There is an opportunity now for councils to take a more ongoing and proactive role in shaping and owning the housing ‘presence’ in their geography. By taking the initiative, they can provide the strategic ‘glue’ between public and private sector organisations – to deliver the best mix of homes to meet community needs.

 

With rising numbers of people in temporary accommodation and on council waiting lists, a key goal for many authorities will be more rented homes that are ‘genuinely affordable’.

 

But councils say their ability to invest in new housing is inhibited by the housing revenue account (HRA) cap, and the right to buy extension that forces them to sell housing stocks – with the unintended consequence of increasing homelessness and pushing more families into the more expensive private rented sector.

 

The new Act obliges councils to require the delivery of low cost starter homes on new developments of ‘reasonably-sized’ sites, with secondary legislation being needed to confirm whether starter homes will take precedence over the delivery of other forms of ‘traditional’ or other affordable housing – with the indication that this will be the case.

 

But starter homes – which the Government has re-defined as ‘affordable housing’ – still remain out of reach for many low income families, even with a five percent deposit and a 20% discount for first-time buyers. Many developers also argue that providing affordable housing is not viable.

 

In this difficult environment, SOLACE (representing public sector CEOs) says that housing affordability now tops all other priorities.They are demanding that every devolution deal should include new housing investments tailored to local needs, and the freedom to re-invest locally-generated income in housing projects.

 

Increasingly, creating sufficient homes will be driven by commercial entities – either wholly owned by a local authority or owned and run jointly with third party investors, housing associations or developers.

 

There are concerns, however, that the expertise and capability within authorities to set-up and resource these housing delivery vehicles to deliver new stock has been diminished by budget cuts. So, authorities wanting to encourage economic and social regeneration will require a visionary approach in designing a housing product suite to meet the needs of their localities.