More council houses will be be built in Ashfield amid a claim that over 200 bids are regularly being made on three-bedroom properties there. Residents are said to be "crying out" for more social housing, with the Right to Buy scheme and a lack of development from registered providers affecting stock levels.
Ashfield District Council therefore says it wants to build 200 more council houses over the next four years. The authority says it has already built 108 homes since 2019, surpassing its original pledge to have built 100 by this year.
As part of the latest pledge, the council has now identified two sites it owns that could host 47 council houses. This includes land in Sutton known as the Hardwick Lane Rec, where 30 homes could be built, and land on Central Avenue in Kirkby, which could host 17.
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A meeting of the council's cabinet on Monday (June 26) approved the start of a consultation with residents on a change of use for the Hardwick Lane Rec from open space to land for housing. The authority will also seek the Government's permission to change land at the edge of the Central Avenue site from being designated for allotments, which the council says it has never hosted, to housing.
Councillor Tom Hollis, the Executive Lead for Strategic Housing and Climate Change at Ashfield District Council, said at Monday's meeting: "When I first began being a councillor in 2011, you'd expect roughly between 40 to 50 bids for a three-bed house. It's not unsurprising now to have well over 200.
"It's a tough time when you've got people with an urgent need for re-housing and there's simply not the houses to put them in. We're very blessed to have good relationships with social landlords, but it's not a nice situation to be in."
Councillor Hollis said of the people on the council house waiting list that around 100 of them are regularly classed as being in band one or two. The first band describes people who are homeless, whilst the second describes those with an urgent need for housing.
Councillors also backed plans to swap land between its 'general fund' and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) during Monday's meeting. The HRA is a ring-fenced account that has to be spent on housing stock.
The two sites where the council wants to put 47 homes are currently owned by its general fund, but the authority says it would be too expensive to simply buy this land using HRA money. Instead, it will replace the general fund land being lost with an equivalent-sized parcel of current HRA land at Clegg Hill Drive in Huthwaite, which the council says is "not considered to be a viable site to deliver social housing."
Councillor John Wilmott, who represents Hucknall North, also spoke about the need for housing at Monday's meeting by saying: "We have people crying out loud for housing and the only thing we can do to help is to make sure we have the housing available. We haven't at the present time, because there are so many people out there that want a property.
"It's a very difficult situation." Ashfield District Council's largest housing development is currently being built on Warwick Close in Kirkby, where 34 homes are due to be finished early next year.
