Leicester Council plans to acquire hundreds of new council homes

Over £26m is being invested by Leicester City Council to buy 371 new homes to tackle rising demand in the city.

The funding comes from £100m of capital set aside by the Council to support the delivery of affordable housing in Leicester and help increase the number of homes available through the Council’s housing register.

The purchases include a mix of bedsits, studios and one-bedroom flats, alongside several two and three-bedroom houses.

There are currently 6,366 households on the Council’s housing register, with the average waiting time between five months and two years.

City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: ‘There is a desperate need for more affordable housing in the city and we are constantly looking for new ways to provide it. This major investment will significantly increase our housing stock and help address the growing need for affordable homes.

‘The Government’s Right to Buy scheme means that we have been forced to sell thousands of council houses over the past 30 years. However, we can only keep half of the money raised through these sales and need to spend it within strict time limits, or we risk losing it all together. This means that it is absolutely vital that we reinvest this cash into replenishing our housing stock to help meet the desperate need for more affordable homes in the city.’

The Leicester & Leicestershire Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (HEDNA) 2017 concluded that the city needs a further 786 new units of affordable housing each year to meet need.

Each year, Leicester City Council loses an average of 400 council homes through the Right to Buy scheme. Over the last forty years, the city council’s housing stock has been reduced from 36,000 to 20,000 homes.

All existing occupiers affected by the purchase will become council housing tenants at the point of completion and will be asked to sign a tenancy agreement. Their homes will automatically be being added to the council’s ongoing programme of maintenance and energy efficiency improvements as part of the council’s commitment to meet its climate emergency targets.

Rents will also help boost the council’s rental income which is expected to be reinvested into maintaining and improving council housing stock.

In related news, new government statistics on affordable housing supply in England show that between March 2020 and April 2021 just one social home was built for every 195 households stuck on housing waiting lists.

Photo by Jamie Hunt