Council to consider plan for thousands of homes and jobs

An £80million plan for 5,000 new homes and over 2,000 construction jobs is to be considered by Plymouth City Council.

The second phase of Plan for Homes, covering 2016-2021, will be discussed at the Council’s next Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 16 February.

The Plan includes 20 new initiatives which, if approved, will:

• Help Plymouth address the housing shortage
• Make better use of empty and derelict sites
• Help more people get the homes they need over the next five years

Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Cooperatives and Housing for Plymouth City Council, said: “The Plan for Homes is Plymouth’s answer to the massive housing shortage. We are committed to giving local people a better quality of life and making sure local people have a place they can call home.

“Our population is expected to rise from 258,000 to around 300,000 by 2031 and we plan to meet the need by delivering 22,700 new homes and 18,600 new jobs in construction and related industries over the next 15 years, providing a huge boost to the local economy.

“Our first Plan for Homes has already achieved so much, with the vast majority of new homes being built on brownfield sites, so we have much to celebrate, but we also have much more we want to do. That is why I am recommending that we as a Council invest in all these new housing initiatives.”

Recommendations to the Cabinet in the Plan for Homes 2016-2021 include:

• 1,650 new homes on Council owned sites, 840 of which will be affordable
• £1m empty homes initiative to tackle the blight of empty derelict housing and bring it back into use
• £10m loan for 500 market, affordable and social rented houses by 2020
• Approval of a £3m Housing Infrastructure Fund to support three growth areas in Plymouth
• Approval of a housing loan and grant facility of up to £50m
• Two year planning consent limit meaning if developers apply for consent but don’t progress housing developments they will have to reapply for planning permission
• Ring-fencing of £10m of Right to Buy receipts to be reinvested in local housing.