Five-year council housing plan in Powys rubber-stamped
A five-year plan to build affordable housing and in Powys, the first council houses in the county since the 1980s have been rubber-stamped.
A report went before Powys County Council’s cabinet on Tuesday to seek approval for the housing scheme, which aims to develop new council-rented homes and develop low cost ownership houses.
The report, put forward by portfolio holder for housing, Jonathan Wilkinson, said since 2014 the house service had been creating a land bank by buying land when the opportunity arose and by participating in the Strategic Asset Management Plan (STAMP) process and acquiring land from other services.
The housing service has assessed up to 90 different sites across Powys and the service is currently assessing the viability of the preferred 39 areas of land. The service, in the last 12 months, has bought land, the site of the former Red Dragon public house and the Bowling Green site in Newtown.
In 2017, the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) acquired seven properties, some via the open market purchase and some from other council services. In addition, in October 2017, the HRA will buy six one-bedroom flats in Crickhowell, developed on the council’s behalf by Melin Homes.
These will be the first new purpose-built council homes in Powys since the 1980s.
The authority plans to deliver 85 new council homes over the next four years.
It was proposed by Mr Wilkinson the council take on the five-year plan, to “take advantage of the increased capital funding made available by the Welsh Government”.
Land currently within the ownership of the HRA, subject to due diligence, is deliverable now and means the council can apply for the increased capital finance the Welsh Government has made available for the next two years. The housing service also applied for £2.25 million Innovative Finance Grant from the Welsh Government to help meet the development costs of the Bowling Green site in Newtown.
It was proposed that a project board is established, which will include representatives of housing, finance, commercial services, legal services, planning services, regeneration, property and specialist design/build services in order to develop a Powys Housing Development Framework.
