West Lancashire Borough Council joins over 100 local authorities in appeal to ‘Save our Council Homes’
West Lancashire Borough Council has joined over 100 local authority Landlords to urge the new government to take urgent action to fix England’s broken Council housing system.
At an event being held in Westminster yesterday, an unprecedented cross-party coalition of councils will jointly publish five solutions to ‘secure the future of England’s council housing’. They warn that the current system is broken and that urgent action is needed for the government to deliver its housing promises.
In July, 20 of the largest council landlords published an interim summary of their recommendations. Significant traction - including an urgent meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister - has led to over 80 more councils, including West Lancashire Borough Council, backing their recommendations and signing the final report.
This more detailed report, led by Southwark Council with contributions from housing policy experts Toby Lloyd and Rose Grayston, sets out a full roadmap to renew our country’s council housing over the next decade and critical policy changes for the realisation of the new government’s social housing ambitions.
It explains how an unsustainable financial model and erratic national policy changes have squeezed council’s housing budgets and sent costs soaring. New analysis from Savills shows they will face a £2.2bn ‘black hole’ by 2028.
Councils warn that unless more is done soon, most local authority landlords will struggle to maintain their existing homes adequately or meet the huge new demands to improve them, let alone build new homes for social rent. Across the country development projects are being cancelled and delayed, with huge implications for the local construction sector, jobs and housing market.
Rather than increasing supply, the reality is that some councils will have no option but to sell more of their existing stock to finance investment in an ever-shrinking portfolio of council homes.
The recommendations include urgent action to restore lost income and unlock local authority capacity to work with the new government to deliver its promises for new, affordable homes throughout the country.
The five solutions set out detailed and practical recommendations to the new government:
- A new fair and sustainable HRA model – including an urgent £644 million one-off rescue injection and long-term, certain rent and debt agreements.
- Reforms to unsustainable Right to Buy policies
- Removing red tape on existing funding
- A new, long-term Green & Decent Homes Programme
- Urgent action to restart stalled building projects, avoiding the loss of construction sector capacity and a market downturn
They make up a plan for a ‘decade of renewal’, with local authorities and central government working together to get ‘Housing Revenue Accounts’ (HRAs) back on stable foundations, bring all homes up to modern and green standards, and deliver the next generation of council homes.
Councillor Nicola Pryce-Roberts, Leader of housing at West Lancashire Borough Council, said: “The housing crisis facing our residents is unprecedented and this coalition of councils is testament to the urgency of reform needed.
“It is of paramount importance to us as a council that we deliver quality, affordable, green homes for our residents. Although we have big ambitions to continue to build new council homes for the future, the same broken system that holds us back allows private developers to mothball projects and fail to deliver on their promises.
“The housing crisis is continuing to grow and we urge the government to act now so we can ensure that those residents who need and deserve housing support the most will get it.”
