Council invests over £5m to continue council housing drive

November 4, 2019 by Leigh-on-sea.com

Over £5m is being invested to provide more local council housing. 

Cabinet councillors will receive an update on the major investment at their meeting next week (Cabinet, 5^th November). 

So far thirteen homes have been bought on the open market, with a further nine under offer and with solicitors, totalling £5.3m of investment. Thirty percent of this is from right to buy receipts received by the council.

The properties will be added to the council’s housing stock and provide vital homes locally, with some families who are currently in temporary accommodation already identified and set to move in before Christmas.

Cllr Ian Gilbert, leader of the council, says: “I am delighted to see the speed and progress that is being made on this vital project to provide more affordable council housing across the Borough. 

“As a joint administration we promised to provide new social housing and key worker housing as a priority and we are already delivering on that.

“If all nine homes under offer go through, in a short space of time, we will have invested over £5m and added 22 new homes to our council housing stock.

“Most pleasing though is the fact that we have already identified some local families in temporary accommodation who will be in a position to move into their new homes before Christmas.”

As part of the report, councillors will also be asked to agree allocating £450,000 from developer contributions to expand its modern methods of construction (MMC) pilot project to include an underutilised garage site in Archer Avenue, Southchurch, which could accommodate an energy efficient shared building of between four to six bedrooms and office accommodation.

They will also receive an update on the council’s housing and development pipeline – a combination of council owned and private sites that could be developed in phases to provide further new housing across the Borough. 

The full report is available to view here (item 5): https://democracy.southend.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=130&MId=3425&Ver=4

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