Council to build 300 new homes in bid to replace houses bought by tenants
THREE hundred council houses costing about £24 million are set to be built in Derby over the next three years in a bid to replace those sold to tenants at a discount.
Derby Homes, which manages Derby City Council's housing stock, expects about 300 homes to be sold through its Right to Buy scheme over the next three years.
But it says it will be able to replace these on a "more or less one to one" basis by building new houses across the city during that period.
This does not include the 17 homes already under construction in Chaddesden, but would involve one and two-bed houses, and bungalows.
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The situation in four years time looks bleaker with Derby Homes predicting it will only be able to replace about half of the housing stock sold.
David Enticott, the organisation's director and company secretary, said the three-year building plan was positive news for the city.
He said: "It may not increase the actual number of council homes available but it does mean that they will be newer.
"Under Right to Buy a lot of three-bedroom homes have gone and many will be replaced by one and two-bedroom properties.
"We need a lot of smaller homes because welfare changes mean that people receiving benefits can be penalised if they are living in properties that are too large for their needs."
Mr Enticott said about one quarter of the cash for the homes would come from cash raised from selling properties through Right to Buy.
The other three quarters would be funded through loans which would then be repaid using income from rent from tenants in the new homes.
He said the council was in the process of finding sites for the homes but that none had yet been confirmed.
Mr Enticott said: "We are looking at small pockets of land which the council already owns but we are quite flexible about that."
The Right to Buy scheme makes council house tenants legally able to purchase the homes they are living in.
In April last year, the Government introduced higher discount offers for people who want to buy their council homes.
He said the final amount received by the city council for the sale of its homes was between 35 and 70% of their value.
He said this meant the authority wouldn't be able to sustain building at the same speed after three years.
He said: "We will start slowly losing council housing stock unless the rules change further."
Derby Homes' Board is expected to support the council's house-building proposals at a meeting on Thursday.
At the same meeting, the board is also expected to support plans to increase rent for council homes by an average of 5.2% in line with Government recommendations.
This would bring the average weekly rent up to £72.05 a week. The highest average increase the city council could suggest is 9%.
Comments
by make_redgreen
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 9:10PM
“The homes build cost is likely to come in around 30-50k a unit.
The budget will be 24m, which will be inclusive of associated legal, management and planning costs (yes, it really will be almost 50% of it, a 2 up 2 down prefab does not cost 80k).”
by Tamas
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 10:17AM
“Eighty grand each, janine2011.”
by janine2011
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 9:57AM
“24 million to build 300 homes, that is some price tag. How much is each house going to cost to build?”
by tim1959
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 8:28AM
“I am a derby homes tenant, and would like to see the goverment scrap this right to buy nonsense across the country, it is the biggest reason we have a short fall in affordable homes to rent and with the discounts that people have the right to have makes a complete farce,of it all if a person rents off a private landlord and could have been a tenant for 15 years if they wanted to buy it no way could you get a discount of between 35% 70% . Soical houseing needs to go back what it was made for people who cannot afford to buy a home. There is a house next door to me that was sold 6 years ago and is rentard out and the rent is double what mine is for the same house , apart that mine had thousands spent on it last year by derby homes. with what is happening 300 new homes for ones that could be sold in the future on a big discount”