Mid Devon District Council has welcomed the Government’s decision to support local authorities with their own council housing build programmes, as it sets out ambitious plans to build more than 50 new council homes in the district.

The reforms, announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government gives local authorities in England more freedom on how they spend the money from homes sold through Right to Buy (the sale of a council house) to help them build the homes needed within their own communities.

The changes to the scheme follows recent lobbying by Mid Devon District Council, and other councils, for greater flexibility that will enable them to add to the supply of affordable and social rent housing and unlocks the Council’s multi-million pound council building scheme.

Under the new measures it will be easier for councils to fund new homes using Right to Buy receipts and give them greater choice over the types of homes they provide, enabling them to reflect the needs of their own communities. It will also give councils more time to use the funds from the Right to Buy scheme, allowing authorities to develop more long term building programmes. Local authorities will be able to spend the money on building homes for shared ownership, First Homes and housing at affordable and social rent.

Simon Newcombe, Corporate Manager for Public Health, Regulation and Housing, said: “This is a hugely welcome announcement. After a year where the pandemic and uncertainty around funding has held back our new build programme, this means we can quickly move forward and deliver our ambitious plan to allocate more than £2million of Right to Buy receipts to new homes over the next three-years. Together with more than £5million of our own housing capital this equates to a £7.4m programme to build more than 50 new council houses between 2021 and 2024. This will ease pressure on our local housing demand with secure, high quality and affordable accommodation across the district.”

This use of the Right to Buy receipts is in addition to the Council’s existing commitment to build 70 affordable homes at Post Hill in Tiverton over the same period.

Further information can be found at Gov.uk