Swindon is being urged to make the most of a major new government housing programme, with calls for the borough to secure investment and restart council housebuilding.
The government has announced the first wave of funding from its £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme, with almost £10 billion being allocated to councils, housing associations and other housing providers across England.
The funding is expected to support the delivery of more than 70,000 homes through 33 Strategic Partners which have secured long-term funding to build at scale.
Around 60 per cent of the homes delivered through these partnerships are expected to be for Social Rent, which is intended to provide some of the most affordable rented housing.
The announcement is being presented by ministers as a major step towards putting councils back at the centre of housebuilding, after decades in which council construction has fallen well short of historic levels.
Here in Swindon, Labour is calling on the council to restart its own housebuilding programme and secure Strategic Partner status as quickly as possible.
The government says the programme is aimed particularly at families facing long waits for housing or living in temporary accommodation. It points to figures showing almost 180,000 children are currently growing up without a permanent home.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said councils had played a major role in tackling previous housing shortages and could do so again with the right backing.
“No child should be raised in a hostel room and no family should wait ten years for a front door of their own. I have said from my first day in this job that everything starts with a good home,” he said.
“Nearly £10 billion will go to councils and housing associations to build genuinely affordable homes, most of them for social rent, in the places where families are waiting longest.”
He added: “Councils built this country out of a housing crisis once before. Backed properly, and trusted to get on with it, they will do it again.”
The announcement has been welcomed by Swindon Labour leader Councillor Jim Robbins, who said the previous Labour administration had concentrated heavily on improving the existing council housing stock.
“I’m really proud of the record amounts Labour invested in Council Housing during our time in office in Swindon, but it was focused almost exclusively on sorting the issues that we found in our Council Housing,” he said.
According to Councillor Robbins, £250 million was committed to bringing Swindon’s council homes back up to a decent standard after years of under-investment.
“We wanted to build more houses, but couldn’t, due to the amounts needed to sort out the problems we found. It is great that the Government have stepped up with this support,” he said.
He said the council now needed to maintain its investment in existing homes while working with the government to deliver new properties.
“We need the new Administration to show that they have learnt the lessons of their previous ignoring of Council Housing that led to us being criticised by the Housing Regulator, keep our investment plans for improving our current homes, and work with the Labour Government to build the new houses that we desperately need for Swindon families.”
Councillor Robbins also called for Swindon to make sure it does not miss out on investment being directed towards areas with combined authorities and elected mayors.
“It is also clear that the bulk of Government investment is going to mayoral areas, we need Cllr Sumner to be visibly lobbying for Swindon to be at the heart of the Thames Valley and bringing in the investment Swindon needs,” he said.
“We can’t let Oxfordshire Lib Dems force Swindon and the wider region to miss out on Government investment going to other areas.”
The government says the new programme will give councils greater certainty over future housing investment, with decisions increasingly being made closer to the communities where new homes are needed.
For Swindon, the challenge will now be turning that opportunity into actual homes – and ensuring the town is in a position to benefit from the next wave of funding.
