Over 100 of England’s council landlords call for the new government to save council homes

Over 100 of England’s council landlords call for the new government to save council homes.

A cross-party coalition of over 100 council landlords jointly publishes five solutions for the government to ‘secure the future of England’s council housing’.

The Councils, including Brentwood Borough Council, warn that England’s council housing 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 new Deputy Prime Minister - has led to over 80 more councils backing their recommendations and signing the final report.

This 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 to realise the new government’s social housing ambitions.

It explains how an unsustainable financial model and erratic national policy changes have squeezed the council’s housing budgets and sent costs soaring. A new analysis from Savills shows that they will face a £2.2bn ‘black hole’ by 2028. 

They warn that unless more is done soon, most council 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, which has 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 urgently restoring lost income and unlocking 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 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 Vicky Davies, the Deputy Leader of the Council (LD -Pilgrim’s Hatch) who is vice chair of the Health, Housing and Community Committee, said: “As Liberal Democrats, we are deeply conscious of the needs of local families in Brentwood, not least in my ward of Pilgrim’s Hatch, who are waiting anxiously for social housing,”

I’m also clear, from my casework and those of my fellow Liberal Democrat councillors, that housing stock needs investment, while the financial model for Council housing needs to change.

“This joint report clearly outlines what is needed to make a difference. We are working with a coalition of councils representing every corner of England, and we are united in our determination to ensure our residents have decent and affordable homes.”

Having set out plans to regenerate Council housing with the building of carbon-neutral homes at Brookfield Close, Hutton and Harewood Road, Pilgrims Hatch, which are a welcome increase within our council housing stock, we want to be able to go further and upgrade our council housing and build new social homes for local people.”

Councillor Davies concluded: “Our five solutions offer the new government an opportunity to change direction - lifting our council homes to modern, safe, healthy and green standards and delivering the council homes that our communities urgently need.  By investing in them together, we can transform lives for the better for generations to come.”