Rotherham looks to build more council housing

Rotherham Borough Council is to discuss plans to build more local authority homes across the borough next week.

The cabinet is due to meet on Monday (21 September) to look at plans for new homes on council-owned sites, across five parts of the borough.

The earmarked sites in Treeton, Ravenfield, Thrybergh and Wingfield likely to be developed in the coming year, with sites in Kiveton Park, Thurcroft and West Melton amongst others envisaged to be developed in the following year.

The homes have been proposed for early development in 2020/21 as part of an additional £65m investment for housing growth over the next five years.

If given the green light, the programme will bring the council’s total commitment to new council home building up to £130m.

‘We have already set out an ambition to deliver hundreds of new, affordable council homes for local residents, and this latest report sets out some of the smaller sites that we intend to deliver over the next two years,’ said cabinet member for housing, Cllr Dominic Beck.

‘There are still thousands of people waiting for a council home, so it’s right that we are making the biggest investment in new council properties for many years in order to help local people get the properties they need right here in our community.

‘Going forward we will continue to work innovatively with developers, housing associations and funders to find the best solutions for continued development,’ he added.

The development of individual schemes will be subject to consultation with the public and local ward councillors.

The housing growth programme has already seen the creation of a number of homes across the borough including:

• Completed Site Clusters programme with 217 high quality homes across the borough
• 58 homes at The Bellows in Rawmarsh
• Work continues on 171 homes in the town centre

Photo Credit – PhotoMIX-Company (Pixabay)