The Royal Borough of Greenwich has put forward a range of new housing proposals to ensure it delivers and improves council homes while tackling the ongoing housing crisis as part of its annual council housing budget proposals, subject to approval by Full Council on 26 February.
Since Greenwich Builds began in 2018, the Council’s flagship home-building programme has successfully delivered hundreds of homes for local people on its housing register.
However, due to increasing costs needed to build more new homes and better deals on the market, the Council now proposes a combination of building homes and buying them from the open market. This could save the Council £5million by purchasing around 650 to 700 more homes for tenants on the housing register, at a lower cost than it would take to build them itself.
The Council also proposes to extend part of its five-year £430million Capital Repairs Programme – launched last year to upgrade its council homes – up to 2030 so that money can be reprioritised where it may be needed the most. Under the proposals, the Council would reallocate spending over the next two to three years, to prioritise work that may result from new regulations for high rise buildings.
If the proposals are agreed, essential work that uses a government grant to make homes more energy efficient would continue as planned, while other internal improvements to kitchens and bathrooms and external decoration would be carried out in later phases.
Cllr Pat Slattery, Cabinet member for Housing Management, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness said: “Despite 14 years of underfunding by the previous government, our recently announced draft budget outlines how we plan to deliver positive change while continuing to deliver high quality services. This includes being able to provide our residents with the homes they need and deserve and means we have no choice but to raise rents by 2.7 per cent, but they will still be some of the lowest in London.
“To adapt to increasing challenges we’ve had to look at new and innovative ways we can reduce costs while securing more new council homes for families that need one and ensuring our existing council homes continue to be safe and secure. Subject to approval, these proposals would ensure that we use our funds in the most efficient and effective way possible to continue to deliver the housing that our residents so desperately need.”
Other key proposals include:
£200,000 for the Hardship Fund in 2025/26, to support tenants in financial difficulty
an increase in rents for social homes by 2.7 per cent (September’s Consumer Prices Index + 1%), the maximum allowed by government. This will increase the average weekly rental charge by £2.97 to an average rent per week of £112.93.
an increase in Tenant Service Charges for council homes by 2.7 per cent, resulting in an increase of 47p per week. This will increase the average service charge to £17.72
an increase in garage rents by £1 a week, equivalent to between 7 per cent and 9 per cent depending on the type of garage.
The proposals will go to the Council’s Cabinet on 17 February and Full Council on 26 Februa
