Call for Councils to Accept Private Housing as Section 106s

Councils should open up their social housing allocations to include low-income working people and start accepting private sector housing as meeting section 106 agreements, a new report has recommended. It forms part of a package of measures put forward by independent think tank the Resolution Foundation to attract institutional investment in the private rented sector to help those currently falling between the gap of homeownership and social housing. Attracting more institutional investment from pension funds and life insurance companies into the private rented sector, it says, would allow more rental accommodation to be built at a time when public funds are limited and the buy-to-let market is recovering only slowly. More importantly, it says, it would support a shift in the type of rental product that the sector offers. As part of moves to support this approach, it says councils should do more for low-income households by facilitating the build-to-let market. It says expanding waiting lists to low-earning working households and allowing private rented sector housing to meet section 106 agreements, could be critical to the expansion of the private rented sector through institutional investment. Download a copy of the report, Making a Rented House a Home, from the Resolution Foundation website.