Council sets out new plans for increasing affordable homes stock

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

A Welsh council hopes a new policy will help provide more housing for people on the local authority’s lengthy waiting lists.

There are around 5,500 people waiting to be rehoused in Caerphilly county borough, as well as growing demands on the council to tackle homelessness.

Caerphilly Council has put forward a new property and land acquisitions policy, which it described as a “robust” system for bringing more homes into its housing stock.

Aim

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s aim is to provide an extra 100 affordable homes each year over the next decade.

At a meeting this week (Tuesday October 29), members of the council’s housing committee heard acquisitions to date had proved “costly and time consuming” at times.

“Despite significant progress made by the council in delivering its ambitious new build programme, the national housing crisis continues, and homes cannot be built quickly enough to meet the ever-increasing demand for affordable housing,” Cllr Shayne Cook, the cabinet member for housing, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“With around 5,500 applications currently registered on the Caerphilly Common Housing Register, we recognise that we need a range of innovative tools at our disposal to help meet local need – this policy sets out some of these.”

Guidelines

The new policy will set out standards of housing quality and energy efficiency, and the council will also have to make sure any properties it considers buying meet at least one of its “strategic housing priorities”, such as being in a suitable location, or being a type of property for which there is “specific housing need”.

It is hoped these guidelines will give the council an advantage when applying for external funding “in a strategic and timely manner”.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet members are expected to approve the new acquisitions policy later in November.