Helping developers to help us build affordable housing

Corporate director for economy Waheed Nazir

Corporate director for economy Waheed Nazir

Birmingham City Council is set to approve proposals at cabinet on 18 April that will see new joint ventures with developers on ‘challenging’ sites and stimulate the creation of more affordable housing.

The report - ‘Joint venture partnering with the private sector to accelerate housing growth’ - identifies some of the issues facing developers on what are often seen as challenging and difficult housing development sites and examines why some developers are reluctant to take on such sites.  It then sets out how the council can work with developers to lessen some of their risk by committing to buy affordable housing within their developments.

Corporate director for economy, Waheed Nazir, said: “We need 89,000 new homes by 2031.  To achieve this we need to be increasingly creative, exploring all options and identify how we can help local companies to help us meet this target.

“The proposal to explore joint venture partnering with private developers will take away some of the risk that developers face, speed up delivery and provide much needed affordable housing for our citizens.  It will also mean that we have some say in the range of housing built, ensuring that the right mix is built for our needs.”

The proposals follow the success of Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust which has already built 2290 houses and 78 bungalows, and other recent creative responses to the housing shortage such as the council’s establishment of InReach - which builds apartments for market rent, Forward - which builds houses for market sale and the establishment of a new four year programme with smaller house builders on smaller plots of land.

 

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