Birmingham 'to roll back the years' with new council housing pledge

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Local Government

Birmingham's head of housing John Lines wants to 'roll back the years' and build up to 500 new council homes a year in the city.

Under new proposals announced by Housing Minister Margaret Beckett, councils would be able to keep all the rental income from any homes they build, as well as keep the receipts from any of those homes which are later sold through Right to Buy.

Councils currently only build a few hundred council homes a year, with the majority of new social homes being built by registered social landlords.

But Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said she wanted local authorities to play a bigger role in the delivery of council housing and invited councils interested in building more homes to discuss their ideas with the Homes and Communities Agency.

Renowned for its innovative approach to housing provision, Birmingham is one of the first local authorities to demonstrate its commitment to building new council housing by turning 100 acres of brownfield land into affordable homes.

Councillor Lines, however, insists Birmingham City Council is not going to wait for the Government to complete its consultation on the propsoals as it wants to act straight away.

In an interview with the Birmingham Mail, Councillor Lines (pictured, right) explained: “We are rolling back the years. We need hundreds, if not thousands of new homes, to satisfy the demand and needs of our citizens.

“We have had enough of talking about it, consultation papers and conversations.

“We cannot wait for the Government. With them the cheque is always in the post. So Birmingham will go it alone.

“A century ago Birmingham led the way in council housing and we will do so again.”

According to the newspaper, plans have been drawn up for a Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust to run the project and manage the homes.

Elsewhere, council housing chiefs have given a mixed reaction to the Government's plans.

Steve Warran, head of housing services for Exeter City Council, said the proposed changes would have little effect and do not go far enough.

Mr Warran told the Exeter Express and Echo: "We welcome the proposals in principle, but it is difficult to see this as a long-term solution. A return to the mass council house building of the 50s and 60s is not going to happen.

"At the moment 30 per cent of the rent a tenant pays the council goes back to central government, and that causes us difficulty in terms of being able to reinvest in housing.

"But being able to keep that extra 30 per cent of rent for a new property is not going to manage and maintain that property for the long term, so we won't build more houses just because of these proposals. It is not economically viable.

"These new proposals will allow us to do something, but by and large we will still rely on housing associations and private developers to build the vast majority of affordable housing.

"More has to be done to change the system. What we would like is a fairer settlement."

But the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), the professional body for people working in housing and communities, says it welcomed the Government's proposals.

Sarah Webb, CIH Chief Executive said: “This is great news.  We are delighted to support anything that can help build more houses.

"The need for three million new homes has not gone away during the recession; there were already 1.6 million households on the waiting list before the recent dramatic rise in numbers of repossessions.

“Many of us have worked long and hard for many years to secure these changes to local authority rental income and access to finance.  The promised changes can provide a much needed boost to housing in these challenging times.

“The detail will be important and there are some risks involved. We know that over the years many local authorities have lost the capacity and skills to develop new homes - they will need to work quickly to build on existing and forge new partnerships with housing associations, lenders and private house builders - time is of the essence.

“It is equally important that we do not lose or undermine the existing expertise and delivery of affordable housing by housing associations working with local government partners – remember this provided over 30,000 social homes last year.

"Ultimately what matters most is more, good quality homes being built for families - not the nature of the developer.

“It is also essential that these reforms are put in place quickly otherwise there might actually be delays as land that could be built on is held back for when an authority is able to do it itself.

"We need to make sure that this does not happen and that the right deals are put in place to get things moving.”

Ms Webb concluded: “Finally, whether an authority wants to build new homes itself or continue to work through housing associations we mustn’t lose sight of services to existing tenants and communities.

"New homes are important, but the numbers are small compared with existing homes - the Prime Minister’s announcement about more support for tenants facing unemployment in these tough times is just as important.”