Council's 30-year housing plan agreed following HRA reform

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing

Southampton City Council's 30-year housing plan has been given the green light by its cabinet following the Government's reform to council housing finance.

The scrapping of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) gives councils the chance to plan their own housing budget for the first time.

Previously, the Government took all the money from council rents giving back a proportion each year.

In return, however, councils will have to pay off the debt associated with their stock from when it was first built.

In Southampton’s case it will be £73.8m but that is set against the £8m currently lost each year to central government under the HRA system.

The plans include £20m to support the city’s estate regeneration programme and £115m to improve council homes in the next four years alone.

Councillor Peter Baillie, cabinet member for housing, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to develop an exciting long-term plan that will make a major difference to our residents’ lives.

"It will enable us to maintain and improve existing council homes - raising our improvement standards to ensure that our tenants have weather tight, warm homes with modern facilities. It also means that we can drive forward our estates regeneration programme to improve our neighbourhoods and build more good quality homes across the city and we have also put aside £100m for stock renewal.

"The new housing plan will to seek to show that with careful management we can invest much more in residents' homes as well as ensuring that any debt accrued over the 30 years will be fully repaid.

"Southampton City Council like other local authorities who wish to self–finance has to pay the Government a transfer fee which is different for each authority - in Southampton’s case it will be £73.8 m but that is set against the £8m currently lost each year to central government."