Housing Strategy Consultation

Overview

The Council is developing a new Housing Strategy to address the key housing challenges and problems within the borough. It is a statutory requirement for all local authorities to have in place a housing strategy. The purpose of housing strategies is to:

• Provide an overview of housing related issues in the area
• Identify any mismatch between supply and demand and identify issues regarding housing conditions
• Sets out the key objectives for the authority and its partners
• Establish priorities for action and spending priorities
• Provide an action plan and policy direction

Over the last two years, a raft of very radical changes have been introduced by the Government that have fundamentally altered the legislative, funding and policy landscape for housing. These include reductions in the level of grant funding for affordable housing, welfare reform changes and social housing reform. As a result we will face some difficult challenges over the next few years including:

• Encouraging economic and housing growth
• Mitigating the impact of welfare reform and increased demand for services
• Reducing the significant number of vacant dwellings in the borough
• Maintaining reduced levels of homelessness
• Meeting the housing needs of an increasingly ageing population
• Improving provision in the private rented sector
• Meeting the need for a diverse range of affordable housing
• Tackling fuel poverty and improving the energy efficiency of homes
• Increasing the number of higher value homes

In order to meet these challenges we require a robust and realistic housing strategy and action plan. It is important that we get the input of key partners, stakeholders and the community on the development of the strategy and action plan to ensure that it is able to meet the housing challenges of the borough over the next three years.

We would like to hear your views on whether we have set the right priorities and actions in the draft strategy via the on-line questionnaire below. The deadline for responses is 31 December 2012.