Milton Keynes faces a housing crisis and the July 10th Council Cabinet meeting will start 12 weeks of consultation on how best to address the problems facing the town.
The Housing Strategy that is going out to public consultation covers four broad areas of activity:
- Increasing the supply of housing
- Managing the demand for housing
- Providing high-quality local landlord services
- Creating great places to live
The agreed-upon strategy will cover a five-year period from 2018 to 2023.
Councillor Nigel Long, the Cabinet member for Housing and Regeneration, said: “We are publishing the Housing Strategy for public consultation.”
“It highlights how important increasing the number of new homes is to tackling the cities homelessness, housing and affordability problems.”
“This will be tackled through the building of 500 new Council houses, partnership working to deliver truly affordable new homes and housing co-operatives.”
Cllr Long continued: “We remain committed to expanding our stock of 13,000 homes (Council houses and shared ownership) and to improving housing management and customer services.”
“We also want to see other landlords improve their performance, both housing associations and private landlords.”
Cllr Long further added: “Tackling homelessness remains a top priority. We aim to end rough sleeping. But we also aim to end the shame of hundreds of families in temporary accommodation.”
“That requires building many new homes and a change of heart by Government. We will be asking Government to remove the cap on our ability to invest.”
“We are preparing a bid for funding for new Council housing. This is the best way to end the homelessness crisis facing hundreds of families.”
He concluded: “Over the summer and in the autumn we will be consulting on the Housing Strategy. We want to hear from residents, developers, providers and the voluntary sector on how we can end the housing crisis blighting our city.”