New Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy recommended for approval

A new strategy to help more people better afford a place to live, improve living conditions and reduce homelessness in West Suffolk is to be discussed next week.

The Housing, Homelessness Reduction and Rough Sleeping Strategy has been shaped through public engagement including with residents, town and parish councils, housing associations, local NHS trusts and developers, earlier this year.

Next Tuesday, November 19, will see a meeting of West Suffolk Council discuss the strategy which has been recommended for approval by the council’s cabinet.

West Suffolk, which is both local housing authority and the local planning authority, has already made Affordable, Available and Decent Homes one of its four strategic priorities.

Tuesday’s meeting would also see a further £612,000 of investment by the council on top of £1 million it has already pledged to support its ambitions for housing.

Richard O’Driscoll, cabinet member for Housing, said: “We currently have over 2,500 people on our housing register including more than 1,000 in urgent or high need.

“We know that one of the biggest challenges in our society is around homes that people can genuinely afford.

“Only last week we shared the story of a West Suffolk family who became homeless when their landlady wanted to sell the property, and they were unable to afford anywhere else.

“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. We also need more genuinely ‘affordable’ homes.

“The current definition of affordable is 80 per cent of the cost of private rent. However, for many that can still be out of their reach so wherever possible we also need more homes for social rent which is around 65pc of the cost of private rent.

“The government already recognise this need for more housing and is looking at increasing the number of homes to be delivered nationally, including increasing the number of homes delivered in West Suffolk each year from just over 800, to around 1,200.”

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

West Suffolk Council is trying to increase that to 40pc on any developments built on greenfield land but that is currently with government planning inspectors to decide, balancing up what is commercially viable.

The problem is, however, that to meet local housing needs, the council actually needs to increase the amount of affordable housing delivery to around 60pc of new homes – something that it cannot achieve on its own. Neither can it simply push for it through local plan policies without risking making the situation worse by jeopardising the viability and actual delivery of new housing.

The strategy sets out the need to carry out additional work to identify other options for increasing social and affordable homes.

This will include work with housing associations who build and run affordable housing schemes as well as working with parish councils to deliver more rural exception sites – small developments of affordable housing specifically to meet local needs.

It will also include an examination of the role the council might take in delivering its own housing stock, and through working in partnership with others. 

The council will seek to ensure the right type of housing is delivered to meet different needs, such as the ageing population.

To increase the availability of land to be developed the council will unlock more difficult to develop brownfield sites such as redundant industrial and contaminated land.

“We also want to explore the benefits that delivering more homes can achieve for our existing communities. New homes need to be the right type in the right locations with supporting infrastructure.

“If the strategy is approved, we will be carrying out further public engagement next year,” councillor O’Driscoll said.

The new strategy is also about existing housing and how the council supports residents in their own homes.

“Poor housing can have a massive impact on people’s health. This strategy builds on our work to ensure decent living conditions. It includes combating fuel poverty by supporting people in low-income homes that have poor energy efficiency through improvements so they can heat their home for less,” added councillor O’Driscoll.

“We have included policies in our new local plan to address these environmental improvements in new homes.

“The strategy also looks to ensure better living conditions in the private rented sector and Houses of Multiple occupation to prevent overcrowding and people living in cold, damp homes in poor disrepair.

“And it will build on the success of our work with Disabled Facilities Grants, which, as recently highlighted in the news, is supporting people’s independence, dignity and self-esteem.

“For residents it’s about improving their quality of life and supporting them so they can carry on living in their own home which is often better for their health and wellbeing.

“It means they are less likely to have to go into care or be admitted to hospital, which reduces the impact on health and social care costs and frees up critical bedspaces,.”

The strategy also looks at how the council furthers its work to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.