Delivering the Right Houses in the Right Places

During the last four years we are proud to have delivered the first general needs councils houses for a generation, with an established pipeline of 200 more. We also updated the planning rules so all our new council housing will be to the highest environmental standards. We achieved a 40% improvement building’s energy efficiency at the support housing scheme in Grosvenor House, and expanded emergency accommodation. Building on this solid start, over the next four years we will:

• Ensure that the Local Plan is current and reflects the needs of B&NES communities.

• Ensure that homes are built at the best density for the location.

• Ensure that the character and history of every location is reflected in any new developments.

• Aim for 100s of council house units by 2027, with an aspiration of over 1,000 units by 2030.

• Stop developers dodging affordable home quotas and strengthen enforcement overall, lobbying government to make sure that, when developers overpay for land, the Council is not left dealing with the consequences

• Make all so-called ‘viability agreements’ public.

• Introduce local rules to ensure the best use of new build properties.

• Campaign to increase council tax for second-home owners.

• Support new housing concepts and innovation such as micro/eco-housing projects.

• Not force allocations on villages but work with them to identify which villages want housing growth to address local need.

• Support communities who wish to grow to keep local amenities viable.

• Direct house building to locations where the land will be cheap enough that homes will be more affordable, ideally on brownfield sites.

• Use the Local Plan to push back against inappropriate hotel developments that use land which could be used for affordable housing.

• Improve the visibility of appropriate information about rogue landlords.

• Ensure that the energy efficiency information about a property is easily available to potential renters.

• Rigorously pursue prosecutions against those landlords who fail to meet standards.

• Help landlords to know the applicable laws and restrictions.

• Help landlords understand the local plan and the needs of local communities.

• Ensure that no one type of property dominates a community.

• Ensure that infrastructure and parking requirements are realistically considered and enforced.

• Make information about the benefits of highly effective, “green” home improvements easily available.

• Ensure that there is housing available for students and young people, with a focus on on-campus accommodation whilst ensuring HMOs are safe and of good quality.

• Ensure that young people understand their duties and responsibilities to our communities.

• Help renters understand their housing rights and making it easy to report any housing problems.

• Tighten local house building regulations to improve the energy efficiency of new homes.

• Resist economic sites in the Somer Valley being used for schemes which allocate 100% of available space to housing where jobs could be created through development of other uses.

• Ensure that new developments are built with sustainable infrastructure in mind.

• Ensure that future developments provide electric vehicle charging facilities where parking is provided.

• Aim for car-free housing developments in the city centre that are close to sustainable transport links.

• Resist overflow housing from Bristol and assist with flood defences to allow Bristol to build more housing.