Newcastle demands action on ‘broken’ council housing system – with 10,000 on city waiting list

The new government must act to fix a “completely broken” council housing system, Newcastle and other major authorities in England have warned. Council leaders on Tyneside have joined calls for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour [1] administration to enact drastic reforms and deliver funding to build new council homes and repair existing properties. A new report has issued a stark warning about the future of council housing – predicting that most councils will struggle to adequately repair their existing homes, let alone build new ones to keep up with huge demand, unless action is taken.

Newcastle is among 20 authorities backing calls for the new government to overhaul “unsustainable” Right to Buy rules, which allow council homes to be sold into private ownership at a discounted rate, and deliver a major cash injection for the sector, including an “urgent” GBP644 million rescue package. New analysis from Savills shows that councils’ housing budgets will face a combined GBP2.2bn ‘black hole’ by 2028. Newcastle City Council [2], which took back control of its housing stock this month after abolishing arms-length management organisation Your Homes Newcastle, confirmed that there are currently 9,980 households on the city’s council home waiting list.

Since 2019, there have been 2,065 Right to Buy applications in Newcastle and 876 purchases completed in that time. Meanwhile, the city council spent GBP1.4 million in 2023/24 on providing temporary accommodation for homeless households – with 139 currently being housed, 106 of which have children. Labour councillor Paula Maines, Newcastle City Council’s cabinet member responsible for housing, said: “Erratic policy choices from our last government have left council housing finances completely broken and the system’s future is in danger.

We want to work with the new government from day one to deliver more and better council homes that our communities need. “People are at the heart of everything we do and as a council we want our tenants and leaseholders to receive the best possible services. For years, we have faced major financial and regulatory changes in the housing sector that mean we need to get more from every pound we spend.

“The recent housing transfer, which has seen us bring all housing services together in the council, will enable us to be more effective and efficient in the way we deliver housing services to our residents, but we still need further support from our government to ensure we have sustainable solutions for the future.” Newcastle City Council endorsed five recommendations made to the government to “secure the future of England’s council housing”. They are:

A “fair and sustainable” housing funding model – including an urgent GBP644 million one-off rescue injection, and long-term, certain rent settlements;
Reforms to Right to Buy policies by reducing discount levels and eligibility, as well as protecting newly built council homes from being sold;
Removing red tape on funding, so that councils have more flexibility on how to spend money on repairing, retrofitting, and building new homes;
A new, long-term Green and Decent Homes Programme to bring all council housing up to a new standard of safety, decency and energy efficiency by 2030;
Funding councils to build more council houses and take over stalled private developer sites.

Labour’s new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said last week that she would reinstate compulsory housebuilding targets for local councils, as part of plans to build 1.5 million new homes in the next five years.

Labour plans to reform the planning system to make it easier to build houses on less desirable parts of the green belt and lift a de facto ban on onshore wind projects across the UK.

Newcastle City Council leader Nick Kemp said he believed the new government’s plans would help the city “ensure more affordable and social houses are built in the years to come”.

He added: “Changes won’t happen overnight but, together with the opportunities of devolution, there is light at the end of the tunnel for residents who have suffered for 14 years at the hands of a Conservative government.”

References

^ Labour (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
^ Newcastle City Council (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)