Braintree District Council has updated councillors on progress made with their Healthy Housing and Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategies at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 27 May.
Braintree District Council has updated councillors on progress made with their Healthy Housing and Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategies at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 27 May.
The Council’s Healthy Housing Strategy 2023-28 is now in its third year and within its priorities, lists new affordable housing, support for specific needs and improve the access and quality of existing homes in the private rented sector.
295 new affordable homes were delivered between 2024-25 delivering high quality safe homes to residents.
The Healthy Housing strategy has also seen the launch of a Landlord Incentive and Tenancy Sustainment Scheme, which has supported 47 households to date into the private rented sector and prevented 34 children from having to go into temporary accommodation. The scheme provides an incentive to private landlords to help offer greater options for affordable rent and has been extended for a further two years.
Alongside this, the Empty Homes Scheme has seen 32 long term empty homes come back into use and has also been extended for a further two years.
The Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-29 is aimed at preventing homelessness at an early stage. The priorities of this strategy include working with partners to prevent homelessness at the earliest opportunity, facilitate the delivery of suitable temporary accommodation for eligible households, improve access to appropriate accommodation and continue to work with partners to prevent and break the cycle of rough sleeping.
In its first year, the council have been able to map the needs of those presenting homeless and they have offered early intervention and reviewed all their temporary accommodation. They have also put in place two early intervention officers to work with households earlier and used data and research evidence to design effective training.
In the year ahead, the council will deliver a new rough sleeping partnership and deliver winter pressure funding from central government. Through this partnership, they will deliver targeted assistance, access to food and essentials.
Cllr Lynette Bowers-Flint, Cabinet member for Housing, Health and Wellbeing, said: “We have made some excellent progress so far with our housing strategies and delivered schemes that have helped families into homes. The district has seen 295 new affordable homes built in the past year, alongside support 47 households into affordable private renting. In the year ahead, we will continue and build on this work to provide more housing access for our residents.”
All of the housing strategies can be found on the Braintree District Council website here: https://www.braintree.gov.uk/housing/housing-strategies/2