Stroud District Council has been praised for progress on house building. A recent article in Business West on the broken housing market highlights that “Stroud District Council are currently the only council in Gloucestershire actively looking to build new council homes. Until last year, Stroud had actually built more council homes than Bristol.”
In newletters delivered across the district in the last month, we included an article from Green Party members of the Stroud District Housing Committee reflecting more on this issue:
“The lack of affordable housing is a huge concern for our district, as increasing numbers of young people and families are unable to find secure and reasonably priced accommodation. House prices in the south west are now almost 9 times the average salary – making home ownership out of reach for anyone on a normal wage.
Green councillors, including Norman Kay and Catherine Braun who serve on the Housing Committee, are promoting opportunities for new social rented homes across the District, such as the new council houses recently completed in Mankley Road, Leonard Stanley and Chapel Street, Cam. This is a small step towards tackling the local housing crisis. Central Government needs to respond to the demand from 2,000 households on the local waiting list and promote the building of more council homes.
Locally, Housing Associations can also help to provide affordable rented homes and shared ownership properties, which is happening at sites in Bisley Old Road, Stroud and Fountain Crescent, Wotton- under-Edge.
Catherine and Norman are also working to improve the energy efficiency of the 5,200 council properties, through a new tenant energy strategy, which aims to reduce fuel poverty (and the resulting health problems for tenants) and to bring down carbon emissions from heating.
Bringing empty homes back into use is another way to help address the local housing crisis. Green Councillors are promoting the Empty Homes loan scheme, which provides an interest free loan to owners for repairs and refurbishments to turn their properties into much needed homes.”