The Context

The Council is given the responsibility by national government to write and put into action a Housing Strategy that identifies local needs and key issues; strategies to meet them; and a plan to ensure that any actions and needs identified are addressed. These strategies must all have due regard to, and accord with local, sub-regional, regional, and national priorities, and stakeholders at all levels must be consulted at each stage of the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of the overall Housing Strategy.

The Council also has a number of strategies that feed into the main housing strategy, identifying component issues of the strategy such as Homelessness (the Homelessness Strategy), the local BME population (the BME Housing Strategy), the state of the private sector housing market (Reading the Housing Market), older people (the Older Persons' Housing Strategy), and young people (the Young Persons' Housing Strategy), as well as the revised Housing Needs Assessment that was completed recently on the Council's behalf by Fordham. All these strategies are available using links to these component documents given in the 'linked documents' field on the right.

The Need for a Housing Strategy

The Council aims to provide direction for both private and social housing activity within the District.  Unsuitable housing conditions or being unable to access affordable housing can affect the quality of life of local people.  The Council recognises the need to make the links between housing and health, social care, community safety, social inclusion, transport, energy efficiency, sustainability, education and employment and to adopt a ‘joined up’ approach to these issues.  Working in partnership with statutory and voluntary agencies is a vital part of the development of new housing initiatives.  The Housing Strategy links with Government policy and reflects the regional objectives contained in the East of England Housing Strategy and Sustainable Communities: building for the future.  A vital factor in developing the Strategy is the local strategic partnership called the Huntingdonshire Strategic Partnership.  This is a partnership of public, community, voluntary, business, educational and charitable organisations who work together to achieve progress on issues which people have highlighted as important — crime, jobs, education, environment, transport, health and housing.  Housing has been identified as a key element, and in this context the Housing Strategy will both influence and reflect the priorities and activities within the Community Strategy and the local strategic partnership.

Consultation on the Housing Strategy

The Council's 'Housing Strategy' guides our priorities and plans for a 5 year period - the latest draft Housing Strategy covers the years 2006-2011. To this end, we consulted tenants and residents in 2004/5 via the Council's Magazine 'Districtwide', as to what they thought the Housing objectives and priorities of the District Council should be. The results were as follows.

Most respondents who made suggestions with regard to further consultation favoured questionnaires and/or surveys (63%). About 20% wanted public meetings. The Strategy is based on a clear identification of needs and a forecast of possible trends that enable the Council to plan for the future direction of resources and priorities for action.  The Council uses a wide range of sources of information. Unfortunately, homelessness within the District has continued to increase year on year.  In the year ending March 2008, there was a duty towards 221 households to provide housing, compared to 251 households in March 2003. There were 2,178 households on the Housing Register in March 2008, compared to 2,910 in March 2003. Of the 2,178 households on the Housing Register in March 2008,  214 (11%) required special needs housing.

Cambridge Sub Regional Housing Market Assessment

In February 2004, the ODPM published a “Housing Market Assessment Manual” to provide a framework for the better understanding of how housing markets operate at the sub-regional level, in the light of the arrangements
for resource allocation to be focussed on regionally identified strategic housing priorities, rather than individual need at a local Council level. The guidance has been to move away from a heavy dependence on household surveys, and instead to use secondary data as the basis for assessing current and future housing need and demand over a period of 5-10 years and beyond. Councils such as Huntingdonshire were expected to participate and co-operate with other Councils in the local area in the project management and production of this plan. The Council therefore worked with East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, South Cambridgeshire, St Edmundsbury, Forest Heath District Council and Cambridge City Council, all of whom comprise the 'Cambridge Sub Region'. A 'housing market assessment' is a piece of research and analysis that will inform both housing and planning policy at a range of different levels and recognises that housing markets do not equate to local authority boundaries.

The strategic housing market assessment (SHMA) compiles data and survey information about all parts of the housing market in a particular 'market area' and

• develops a long-term view of housing need and demand to inform planning policies, such as regional spatial strategies and regional housing strategies
• develops a sound approach to planning for the mix of different sizes and types of households in a market area
• identifies a required level of affordable housing and decide how evidence of housing need translates into different sizes and types of affordable housing
• helps Councils make decisions on issues like social housing allocation priorities, private sector renewal options and the valuation of new-build home ownership schemes such as shared ownership
• builds an understanding of the different housing markets operating in a geographic area
• strengthens links between housing demand and land availability, though use of strategic Land Availability Assessments

A link to the SHMA is given on the right hand side of this webpage under 'external links'.

A similar process was undertaken in the Peterborough Sub-Region, which includes the area around Yaxley and Farcet that adjoins Peterborough. A link to their SHMA is also given below.

Huntingdonshire New Developments 2007

During the summer of 2007, 1,710 households, across 8 new developments in Huntingdonshire, were surveyed by Huntingdonshire District Council. The aim of the survey was to learn about the views of people living in new housing developments in Huntingdonshire, in order to learn lessons and plan services more effectively in future. The Huntingdonshire New Developments survey asked residents about their previous home, their current home, their household and their work, study and travel.This report was prepared by Cambridgeshire County Council Research Group.  

A link to the report is given in the related information area at the top of the page.