Housing Development Strategy - Report - Page 4
Introduction and links to the Council’s strategies
The objective of this East Suffolk Housing Development Strategy is to meet housing need by providing high quality sustainable housing at affordable
rents or sale values and to develop appropriate housing solutions in all areas of East Suffolk which are effective and cost efficient.
Recent changes in Government policy have encouraged councils to build housing, using surpluses within our Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and
increased borrowing by lifting the borrowing cap. The HRA Business Plan (2018-48) provides details of the financial implication to the Council with our
debt being managed to sustain a new build programme of 50+ new homes each year to help overcome the serious shortage of both general needs
and specialist housing in our area. Our current Housing Strategy projects us enabling up to 250 new affordable homes each year to 2023 and clearly
states our intention to support development of homes across all tenures to meet the need of our communities across East Suffolk.
This Housing Development Strategy sets out our general position on developing our own housing for the next 5 years. It considers how we will ensure
that we deliver high quality affordable homes in a cost-effective way. The Strategy will form the framework within which East Suffolk will evaluate
development opportunities and will inevitably evolve as plans evolve and will be formally reviewed on a biennial basis. The strategy will also support
the delivery of the Local Plans. The Local Plan for the former Waveney area was adopted in March 2019 and a new Local Plan for the former Suffolk
Coastal area is well advanced.
The strategy is intended to be clear and easy to understand. Where appropriate an action is identified on the right of the page in a blue box. This
ensures that the strategy is focussed on the objectives we have set ourselves and is transparent to our readers. The Action Plan is summarised at the
end of the document.
In our corporate Business Plan we set out a clear vision
for East Suffolk to “maintain and sustainably improve
the quality of life for everyone
growing up in, living in, working
in and visiting East Suffolk”.
The vision specifically seeks to
“……address some significant
local challenges, such as the
need for new homes that are
affordable and local to our
communities….”
This business plan is the driver
for the ‘Golden Thread’ of
development in East Suffolk.
The Housing Strategy identified 9 housing priorities of which four are directly relevant
to this Strategy, emphasising the importance of new homes:
1. Increase the amount of Council owned affordable
housing from 4,479 homes to 5,200 including
development on Council-owned and exception site land;
2. Using the strength of our Housing assets to intervene
assertively in the delivery of the Lowestoft regeneration;
3. Increase the number of affordable homes by 250 units
each year;
4. Actively support the broader supply of housing to
ensure East Suffolk is the preferred location for private
developers and housing associations.
4
