Suffolk councils receive £20,000 grant to improve access to housing
There has been some controversy though
Suffolk councils have gained £20,000 to improve access to housing.
The £20,000 government grant will support a programme to make more affordable houses available but one councillor thinks it won’t alleviate the need for more council houses.
The bid was led by East Suffolk Council. Cllr Richard Kerry, cabinet member for housing at East Suffolk Council, said: “We want to consider innovative Suffolk-wide models to increase the number of affordable properties available for those in housing need.
“This may include improved schemes for returning long term empty homes back into use or to access the private rented sector.
“In 2019/20, it was identified that more than 130,000 Suffolk residents were living in a low-income household.
“The cost-of-living crisis is having a significant further impact and we need to find solutions to these issues. This funding will help us to move that process forward at pace.”
A county-wide housing board will decide how the money is used. It has identified 1,000 long-term empty homes across Suffolk.
Cllr David Beavan, leader of the Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent group of councillors at East Suffolk, said: “Twenty thousand pounds to get people into empty properties is all very well.
But we need £20 million to build more social housing in East Suffolk, as I said last year. The Conservatives refused to double their building target which is a paltry 50 a year despite selling 30 a year under right to buy.
“As admitted by our housing department to cabinet this month, more families are finding themselves on the street because there are not enough affordable homes.
“Five times more people are asking East Suffolk for help because they have lost their homes – 301 in East Suffolk between January and March 2022 compared to 54 in 2018. This figure has only doubled for England as a whole.
“Households placed in temporary accommodation has doubled from 23 to 41 and many are sofa surfing with friends and relatives. More families are finding themselves homeless.
“In my ward of Southwold, local families are being pushed onto the street as houses are bought for second homes or rented out as holiday lets.
“When you lose your home you can lose your job, be forced to move away from friends and a family support networks, or your kids can lose their school.
“To do this to young children in this day and age is just not right. We need more affordable housing urgently not cheap soundbites”
Cllr Beavan called for the rate of council house building to be increased at a September 2021 meeting, when Conservative Cllr Stuart Bird also asked whether the rate of 50 a year was “challenging or ambitious enough”.
The Suffolk Housing Board will monitor the programme’s success by looking at the reduction in B&B use and hotels, the number of empty homes returned to use and the re-housing of homeless people in the private sector.
The £20,000 comes from the government’s housing advisers programme, aimed at supporting councils to meet the housing needs in their areas through innovation.
Money from this programme has been given to 21 councils this year, not including Suffolk’s authorities.
The project will start in January and its first stage is expected to be finished next autumn.