APSE and ARCH welcome funding towards 'new generation' of council housing

The Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) has welcomed £122.6 million funding for councils to get building as an important next step towards ‘a new generation of council housing’.

Housing minister John Healey announced the names of 73 authorities to have secured Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) second round Local Authority New Build (LANB) funding earlier this week.

APSE member authorities featured heavily among the winning bids, to be matched by councils’ own prudential borrowing, which will take the number of properties build under the programme to almost 2,000.

The announcement follows APSE’s report for Unison, A New Generation of Council Housing, which showed that councils are well placed to meet national housing needs and argued that they should once again become mainstream providers of homes.

APSE chief executive, Paul O’Brien, said: "It is great news that councils will be able to get building to meet massive waiting lists and help boost local economies.

"This is an important next step in councils delivering a whole new generation of much-needed sustainable housing. We hope to see a wide-ranging programme of council building in the next Parliament with adequate funding and support for many more new, affordable homes across the UK."

Meanwhile, Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) members are celebrating success in the second round of bids for funds to build new council homes.

ARCH’s national chair, Councillor Milan Radulovic, housing portfolio holder at Broxtowe BC, which secured £490,000 in the first round of LANB funds and £743,000 in the second round to build 25 new properties in total, said: "ARCH has been campaigning for councils to fulfill their potential to build homes and hopes this is the start of a new positive era during which the role of councils as mainstream house-builders is revived.

"We at Broxtowe are delighted to be able to build high quality, sustainable, affordable homes and congratulate all those ARCH members now able to get building to tackle long waiting lists and meet their local communities’ needs."