Agenda item

To receive an update on the Housing Investment Programme & Business Plan.

The Cabinet Members for Neighbourhoods, Planning and Sustainability; and Highways, Housing and Enforcement (Deputy Leader) presented a report by the Director for Prosperity and Investment, which presented for consideration and approval a new Business Plan for the Housing Investment Programme, which included a series of pipeline schemes for investment.

Councillor Overton said that he wanted to present, in particular, the work of Nuplace and Telford and Wrekin Homes because this programme showed how housing policy could deliver high quality housing alongside social value, regeneration and long-term financial responsibility at the same time.

This was an overarching joined-up approach, and a decision to build refurbished homes for the Council's own housing company was deliberate since it allowed it to build on brownfield land rather than greenfield, to raise standards in the private rented sector, to provide good quality homes with security of tenure, and to generate long-term income that helped protect vital Council services. By entering the private rented market, the Council was not competing to the bottom but was setting the standard.

This programme played a direct role in tackling rogue and irresponsible landlords by offering tenants a genuine alternative, well-built new and refurbished home. Professional management and stability in doing so helped drive up expectations across the whole market and supported the Council’s wider enforcement work. The Housing Investment Programme had delivered hundreds of new homes and by emptying redundant properties back into the use through Telford Wrekin Homes, the Council generated burn-through sites and delivered accessible and adaptable homes that supported independence and care needs. It had also created jobs, apprenticeships and a strong Council asset base that generated not just income year after year, but also capital growth.

This programme was a clear example of values in action. It protected residents by raising standards and tackling poor quality housing. It protected neighbourhoods by regenerating eclectic sites, and it protected Council finances by building a growing asset base that supported frontline services. It also showed the Council cared, provided secure homes where people could put their roots, support older residents, families and vulnerable people, and link housing with health, well-being and independence. It was also about investing in the Brownfield land, in high quality homes that lasted, and in a model that paid back into the Council, in order that it could continue to deliver its services that residents relied upon, such as  adult social care packages and children's care placements, but also supporting the Council to make sure it continued to collect green waste for free or free parking in the borough’s towns.

Feedback from residents moving into these homes demonstrated that they felt secure for the first time in years, families were benefiting from better quality homes, and residents no longer worried about short-term lets or poor conditions. These lived experiences showed why this programme mattered and looking ahead, the future of the Housing Investment Programme was clear. The Council would continue to look to expand new build and refurbishment, strengthen links between housing, care and health and make time for financial discipline while continuing to raise standards and challenge its landlords.

The Council was also delivering sustainable homes as it continued its focus on low-carbon homes on sustainable sites, PV's, EVs and future homes pilots.

When the programme was first proposed, it had been opposed by the Conservative Group. However, as the homes had been delivered, standards raised, income generated and the community improved, there had been a clear recognition across the chamber of the positives this idea had delivered, and it reflected on the Council’s belief in protecting care and investing to create that better borough through new and refurbished homes.

Councillor Healy said that the Housing Investment Programme had been established to meet housing needs, but it was much broader than that since the Council made sure that it connected everything that it did across the whole of the local authority in order to create that better borough.

It was important to remind people that the Council did not set up this programme to be a social landlord, but worked in partnership with its social and local partners around that, and it was very much about raising standards in the private rented sector, giving security of tenure with a quality and responsive repair service to the borough’s residents.

Through the programme, young families had been able to move into good quality, secure homes.  Families with members of their family with disabilities had been able to move into adapted homes that met their needs.  As the portfolio had developed, the Council was building more sustainable homes with solar PV, higher levels of insulation, EV charge points, and more recently air source heat pumps, which demonstrated to the private sector that this could be done, it could be delivered, it could be viable, and also that helped reduce the running costs of these homes for the Council’s residents, which subsequently helped with the cost of living.

The Council had also redeveloped listed buildings and challenging sites that had been stalled for many years, which again demonstrated to the housing sector that the Council could conserve and protect its heritage as well as create good quality homes of buildings like the Gower, Walm Walker Street and the former nursery at Kettley Bank, all of which had been repurposed into providing unique and quite beautiful homes.

With Telford and Wrekin homes, the Council was acquiring empty properties that might otherwise blight some of the borough’s communities and was refurbishing these in order that they continued to be lived in and supported that redevelopment in the borough’s communities.

This was more than just a housing plan; it was about a whole range of benefits as well as the income that came in to support those front-line services. It was about providing homes for life, supporting the Council’s residents, providing jobs through the actual work on these homes and the apprenticeship and skills development that were part of this programme. It was about protecting the environment and it was about revitalising the borough’s neighbourhoods.

The Leader of the Conservative Group said what he had seen on a tour around some of the developments had been extremely good, particularly with existing buildings and buildings of heritage.  He was impressed by the whole situation and getting brownfield sites into use and to use them for housing like this was important. 

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group said that the Council was raising the standards for rented accommodation and was glad that it was involved in this because it also kept the building skills alive; by employing people locally and he welcomed the initiative. 

RESOLVED – that Cabinet:

a)    noted progress made in relation to the delivery of the Housing Investment Programme including;

· Delivery of 669 dwellings across sixteen sites, with a further 121  

   under construction, bringing the portfolio to 790 and providing   

   homes for over 1,750 local people.

· Diversification of the portfolio to include smaller, larger,  

   accessible and adaptable properties to ensure resident’s needs

   are met as they change over time. Housing Investment  

   Programme Update & Business Plan

 · Delivery of low carbon homes on sustainable sites, 

   incorporating solar panels, EV chargers, biodiversity

    improvements and blue and green infrastructure.

· Regeneration of circa 48 acres of brownfield land, equivalent to

   27 professional football pitches.

· Providing a high-quality tenancy and property management

   service, with 86% of tenants confirming they would recommend

   Nuplace to friends and family.

· Generating net cumulative income to the Council of £13.8m to

   help protect frontline services and securing capital growth of

   31% against the £93m invested (2024/25).

b)   considered and approved the draft Housing Investment Programme Business Plan 2026, including investment in a further circa 300 new and refurbished additional homes

c)      delegated authority be granted to the Chief Executive as Chair of the Housing Investment Board to implement the proposals contained within the report and the associated Business Plan 2026.