Two planning applications have now been submitted for the major refurbishment of 77 homes on Sandpits Avenue (21/05057/FUL; 21/05056/FUL). They give more details of the scheme, which will be the largest investment in social housing in Ludlow for many years. Residents whose houses are being refurbished will be moved into another house in Sandpits. Their homes will have major refurbishment, new floors, new heating, new electrics, new bathrooms and kitchens, new plastering and new roofs where needed. The residents will move back to their original homes again at the end of the work. The housing will be more energy efficient but no renewable energy sources are proposed.
Tag: housing
Election: Lib Dems will end rough sleeping, give a better deal for social and private renters and build more homes
We need to build 300,000 homes per year just to meet current demand but we are barely building half that amount. There are not enough homes for social rent to meet demand. That means people are struggling to afford good homes where they need to live. Any hope of owning a home is remote for too many people. They often must rely on the private rental market which is expensive and insecure. The crisis in social housing has been depleted by the loss of stock under Right to Buy. Decisions on Right to Buy will be devolved to councils. Social tenants will own their homes after 30 years under the Rent to Own scheme. Private tenants will benefit from a Help to Rent scheme. Liberal Democrats will build at least 100,000 homes for social rent each year and ensure that total housebuilding increases to 300,000 each year. Rough sleeping will […]
Why is the county getting two more empty homes every week? We need urgent action
There is a rule of thumb in housing. It is much easier to give permission to build new homes, most of them on green fields, than to bring empty homes back into use. Empty homes are a growing problem here in Shropshire where the number of homes empty for at least six months is increasing at the rate of two a month. We have a bigger proportion of our housing stock empty than England as a whole. There were 4,460 empty homes in Shropshire last year, 1,654 of which had been vacant for more than six months. The waiting list for social housing stood at 5,227 households at the beginning of the year. One effective way of reducing that would be to take urgent action to bring more empty homes into use. But Shropshire Council seems to have given up on empty homes.
The housing scandal Shropshire Council is hiding – it gives most the money it gets for struggling people back to Whitehall
Shropshire Council received more than half a million pounds in funding from the ministry of housing last year. The funding was for Discretionary Housing Payments, which help those struggling to meet housing costs, including advance rent and removal bills and people that need a top up to ensure benefits cover the rent charged. What did the council do with its £531,974 grant? It sent more than half of the money back to Whitehall. I’ll pass that by you again. Shropshire Council thinks that there is so little need for short term housing support in our county it thinks it has the luxury of sending money back to the government. It gave back £300,000 last year. Only six out of more than 300 councils in England and Wales give back a higher proportion of their grant. This scandal is hurting people in Shropshire who struggle with housing costs. Yet you won’t […]
Shropshire Council is planning to set up a company to build homes – it must build affordable and green homes
Shropshire is getting serious about building homes. That’s good news but we councillors will need to study the detail carefully. All developments should include affordable housing and all should meet the highest green standards.