Leicester City Council has announced a £70m investment to create new council housing.
The investment has been put forward by the City Mayor Peter Soulsby in order to tackle the need for affordable housing in the city.
The investment which is made up of 30% Right To Buy receipts and 70% from the councils Housing Revenue Account, will enable the creation of up to 400 new council homes all of which will have affordable rent.
By investing this money into new housing it means that the council does not have to return any of the unused Right To Buy money to the government.
This announcement is part of the council’s commitment to create 1,500 new council social and supported living homes by 2023.
The council currently owns around 20,000 council homes, but there are still around 6,000 people on the city’s housing register.
Therefore, a total of 786 new affordable homes are needed each year in order to meet demands.
The first phase of the development is already underway, with the creation of 29 new homes and progress being made on a further 100 homes.
Mr. Soulsby said: ‘The government’s Right To Buy scheme has meant that we’ve lost thousands of council properties over the last decades, depleting our housing stock at a time when affordable homes are so badly needed.’
‘But by reinvesting these Right To Buy receipts into building and acquiring properties in the city itself, we can provide housing where it is needed most.’
‘The relaxation by the government of its rules on borrowing to fund new housing also means we can invest properly in making new council homes available in the kind of quantities needed to meet demand.’
Leicester assistant city mayor for housing and education, Cllr Elly Cutkelvin said: ‘This investment is a big step towards meeting our commitment to provide new affordable council housing.’
‘The £70m will enable us to build new council homes, purchase existing privately-owned houses, buy land or other properties suitable for use as council housing, and also to carry out work needed to bring these buildings up to modern letting standards.’
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