On Monday 14th March, Southampton City Council approved the development of a new framework for delivering affordable housing in the city which focuses on the disposal of council-owned land to affordable housing providers to deliver much-needed new homes.
In April 2021, Southampton was identified as one of 20 cities nationally to increase housing targets by 35% as part of the Government’s cities and urban centres uplift, which aims to deliver 300,000 homes per year. For Southampton, this means an additional 6,842 homes, a proportion of which will be affordable, are needed taking the target for new homes in the city up to 26,391 by 2040.
With wait times for affordable housing in Southampton ranging from just under four years up to 11 years, Southampton City Council has been working on a strategy to increase the pace of delivery with Cabinet now approving the development of a framework of preferred Housing Provider partners to deliver affordable housing within the city as part of a new programme to enable the delivery of homes on council-owned land.
Councillor Jeremy Moulton, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Growth at Southampton City Council, said: “Our ambition is to deliver 8,000 affordable homes by 2040. This new affordable housing framework will play a part in enabling us to do this as we will be able to deliver housing at a much faster rate and where there are sites that are already vacant or cleared, this will make development easier and quicker.
“Not only will we be able to increase the number of affordable homes and reduce waiting times for those on the housing register, but we will also be able to provide better opportunities for people in Southampton to step onto the housing ladder through schemes such as shared ownership.
“This is an exciting time for housing providers who wish to deliver homes in Southampton and contribute to the delivery of new and better homes for all.”
Next week, the Council will be launching the Affordable Homes Framework at an online event. Affordable housing providers will be given information on housing demand, the framework proposal and the process providers will need to go through to become a member of the Southampton City Council affordable housing provider framework, giving them exclusivity to tender on sites for housing. It is anticipated that the framework will be in place with successful framework partners announced later this year.
Header image showing a housebuilding construction site ©Metromaps/AdobeStock
