The Swindon Labour Group will be committing to build 300 council homes per year as one of their flagship policies for the 2014 Local Elections.
The Swindon Labour Group will be committing to build 300 council homes per year as one of their flagship policies for the 2014 Local Elections.
The Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, said that it was very important that the Council took a lead in ensuring more affordable homes are built due to the 15,000 households currently on the Council’s housing waiting list and because of the need to re-accommodate those tenants affected by the bedroom tax. On top of this, the Labour Group say that a significant council house building programme would provide a boost to the local economy and would lead to the Council receiving more income from the government through the New Homes Bonus (the New Homes Bonus is a government initiative which provides income to councils for each new house built).
In 2012/13 only 163 new affordable housing units were delivered, compared to 411 affordable housing units being delivered in 2007/08.
The Labour Group Leader said that at current interest rates, council house rents more than cover the cost of borrowing charges, so it makes sense to build council homes at the moment.
The Labour Group Leader said the key challenge in meeting this target would be getting around the Council Housing Revenue Account’s borrowing cap which only leaves the Council’s Housing Revenue Account able to borrow a limited sum of money. However he said other councils have been creating new council-owned housing companies to get around the Council’s Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap and that this was one way the Labour Group could meet its housing targets.
The Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, said: “Building more council homes will benefit Swindon in many different ways.
It means more vulnerable people will be adequately housed, while reducing the housing benefit bill due to there being a reduced need to use expensive private landlords. And it will boost local economic growth and jobs, while being self-financing because the additional rental income from council homes will cover more than the interest charges from further borrowing.
Because of the Council’s Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap, in order to meet our own targets we will need to think creatively about how we finance these new homes, however we believe we have the ideas and will to do this. And Councils like Liverpool Council and Southwark Council in London have already committed to building a similar number of housing units as to what we’re proposing so it is being done elsewhere.
Swindon is currently in a state of crisis in terms of the number of affordable housing units being built and this is having a negative effect on the local economy not to mention on tenants desperately in need of affordable housing. Only a radical Labour administration in Swindon can fix this crisis all of the Conservatives making.”