Minutes:
“You recently mentioned at Special Council that we had received an award and a subsequent letter regarding it. Could more details be provided and an update on what the future holds for our Affordable Housing Programme?”
Answer
The question was answered by the Leader, Councillor T.Kingsbury:-
“Thank you for your question.
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council recently won the Hertfordshire Building Futures Award 2018 in the ‘Design Excellence’ category for our new affordable housing developments in Garden Avenue and Furzen Crescent, South Hatfield. The new Lime Tree Court and Lilac Close developments are the first direct builds for the council in more than 25 years. Not only have we provided 29 extra homes for local people in housing need, but in doing so we re-used the land which used to accommodate two under-utilised garage sites. The garage sites were an eye-sore and had become a magnet for anti-social behaviour.
The award judges commended the quality of design, saying that the homes “set a precedent for council development”.
We subsequently received a letter of congratulations from the Housing Minister and the innovation and design style of the two developments also led to the schemes being featured as Inside Housing’s ‘Development of the week’.
In recognising the continuing and increasing housing need in the borough the council intends to build on its success and develop more homes for local people. There are currently a number of projects in the pipeline which could result in hundreds of extra homes. These schemes are a combination of new development schemes, building on more garage sites, and regenerating sheltered housing. Our aim is always to provide more modern, affordable homes in a safe and attractive living environment. We are also seeking to increase the provision of temporary accommodation and we are looking at a number of ways to do this, including remodelling existing temporary accommodation and building or acquiring additional units.
The added benefit of building our own housing is that we can recycle right to buy receipts - 30% of the development cost can be met through existing right to buy receipts.
The government recently announced that the housing revenue account borrowing cap has been removed. This means that councils may borrow from the public works loan board if they wish to develop more affordable housing, providing they will generate sufficient rents from the council housing to re-pay the debt. This is very encouraging for councils because it means that there are now real opportunities to build more housing and control the type and quality of housing which is available to local people.
We continue to seek new opportunities to provide more housing and an exercise is under way to identify where there is any spare housing land to build on. So far the exercise seems positive and more information will be shared with Members when the project is complete. Members have also been provided with information on the council’s ‘Spot the Plot’ scheme, whereby they and officers are asked to come forward with any suggestions for redeveloping existing housing land, or adding in more homes to existing schemes.
We will of course continue to work with housing associations so that as many social rented homes as possible will be built, for the benefit of the people who live in our communities.
In addition to providing more social rented housing through the housing revenue account, the council is looking at how it can develop other types of housing so that it meets the needs of more people in the borough. We are seeing more and more people at risk of homelessness due to their private sector tenancies coming to an end. This includes families with children. We have commissioned a report which has found that thousands of households in the borough cannot afford full market housing but neither will they qualify to go on our housing needs register for social rented housing. There are other options which could be made available to them. For example a more secure model of market rent housing, giving households reassurance and quality, so that they may put down roots without having to buy. The council could also offer intermediate tenancies, whereby the rents are somewhere in between social and market levels. There are potentially other models available, such as Rent to Buy, which provides local people in housing need with the option to move into a home and when their circumstances improve, gradually buy the same property at a reduced rate, taking into account the amount of rent they have paid so far. In this way, there will be less need for a deposit.
We believe the options and opportunities going forward are exciting and will genuinely help provide much-needed homes for residents in our borough.”