Senior councillors in Leeds have approved a 10-year strategy designed to open a new chapter in the city’s affordable housing story.
The Leeds Affordable Housing Strategy (LAHS) 2026-2036 builds on a previous council action plan, which delivered almost 1,900 affordable homes between 2022 and 2025.
Approved by the council’s executive board on Wednesday, the new strategy predicts by 2036 Leeds could deliver 1,500 affordable homes each year through council and partner initiatives.
Steps to achieve this include:
- Using council resources, including Right to Buy receipts, to build or acquire homes through the Council Housing Growth Programme (CHGP)
- Leveraging funding such as the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme
- Ensuring the Leeds Local Plan contains flexible policies to boost housing growth
- Supporting housing associations via grant funding and council land assets
- Partnering with public and private sectors to maximise affordable housing in mixed-use neighbourhoods
The strategy highlights recent projects, including Throstle Rec in Middleton, which delivered 176 homes, including the 60-apartment Gascoigne House extra care facility, and Leonora House with 58 social rent flats.
Of the nearly 1,900 homes built between 2022 and 2025, around 25% were delivered directly by the council, 40% by registered providers and third-sector partners and 35% through private developers’ planning agreements.
Cllr Mary Harland, Leeds City Council’s executive member for housing, said: ‘Meeting the housing needs of people in Leeds is at the heart of the council’s mission to tackle inequality, build thriving communities and provide opportunities that work for everyone.
‘The results achieved in recent years have been really impressive…but we are fully aware that there is still much to do. The vision set out in the Leeds Affordable Housing Strategy shows how the council, in collaboration with partners, can continue to move forward over the next decade and deliver even more of the kind of homes that will have a transformational impact on people’s lives.’
Rachel Dennis, chair of the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership, added: ‘This new Leeds Affordable Housing Strategy gives us a clear and ambitious route for delivering more affordable homes across Leeds.
‘The ambition set out in the strategy provides the certainty and confidence our members need to invest in the city and accelerate the delivery of affordable homes over the next decade.’
Image: Gary Butterfield/UnSplash
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