Buckinghamshire Council does not have the ‘expertise’ to build social housing, the authority’s leader Martin Tett has said.
The council does not own any housing stock but works with over 70 registered organisations to provide affordable housing.
Cllr Tett said: “I would take an immense amount of convincing that we should actually start, as a council, building social housing.
“We don’t have any of the expertise in house. The sort of departments that used to build those have long since gone, 20, 30 or 40 years ago.”
Speaking at the cabinet meeting of Tuesday (September 10), the council leader stressed that building social housing would not be ‘financially sustainable’ for the unitary authority. This he said was due issues including the ‘housing revenue account’ rules requiring councils to balance their budgets for their social housing stock and the ‘right to buy’ scheme which allows council tenants to buy their home at a discount.
His comments came after Cllr Robin Stuchbury asked what progress the council had made since December 2020 when it commissioned a report into affordable housing, including ‘local authority owned social housing’.
The question was answered by Cllr John Chilver, the cabinet member for accessible housing and resources, who said work on this issue was ongoing.
He said the council had commissioned independent legal advice on the merits of the direct delivery of affordable housing, potentially through a dedicated housing company.
In 2023/24, 514 new affordable homes were ‘delivered’, exceeding the council’s annual target of 500.
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