Council Progresses With Housing Company

Affordable housing in the Winchester district is set to increase over the next few years. The city council is moving closer to establishing the Winchester Housing Trust – a wholly-owned housing company seeking to help people get on the property ladder. It will deliver units for sub-market rent let on non-secure tenancies, shared ownership accommodation and, where required, the sale of units for open market sale. Read more on the Hampshire Chronicle website.

https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/17934532.council-progresses-housing-company-help-build-affordable-homes/

Council Ends Controversial Agreement

Winchester Council has voted to terminate a development agreement that was called in by the previous secretary of state and led to the resignation of the council leader last year. The controversial 287-home Silver Hill development was frozen by Eric Pickles last year after the council agreed to allow the developer, TH Real Estate, to drop a 40% affordable housing commitment down to zero without running a new procurement exercise. The scheme was subject to a judicial review launched by a local campaign group. The Conservative council leader resigned in February last year following the High Court judgment that found the council had acted unlawfully. TH Real Estate is appealing the judgment and had requested the council delay terminating the agreement until at least nine months after its appeal proceedings had finished. Read more on the Winchester City Council website.

Town Halls Struggle with 'Bureaucratic' Homelessness Scheme

Fewer than 2% of councils have completed a ‘bureaucratic’ £2.3m flagship programme aimed at improving homelessness services, nearly two years after it was launched. The gold standard scheme is one of the government’s principle programmes designed to stop town hall practices such as placing homeless families into bed and breakfasts. Under the programme, councils are awarded ‘bronze’, ‘silver’ or ‘gold’ status, based on completing 10 ‘challenges’, such as not placing families in B&Bs for more than six weeks and preventing mortgage repossessions. However, figures supplied by Winchester Council, which is running the scheme on behalf of the CLG, reveal that no councils have reached ‘gold’ or ‘silver’ status and just five authorities out of 326 (1.5%) have been awarded ‘bronze’. Read more on Inside Housing.