HRABP - Draft 8 - Flipbook - Page 33
The medium term funding of the £47.3m
for these schemes is built into the HRA
financial projection for this business plan
within existing resources.
The creation of an in- house development
team will maintain and increase the
momentum in future years to help ensure
that a pipeline of potential land is
identified to facilitate development of
different tenure housing
across the
district. This can also extend across the new
East Suffolk Council, taking into account
the challenges created by the shortage
and high cost of residential land in the
former Suffolk Coastal area.
In the future, the major development
proposed by the Lowestoft and Outer
Harbour Area Action Plan(AAP) is
expected to provide new affordable
housing in Lowestoft as part of a broader
regeneration scheme for the area. There
are still a number of uncertainties about
the timescale and scope of this major
scheme, making exact projections of the
numbers and timing
of new homes
problematic.
The scheme proposals
include land acquisition, land decontamination, and a mix of private and
affordable housing development and
commercial development.
An initial
assessment of what Council new build can
be funded from the HRA suggests a
challenging programme of over 1500 units
over the life of the business plan. From
2021 – 2041 this could potentially fund
up to 50 units p.a. amounting to an
investment of £131m and rising to 75
units p.a. (£70m) from 2041 – 2048.
Difficulties
in
land
acquisition,
Government funding etc make these new
build numbers uncertain.
In the future, the major development
proposed by the Lowestoft and Outer
Harbour Area Action Plan (AAP) is
expected to provide new social housing
in Lowestoft as part of a broader
regeneration scheme for the area.
The funding of new build housing from
2021/22 in the Business Plan uses the
Major Repairs Reserve, Direct Revenue
Financing, and other sources of funding
such as capital receipts, RTB receipts, S106
and Homes England funding. The Business
Plan assumes that receipts and external
funding will contribute 25% of future years’
investment in new homes. This is deemed
to be a prudent approach based on current
levels of receipts and external funding and
amounts to £45.7m (2021 – 2048).
4. Retired Living Schemes
The Council owns 346 units of Retired
Living accommodation, located mainly in
Lowestoft but also Southwold, Halesworth
and Bungay. This form of housing has
become increasingly unpopular, an
experience shared with our other housing
partners in East Suffolk. In 2017 146
properties (60%) out of 242 retired living
properties had to be re-advertised and
often took lengthy periods before being
relet. Local housing associations have
similarly experienced between 50% - 75%
re-advertising rates.
Key issues affecting the lack of popularity
of this type of accommodation include:
•
The homes are predominantly small
one bedroomed accommodation
of pre-1980’s construction. They
fail to meet the aspirations of many
of today’s older people in terms
of design, space, accessibility and
energy efficiency;
•
Many more older people are
remaining
in
work
longer,
living longer and have different
expectations of their housing.
•
People are choosing to remain in
their own home for longer, often
enabled by adaptations and new
technology. When they do decide
to move their care and support
needs are sometimes above
the threshold for retired living
accommodation and require more
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