Town hall leaders want to help some of the 4,000 overcrowded families waiting on the local housing register, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
An “ambitious programme” to build new council homes is in the works at Barking and Dagenham Council, its housing boss has revealed.
John Knight, the council’s director of housing, said building new homes would help some of the 4,000 overcrowded families waiting on its housing register.
Knight said: “We do have ambitions to build more social homes.
“When we build them ourselves they’re more likely to include those larger units which we know we need.”
Knight told councillors about the plans as they discussed overcrowding yesterday evening (Wednesday 1st).
Labour councillor Josie Channer had asked what the council was doing to ease demand for council homes from “desperate” overcrowded families.
She said: “I can think of four families alone in my ward who are very overcrowded, who have disabled child living in extremely difficult conditions.
“The lack of social housing and our own build programme, the demand versus what we have available – what is that looking like?”
Knight replied that of the 6,200 households waiting for a council home, some 4,000 were living in overcrowded conditions.
To be eligible for council housing in Barking and Dagenham, a person has to be a UK national and to have lived in the borough for at least three years straight.
Knight said the council’s housing revenue account – the pot of money reserved for spending on council homes – was growing.
This is separate to the money the council has used to build private ‘affordable’ homes through its housing company Be First.
Knight said the increase in money was because of a recent government decision that allows councils to increase rents by an additional £1 a week every year for those that are currently below a national standard rate.
The government says this will help local authorities raise the money to build new council homes.
Knight said: “In very crude terms, we’ve got more money in the housing revenue account to build our own properties again.
“That money is on a good trajectory because the government has passed now a rent convergence principle so that rents will be growing.”
Knight also said the council was considering other measures to reduce overcrowding among families on its housing register.
He said these could include giving single adults living as part of a larger household the opportunity to apply for their own one-bed flats.
However he suggested that families waiting for a council home might be given one sooner if they bid more often.
People waiting on the council’s housing register can bid for homes when they become available. The bids are then determined based on how long they have been waiting, but also on the priority of their needs.
Knight said: “If people bid regularly and realistically they increase their chances of being offered a suitable property.
“For example people might say, I want a three-bedroom house. I’ve got a three bedroom need, there are three-bedroom houses in this borough, I want a three bedroom house.
“That is their prerogative but they’ll be bidding a lot longer before they get a three bedroom house than if they said they would accept a three-bedroom flat.”
