Homes for all
A decent home should be a fundamental right! Since 2011, 7,000 new homes have been built in Leicester. Our five-year plan includes building more of our own council houses and purchasing properties that can be used as council homes. In total, we will provide the city with 1,500 new council, social and extra care homes by 2023.
We are helping to further increase affordable housing in the city by selling land for £1 to local charities and housing associations. This has already created almost 300 new affordable homes, that would have cost the council £29 million to build.
Almost all of these homes have been provided to people on our housing register who were waiting for council homes.
It is also the council’s priority to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, but in circumstances where this cannot be avoided, we also provide services for people who do lose their homes, and for those who are sleeping rough in the city.
We spend more than £5 million a year to prevent and tackle homelessness. In 2018, we set out a new five-year plan to reduce homelessness, a plan that includes new and innovative activity to achieve our priorities, together with how we expect to develop services and work better with our partners.
These include creating 10 new, short-stay units for people who won’t take up our offers of longer-term help; as well as the new recovery centre – No.5 Hill Street – which offers treatment to Leicester’s street drinkers and those with drug addiction problems.
We are also part of the Leicester Homelessness Charter, which is bringing together local charities and other organisations to ensure we work together better to help people who are homeless or have street lifestyles.
Find out more about what we're doing to reduce homelessness and how we're increasing affordable housing below.
My priorities include:
- Provide 1,500 more council, social and extra care homes
- Provide free wifi on council estates
- Undertake an ongoing £80m council home improvement programme
- Establish a home extension fund for council tenants to reduce overcrowding in council properties
- Continue our environmental investment programme on council land and estates
- Maintain our existing adaptation services for all homeowners and undertake a programme of council housing adaptations to allow disabled people to remain or move into our properties
- Ensure that no-one has to sleep rough on our streets
- Establish a residential facility for people experiencing multiple and complex needs, many of whom are rough sleeping
- Support further work to meet complex needs experienced by women and BAME communities who may not be sleeping on our streets but are homeless.
