Question
Providing affordable housing is understood to be one of the Council's key objectives. So, with the Cap on Council borrowing having now been lifted on the amount local authorities can borrow to fund social housing, how does WBC intend to make maximum use of this initiative aimed at increasing the number of affordable homes within the Borough?
Minutes:
Providing affordable housing is understood to be one of the Council's key objectives. So, with the Cap on Council borrowing having now been lifted on the amount local authorities can borrow to fund social housing, how does WBC intend to make maximum use of this initiative aimed at increasing the number of affordable homes within the Borough?
Answer
The Council is already delivering significant numbers of new affordable homes through the planning process and the housing companies. Last year, as Stuart mentioned a minute ago, Wokingham Housing Limited completed over 120 new affordable homes, which were funded through a combination of commuted sums, government grants, and on-lending from the Council. The lifting of the HRA borrowing cap provides another option for us to explore in the future.
I can confirm that the Council has engaged financial consultants to work with Officers and stakeholders to develop the new Housing Revenue Account business plan. This will take into consideration opportunities given by the removal of the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap and inform the development of the Housing Strategy for 2019 onwards.
Supplementary Question:
You have some 1400 people on your waiting list at the moment and you have 35% of the 13,500 houses which should be built around Wokingham, designated as affordable. Is there any reason why the Council cannot reduce this waiting list to zero, unless it is the determination of developers to build only 4 and 5 bedroom houses, which are obviously going to make them more money, and to pay their way out of affordable housing by handing money over to Wokingham to build affordable housing well away from their development?
Supplementary Answer:
Firstly, I would like to straighten out your points on the waiting list. As you may know there are four bands in the waiting list for housing priority. Band 1 is the highest priority. As of 26 October there were 90 people on that list. That is people who have a statutory overcrowding or have a really serious need for housing. Band 2 has currently got 68 people on the list and again these are people who are in overcrowded housing and really need proper housing. For Band 3 we have got 196 people, and these are in significant health and social welfare need. Band 4 however, can have anyone throughout the country regardless of whether they have got a local link or not, in it. They are already adequately housed, they are in shared accommodation but it is not overcrowded, they are out of the area, or they are deliberately worsening their circumstances. There is 1,086 people on the housing waiting list in that category. So when you look at housing waiting list numbers you need to apply some intelligence and some extra information about how the waiting list is made up.
We are certainly committed to building more affordable housing. We have built a lot of affordable housing through our companies last year. We use money, both borrowings which we can get at relatively low rates, and also money from developers, which we reinvest in housing using our own land. We quite often take commuted sums from developers where otherwise it would be half a house that could be built or one house. Housing Associations are not willing to manage such small pockets of houses in bigger estates but we are looking at the moment at opportunities for our housing companies to manage those on behalf of the developers. I can reassure you that we are very, very keen to provide more affordable housing. We have done a lot to improve the situation in Wokingham but there is a lot more to do. Do not take housing numbers at face value.