Agenda item - Chairs Communications

3.1     Welcome to the June 2023 Housing and New Homes Committee. Welcome new and seasoned committee members. I am delighted to be chairing and look forward to chairing for the next few years. I am hopeful and enthusiastic that during that time we will see to fruition our manifesto pledges and significantly improve housing conditions for our residents.

To that end we are certainly off to a good start.Our quarterly review reflects that we are doing better in responding to our council tenants and we are making significant progress in tackling the backlog of repairs.

I am really happy to announce that We are investing in our Housing Repairs & Maintenance apprenticeship programme to increase employment opportunities within our communities and city. Funding has been agreed to expand our programme and provide up to 20 apprenticeships this year, with a new Property Maintenance (with plumbing) qualification starting in September, alongside our electrical apprenticeship opportunities.

We would particularly welcome applications from our residents. We will be holding an Apprenticeship Experience Event on Friday 14^th July at the Housing Centre to allow for those interested in learning more about being an apprentice to take part in activities as part of our recruitment process and meet some of our repairs & maintenance team.

More information is available via Homing In, the council website and posters in your community’.

The safety of our council tenants is a high priority, and we are embarking on extensive programme to make sure we reach the highest safety standards in our council homes.

We are investing £13 million in building, fire and other health and safety measures in council homes to get ahead of new national regulations expected to come in next spring. This investment is to make sure we continue to provide safe, good quality council homes. Your safety is our key priority. We’re carrying out an ongoing review of our building health and safety to check what new measures we need to put in place around fi re safety, asbestos management, gas and electrical safety, lifts and water safety.

On top of the extensive programme of fire risk assessments and ongoing door replacement programme, we will be carrying out detailed building surveys on our blocks of flats to make sure we have the most up to date information. We hold data on asbestos across council housing and have a process in place to manage asbestos risk when work is carried out. While the asbestos risk is low in our properties, we need to improve how we store the information so it’s in a single system.

We are committed to increasing affordable housing supply in the city. As well as new build schemes the council has an active acquisition programme which includes buying back homes lost through the right to buy and seeking opportunities to increase social housing stock by buying off plan from developers. An opportunity has arisen to acquire Kubic apartments, a block of thirty eight flats in Whitehawk. By purchasing a new build development, we can accelerate the provision of much needed homes.

I have had the pleasure a few days ago to attend the official opening of two major housing developments that have been completed in Portslade this year providing a total of 91 new council homes. Residents have moved into 49 council flats at Quay View Wellington Road. These are the first new homes delivered through the council’s Homes for Brighton & Hove partnership, with affordable housing provider, the Hyde Group. The Quay View homes are part of a Homes for Brighton & Hove development of 104 one, 2 and 3-bedroom flats, with the other flats available as shared ownership through Hyde. The partnership is also building 242 low-cost homes in Coldean, which includes a further 127 council-rented homes. The Coldean Lane development is due to be completed this winter.

In addition, 42 council flats, at Jay Court and Perching Court in Victoria Road, welcomed tenants earlier this year as part of our New Homes for Neighbourhoods building programme. These new homes in both developments were designed by the council’s own in-house architects to be highly energy efficient, which will help keep energy bills low for residents. So important given our cost-of-living crisis which is causing much hardship. All of these new homes are built to a very high standard and are an achievement to be proud of They have been let to people on the council’s housing register. A huge thanks you to all those involved in making this happen.

We need more, many more of such developments let’s do all we can to make this happen. It is crucial to tackle the housing crisis. We must do everything possible.