Councillors are discussing the city’s draft housing strategy at next week’s Cabinet meeting.
Titled ‘Homes for everyone’, the draft housing strategy, sets our vision for housing services and support and outlines 5 priorities for the next 5 years around our ambition to tackling the housing crisis in the city.
The strategy’s ambition covers more than council housing services. The aim is to shape and deliver a shared long-term agenda with residents, local partner organisations and the wider community.
The city faces a number of significant challenges in terms of housing, and Brighton & Hove has been significantly impacted by the national housing crisis. There is a shortage of homes which meet the needs of our residents and rents and house prices are increasing faster than incomes.
Many properties, across all types of tenure, need work to ensure they are suitable, safe and sustainable, both now and into the future.
There have also been major legislative and regulatory changes impacting social housing landlords following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. This means that the council must invest in improving the quality of its homes and estates and to prioritise building and fire safety improvements.
The housing strategy and its aim to improve homes for everyone is therefore a key strand in the delivery of the Council Plan 2023 to 2027 setting out a vision for a better Brighton & Hove for all.
The 5 priorities identified in the strategy aim to help focus our efforts to deliver accessible, affordable and high-quality homes for everyone in Brighton & Hove are to:
The initial draft housing strategy was developed following a number of engagement exercises with council services and key partners.
We then held a public consultation, which ran for 11 weeks from March to June this year, and included in-person workshops. We received 347 responses from a mix of residents, groups and organisations through the online survey.
The feedback we received showed strong support for the proposed priorities and areas for action. There was also detailed feedback on the content of the strategy.
The responses fed into shaping the final version and amends were made to both the strategy and the accompanying action plan. We are also looking at issues raised on the possibility of lobbying central government for additional powers or resources.
If agreed by councillors at the Cabinet meeting, the housing strategy will go to Full Council on 24 October for the final decision.
The recommendation includes agreement that a report on the progress made in delivering the Housing Strategy 2024 to 2029 comes back to Cabinet every year.
Councillor Gill Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing & New Homes, said: “Homes for everyone is central to the council’s vision for a better Brighton & Hove for all.
“This draft housing strategy sets out our goal to deliver accessible, genuinely affordable, and high-quality homes for everyone in Brighton & Hove.
“However, we recognise there are significant challenges to contend with. We have increasing demand for our services, an ageing council home stock, and a raft of new legal duties to comply with, compounded by years of lack of investment.
“But this will not stop us, we are committed to investing heavily to modernise and upgrade our housing conditions and services and this includes developing a one stop homeless hub to help improve the experience of those in need.
“We are also absolutely committed to improving conditions in the private rental sector by introducing landlord licencing and a zero-tolerance approach to rogue landlords to give tenants better protections.
“It is well known that housing supply and affordability is a very important issue for the city, with many people unable to afford a mortgage or pay their rent and sadly, far too many people in emergency or temporary accommodations.
“Hence, a major aim is to increase the number of new genuinely affordable homes being built in the city, with ambition to deliver at least 2,000 genuinely affordable homes and hopefully many more.
“We are resolute in our ambition to achieve a better Brighton & Hove for all and, despite the challenges, are confident the aims set out in this strategy will help us achieve our goal of accessible, affordable and high-quality homes for everyone.
“This strategy is intended to be a living document and we will be reporting annually on our progress in achieving our aims.”
