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 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 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), and the Housing Needs Assessment that was completed recently on the Council's behalf by Fordham. These strategies are addressed below, and links to these component documents given in the 'linked documents' field.   

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 2006, there was a duty towards 293 households to provide housing, compared to 251 households in March 2003, a 17% increase in 3 years. There were 2,425 households on the Housing Register in April 2006, of whom 221 (9%) require special needs housing.