Swindon Borough Council joins calls for social housing reforms
They say almost £650m is needed to 'save council housing'
Last updated 5th Sep 2024
A huge rescue package of more than £600m, plus a raft of other reforms is needed to ‘save council housing’ according to Swindon Borough Council, which has written to the government to tell it so.
The administration at Euclid Street has joined more than 100 other local authorities which still own and operate social housing, to warn the government that the system is broken and needs urgent action to repair.
A report sent to the deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who is also Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government says there are five actions which need immediate attention: “A new fair and sustainable HRA model – including an urgent £644m 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, and urgent action to restart stalled building projects, avoiding the loss of construction sector capacity and a market downturn.”
Councillor Janine Howarth, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “We were only too happy to support this national campaign because we need the Government’s support if we are to reform council housing and provide the funding councils need.
“Here in Swindon, we have 4,230 people on our housing waiting list, a backlog of repairs and we are facing a big challenge in ensuring our homes are energy efficient and meet modern standards.
“Something needs to change and the five solutions set out in the future of council housing report will go some way to putting us on the right path to deliver affordable and green homes for people in Swindon in line with our own and the new government’s ambitions.”
The report says local authority housing budgets are stretched with costs increasing rapidly, and it quotes analysis by Savills estate agents saying there will be a £2.2biiillon ‘black hole’ , and it says many councils will struggle to be able to maintain the houses they own, and they will be forced to sell more of their properties to fill that funding gap, putting extra pressure on housing waiting lists.
Swindon Borough Council owns around 10,000 flats and houses it offers for rent. Its budget for repairs to its housing stock this year is nearly £20miion out of a total social housing budget of £37.2m, which includes £5m paying back what was initially a housing debt imposed by central; government in 2012 of around £150m.