Council leaders from East Sussex have joined calls for urgent housing reform to avoid ‘the bleakest future for social housing’.
In a letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government, Angela Rayner MP, Councillor Zoe Nicholson, Leader of Lewes District Council and Councillor Stephen Holt, Leader of Eastbourne Borough Council have spoken in support of a report commissioned by Southwark Council into the challenges and risks facing council housing and potential solutions.
Councillor Nicholson and Councillor Holt have also called for Right to Buy to be abolished, citing the impact the policy continues to have on a dwindling housing stock.
Councillor Nicholson said: “Since Right to Buy was launched in the 1980s, the world has changed and, at a time when there is not enough social housing, this policy continues to further reduce the stock councils do have. There are other ways of supporting low-cost homeownership, which would not see a reduction to much-needed council housing, and these options should be explored further.”
Alongside Southwark’s ‘Securing the Future of Council Housing’ interim report, Lewes and Eastbourne have proposed nine additional recommendations that each leader hopes the government will also consider.
Councillor Holt said: “I applaud Southwark Council for their excellent and most timely report and encourage the government to take forward the solutions, including the implementation of a more financially sustainable HRA model.
“These are interconnected issues that without reform will lead to the bleakest future for social housing.”
Recommendations put forward by Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council focus on the implementation of a more effective, responsive, and robust temporary housing model, bridging the gap between housing, health and social care and enabling collaborative and accelerated housing retrofit and decarbonisation programmes.
