more permanent and settled home. 

“This strategy, which we will ask the council to adopt, will see us further our work with private landlords so we can access more private rented sector housing to support people while also continuing our work with partners to try to end rough sleeping through support and accommodation.

“Under this strategy we will also work to ensure decent living conditions in the private rented sector, including Homes of Multiple Occupation. Poor housing damages people’s health. That’s why we will be working to tackle cold and damp homes, prevent overcrowding and reduce the risk of people living in homes that are in a bad state of disrepair.

“Through this strategy we will also be building on our work with partners to combat fuel poverty, supporting people in low-income homes that have poor energy efficiency with improvements that will help them heat their home for less. We are already trying to seek environmental improvements in new homes through our new local plan submitted to planning inspectors.

“We will also be furthering our work to support people to remain in their own their own homes should they develop health or disability issues, rather than going into care or hospital which can be devastating for them and their families.”

A major part of the new strategy is to look at what actions West Suffolk Council, which is both the local housing authority and local planning authority, can carry out to improve the availability and affordability of homes.

“The cost of housing is a huge challenge for people. We need homes that are genuinely affordable including more homes for social rent,” said Cllr O’Driscoll.

Affordable housing is normally delivered through housing schemes with developers required to make 30 per cent of new housing, “affordable”. 

West Suffolk Council is seeking to increase that to 40 per cent on developments built on greenfield land. This is part of the Council’s draft Local Plan, which is currently with Government planning inspectors to decide, balancing up need with commercially viability. 

However, local housing needs suggest that the actual amount of affordable housing built needs to be around 60 per cent of new homes. This figure cannot by achieved through development requirements alone in the Local Plan without jeopardising the viability and delivery of new housing developments. Therefore, other initiatives are being explored.

While affordable housing includes shared ownership schemes, most of the time it means homes that are available to rent at 80 per cent of the cost of market rents, while social rent is around 65 per cent (typically the rent formerly set for Council Housing). The rising cost of rent in relation to pay has been a major problem. The council currently has more than 2,500 households on its housing register for affordable housing, including more than 960 in urgent or high need. For many of these households the high cost of rent in West Suffolk has increased the risk of homelessness or actually resulted in people losing their homes.

“Our public engagement has confirmed that we need more homes to be built to better balance supply against demand which is one of the factors that currently pushes up the cost of the housing market,” said Cllr O’Driscoll.

“We know that the Government is looking at increasing the number of homes being built nationally which could see the number in West Suffolk increase from just over 800 a year to around 1,200 which I welcome.”

Greater work with housing associations who build and run affordable housing schemes is also part of the strategy, as is work with parish councils to deliver more rural exception sites – small developments of affordable housing specifically to meet local needs. The council would also work to maximise the different types of housing delivered and unlock more difficult to develop brownfield sites such as redundant industrial and contaminated land.

“We need new homes, but we also need to ensure that they are the right type, in the right locations and that they are supported with infrastructure," Cllr O’Driscoll said. "A major part of our strategy is also to look at how we can benefit existing communities through the building of new homes. If the strategy is approved, as I hope it will be, we will continue to engage with the public and our partners to ensure that we get the balance right between meeting housing needs and enabling communities to thrive.”

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