Housing strategy
Housing is fundamental to the wellbeing of people, their families and their wider communities. Improving housing standards, options, conditions and neighbourhoods within the borough is essential for enhancing economic growth, tackling vulnerabilities, improving outcomes for our children including their educational attainment, health and wellbeing, and community cohesion.
Our housing strategy sets out our strategic housing priorities and details a range of actions we intend to take in partnership with relevant partners and stakeholders to support residents to access good quality, suitable and affordable housing while preventing homelessness and rough sleeping.
We recognise that the most dominant issues currently facing the borough and the United Kingdom are the challenges of Covid-19. It has brought to the fore housing affordability, rough sleeping and homelessness. This housing strategy has attempted to capture the more permanent impacts of Covid-19, which are likely to require a strategic response.
Our housing priorities are thematic, cross cutting and we acknowledge the correlation between different policies areas and how one will interplay with another. These are:
- housing, health and wellbeing partnerships
- housing and economic recovery
- homelessness and rough sleeping
Early consultation has been undertaken with partners and stakeholders, to get a 'sensecheck'. A steer from them about the themes and the priorities, before, drafting a detailed strategy, to ensure that the strategy addresses the most pertinent issues and not those that were ‘perceived’ to be important.
Councillor Gill Heesom
Portfolio holder - community safety and wellbeing