BARNSLEY Council bosses have admitted they have been unable to increase the number of council houses in the town due to the number of residents buying the properties each year - and they’re calling on the government to provide more funding.
New figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 1,094 households secured social home tenancies in Barnsley last year.
This includes general needs housing, which are not designed for a specific occupant, and homes designed for specific types of people, such as the elderly or those with disabilities, called supported housing.
This was a decrease on a decade ago, when there were 2,421 new lettings in 2013/14.
Of the total 22,217 social letting stock in Barnsley, five per cent were re-let in the last year.
The average weekly rent of these re-let homes was £88, equivalent to 68 per cent of the average market rent in the area.
Council bosses say they have been unable to increase the number of council houses on offer to residents due to the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme.
The programme allows secure tenants to buy the homes they rent from the council at a discount.
You can get a 50 per cent discount on flats and a 35 per cent discount on houses.
But the council say they have been lobbying the government for additional funding to ensure more houses can be built in the near future.
Coun Robin Franklin, cabinet spokesperson for regeneration and culture, told the Chronicle: “The turnover of council homes is significantly lower than it was ten years ago and we also have fewer council homes in our stock due to Right to Buy purchases.
“Our new-build and acquisition programme has been unable to increase provision as Right to Buy sales, historically around 150 per year, have outstripped the new-build programmes, which are limited by the availability of funding.
“A £43m programme was approved by cabinet in the summer and will see around 220 homes brought into council stock over the next four years.
“We also adopted a new lettings policy in April which is focused on trying to address those in the greatest housing need.
“We are lobbying the government for additional funding to ensure that we can deliver more council homes at scale to address the need and give our residents and communities safe and secure homes which suit their needs and lifestyle.”
A council report, which will go before ruling cabinet members in January, warned ‘pressures’ are taking place due to depleting stock levels, ‘given Right to Buy losses of up to circa 100 properties per annum and insufficient funding, land, and resources to replace them’.
Matt Downie, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, said the failure to build enough homes ‘has led to record numbers of households, including thousands of families with children, being stuck in unsafe and unsuitable temporary accommodation’.
“We’ve even heard of people having to heat up food on radiators,” he added.
“The reality is that until we’re building 90,000 social homes every year, thousands of people, including families with young children, will continue to wake up in poor quality temporary accommodation.”
