A government agency is helping councils in Berkshire to provide more affordable and social housing.
Homes England was launched in 2018 to help councils increase the amount of affordable housing.
In the last few years, Homes England has assisted the delivery of housing projects across the country and throughout Berkshire.
In Reading, it has provided more than £5 million in grant funding to help the borough council deliver around 100 affordable homes in the town.
Meanwhile, in Bracknell, it has assisted in making 81 of the 169 apartments being created at the Brickmark Place development in Market Place affordable.
In Wokingham, it is collaborating with the borough council to fund the South Wokingham Distributor Road, along with helping to fund 119 affordable flats at Sterling Gardens in Newbury.
Bosses at Homes England recently held a presentation at a meeting of the Berkshire Prosperity Board, which is made up of the six councils in the county.
During the presentation, officials spoke about a new £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programne for 2026-2036.
Dilys Jones, the assistant director for Affordable Housing Growth at Homes England, said: “One of the clear objectives of government is to support local authorities to increase council house building and there have been a number of other reforms in terms of the housing revenue accounts (HRAs) and also around Right to Buy, and one of the key aspects which should unlock capacity is that local authorities are able to align Right to Buy receipts and combine those with funding from the affordable homes programme.”
Of the six councils, Reading, Wokingham, and Slough own and manage council housing.
The others, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, West Berkshire and Bracknell Forest are reliant on social housing organisations called ‘Registered Providers’ to provide social and affordable housing.
These organisations, examples of which include Abri, Metropolitan Thames Valley and Sovereign Housing Association, also have a presence in the other Berkshire council areas, but are not the sole providers of social housing.
This nuance was highlighted in a question raised by Stephen Conway, the leader of Wokingham Borough Council.
Councillor Conway (Liberal Democrats, Twyford, Ruscombe and Hurst) said: “I’m sure you’re aware that in Berkshire we have a variety of means of delivering affordable housing.
“And I just wanted to focus for a moment on something that sadly only applies to three of our six and that’s delivering more council housing.
“One of the barriers currently to our delivering more [council housing] stock is lack of land. Is Homes England prepared to issue grants to enable us to acquire land on which we’d be able to build more council housing?”
Ms Jones replied: “I absolutely accept that most local authorities have uh traditionally developed out on their own land. But there is that ability within the grant program for land acquisition.
“Obviously, there would need to be value for money considerations, but yes, land acquisition is part of the eligible cost for grant funding.”
The meeting of the board was hosted at Wokingham Borough Council on December 15.
