Brighton & Hove City Council is calling on the government to change the rules on councils building homes to help the worsening housing situation in the city and elsewhere
Following a Notice of Motion about replacing “truly affordable rented housing” at a Full Council meeting in October, Chief Executive Geoff Raw has written to Chancellor Philip Hammond and the Secretary of State for Department for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, calling for an end to the borrowing cap on HRA (Housing Revenue Account) borrowing, to enable new homes to be built through prudential borrowing.
He is also calling for a commitment to allow councils to retain sufficient income from the sale of higher value homes to fund its replacement with a socially rented council house.
The Notice of Motion was proposed by Councillor David Gibson, spokesperson for Housing & New Homes for the Green Group of Councillors – and was seconded by Councillor Tom Druitt. The motion was carried unanimously.
Brighton & Hove currently has more than 23,000 households on the housing register, with 1,800 people in temporary accommodation and a serious shortage of affordable homes.
The city’s Housing Strategy also identifies that “renting or buying a good quality home in Brighton & Hove is a challenge for 88,000 households”.
The council’s innovative New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme has ambitions to build at least 500 new homes on council housing land – with around 200 already complete or underway; and the council is currently investigating options setting up housing delivery partnerships to develop thousands more.
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