Shropshire Council and partners join forces to celebrate Housing Day

Shropshire Council, Cornovii Developments Limited and Shropshire Towns and Rural  Housing (STAR Housing) have joined forces to mark Housing Day, to celebrate the positive impact good quality and affordable housing makes on the lives of people and communities.

Housing Day 2020

Now in its eighth year, the 24-hour social media event today (Wednesday 7 October 2020) has been set up to highlight the crucial role decent, safe, and genuinely affordable housing plays, not only in times of crisis such as the pandemic, but always.

This year’s theme is ‘The importance of home’, in support of the national ‘Homes at the Heart’ campaign.

The event will also feature information from Shropshire Council’s affordable housing initiative, Right Home Right Place, which exists to identify hidden housing need across the county and to ensure local residents and workers have access to the right home.

Throughout the day Shropshire Council, Cornovii Developments Limited and STAR Housing will be showcasing the investment and initiatives being undertaken to enhance the lives of residents and ensure our homes and neighbourhoods are great places to live in and thrive in.

Ongoing work and current initiatives include:

• Shropshire Council’s draft Housing Strategy – Our recently launched draft Housing Strategy sets out the council’s vision for housing in Shropshire over the next five years. As well as the overarching vision, the strategy sets out a number of key objectives for future housing in the county. These include meeting the current and future housing needs of Shropshire’s growing population, ensuring people whose needs are not currently met through open market housing can access properties they can afford, and working to reduce homelessness by providing safe, secure and appropriate accommodation on a temporary or permanent basis. The strategy has currently undergone its first round of consultation and feedback on this will be published shortly.
• Right Home, Right Place initiative – launched in 2018 to build a clearer picture of what’s needed in Shropshire’s parishes by running comprehensive housing needs surveys in communities throughout the county.
• Cornovii Developments Limited’s Frith Close housing development Shrewsbury – the Frith Close development in Monkmoor will offer a high quality housing scheme to satisfy the needs and aspirations of those wanting to own their own home within walking distance of Shrewsbury town centre, as well as providing new affordable homes for rent.
• Residential development in Penybryn Avenue, Whittington – as part of the affordable homes new build programme, STAR Housing’s residential development will comprise of 10 bungalows and 14 houses. All homes will offer both modern and high tech living accommodation. The scheme is a community- led project and we have a steering group that consists of representatives from STAR Housing, the council’s affordable housing team, Whittington Parish Council and local residents.
• Warmer Homes Shropshire initiative –launched in May 2020, our warmer homes scheme offers grants for eligible households across Shropshire. The scheme is open to homeowners, as well as private tenants and their landlords.
• Improving standards in private sector housing – Shropshire Council’s regulatory services continues its commitment to improving standards in private rented sector housing, bringing empty homes back into use and ensuring private rented accommodation is well-managed, properly maintained, and safe and habitable.

Robert Macey, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for housing and strategic planning, said:

“As we are living in what are unprecedented times, there has never been a more crucial time where the impact of home and community has been so keenly demonstrated within our society. Our homes have never been more important to us than they have been during the coronavirus pandemic. Everyone deserves a safe, secure, comfortable place to call home. Not just now, in the middle of this crisis, but always.

“Investing in both affordable and social housing makes this possible. It will also boost the economy, create jobs and improve people’s lives when our county needs it most.

“Shropshire Council and our partners are committed to ensuring that all Shropshire residents have access to the ‘right home in the right place’ to support and promote their health and wellbeing throughout their lives, especially throughout the pandemic and beyond.

“Housing Day also plays an important role in raising the profile of and celebrating social housing and the important role it can play in supporting people’s lives.

“We will be taking part in this social media event and we encourage others to do the same.”

STAR Housing’s Neighbourhoods Manager Martin Whitelegg added:-

“STAR Housing is delighted to be supporting Housing Day 2020. We are committed to working with our Shropshire Council partners, local communities and local people to provide the right type of homes in the right places. Our development project at Whittington has been led by the community to ensure that the homes meet that local need.”

You can follow @shropcouncil and @housingday on twitter throughout the day, hashtag #HousingDay.

Further information

Shropshire Council’s draft Housing Strategy was approved by Cabinet for consultation on 15 June 2020. The strategy sets out our vision for housing for the next five years:

“That all homes are well designed decent homes of high quality, which will protect Shropshire’s unique urban and rural environments and ensure it is a great place to live.”

and

“That all Shropshire residents have access to the ‘right home in the right place’ to support and promote their health and wellbeing throughout their lives.”

Six key objectives are identified:

1. To meet the overall current and future housing needs of Shropshire’s growing population by addressing the housing needs of particular groups within communities.
2. To ensure people whose housing needs are not met through the local open market housing can access housing that meets their needs.
3. Work to reduce and prevent households from becoming homeless, and where this is not possible ensuring they have safe, secure and appropriate accommodation until they are able to resettle.
4. To ensure people can access a mix of housing options within Shropshire’s urban and rural landscape that best meets their needs in terms of tenure, safety, size, type, design and location of housing.
5. To minimise the environmental impact of existing housing stock and future housing development in the interest of climate change. To work with policymakers, developers and private and social landlords to maximise resource efficiencies and to ensure optimum use of sustainable construction techniques.
6. To support the drive for economic growth by ensuring that there is enough housing supply to enable businesses to attract and retain the local workforce that they need.

The strategy will be supported by a detailed action plan outlining short-, medium- and long-term actions, once the strategy has been finalised.

We recognise that we don’t have control over all actions and activities, and therefore our vision is working collaboratively across the public and private sectors and with our communities. The purpose of the consultation was to seek views on the objectives and how these can be achieved.