Housing
Returning to our council building roots Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson discusses why Liverpool is turning back the clock and restarting a council house building programme
Liverpo ol
Foundations More recently, we set up an arms-length housing company, Foundations, which is driving forward a number of schemes to help people on to the housing ladder through rentto-buy and private developments, and also targeted at niches which are not of interest to developers, such as homes for the elderly, large families, foster carers and those with a disability. It has a target of 10,000 properties by 2028. This is an integral part of our Inclusive Growth Plan, in which we are also looking at setting up a regional bank with other local authorities to help the poorest access financial services such as mortgages. But it is also clear to me that home ownership is not for everyone and the council has a role to play in the social rented market to make sure no-one is left behind, particularly as we are a growing city with half a million residents. The issue that has held back our ambitions of building our own council housing again – despite the government lifting the borrowing cap – has been the issue of the historic housing debt. For Liverpool this was some £735 million, which the government wiped out when we stock transferred the last of our council homes to housing associations around a decade ago. We have now had confirmation from the government that they will not require us to repay that money if we start building houses again, which gives us the confidence to kick on, particularly as we will get much-needed council tax income from the occupied homes. So, for the first time in more than 30 years, we have just launched the first handful of council owned properties for rent in Picton – with the promise of many more to come. I am also pitching to government for funding to make a large proportion of the homes we build as green as they can possibly as part of our plan to tackle climate change, in line with their Clean Growth Strategy. My vision is for homes packed with energy saving features such as triple glazing, smart energy meters, heating/light sensors to save householders money on their bills and tackle fuel poverty, which is a massive issue in Liverpool. There will also be energy generation and supply features such as solar panels, heat pumps and electric charging points where needed. For me, this return to our council building roots has come not a moment too soon, and represents the very best traditions of the public sector: intervening to make life better for citizens. L
Written by Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool
list, yet lots of empty properties that just Liverpool was a pioneer way back in 1869 needed a bit of TLC to bring them back in to when it built the first local authority homes in use. This was exacerbated by the government Europe. The idea initially was for the private pulling the funding for the Housing Market sector to build them on behalf of the council Renewal Initiative (HMRI) halfway through but, in echoes of the situation we still face the programme, just weeks after I took office. today, developers were only interested in Since then we’ve made lots of progress – building in profitable areas. So Liverpool bringing thousands of derelict homes back Corporation, as it was known then, built into use. I am particularly proud of our work them itself. Make no mistake about it, these with partners to rescue HMRI housing projects early homes were basic, just bedrooms and in places like Anfield and Toxteth, as well as a living room, but it was a private space our pioneering Homes for a Pound scheme for each family and it was their own, which which has given people the chance to buy a was revolutionary at the time. As a young property for less than the cost of a newspaper, boy, I grew up in one of these tenements, on condition they refurbish it. These schemes so they were a formative part of my early have breathed new life into areas which years and it is the reason why I have were previously haemorrhaging always been hugely passionate residents because they were about social housing. 150 in a state of flux, and 150 years on, housing years o also found new ways of is still one of the most making old properties fit pressing issues in from Li n for 21st century family Liverpool, and one I pioneer verpool i living, such as by identified as a priority n g t l h ocal au knocking two homes in 2010 when I thority e first into one to create took charge of the housing homes, bigger homes, and council. It frustrated i s still one of selective demolition me that there were t h e mos pressing to enable us to put thousands of people issues i t gardens at the back. on the housing waiting n
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Issue 26.4 | GOVERNMENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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