Stockport Labour’s Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Sheila Bailey has confirmed that from now on all new rented properties built by Stockport Council, through Viaduct Housing Partnership,  will be for social rent.

Until now, Labour-run Stockport Council has been building unprecedented levels of Affordable Housing, with over 1000 new affordable homes either already delivered or currently being built.

Until now many of these homes have come under the Government definition of ‘affordable’, at 80 percent or below of local market values in terms of rental values or shared ownership sale prices. This is due to the way funding has been made available for the building of new homes.

Now, social rental properties will  comprise a large part of all new homes being planned in Stockport under Labour, providing good quality properties at a social rent level.

This has been made possible due to an increase in Homes England Grant allocation for Stockport which funds this type of housing, and the way Stockport Viaduct housing partnership has been set up to qualify for funding streams.

Speaking of the move, Cllr Bailey said:

“When we launched Viaduct Housing partnership in 2017, we were determined to do all we could to alleviate the housing crisis. We have an excellent record of building affordable homes, to such an extent that finding available land for more building is becoming a challenge.

“However, due to the way the funding was allocated, only a small portion of these have been for social rent.

“From now all new rental properties built through Viaduct housing will be social rent.

“This is highly important for those struggling to afford a place to live, and a positive step toward in tackling the housing crisis. “

Homes will still be built and made available to be purchased as shared ownership through Stockport Viaduct.

ENDS

 

NOTES:

This item was discussed at the 5^th August Housing and Communities Scrutiny Committee, under item 5. The webcast is available here: https://stockport.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/436199/start_time/283000?force_language_code=en_GB