Putting council land to good use

We are in the process of establishing a framework of Affordable Housing Providers (AHP) to work with us to develop much-needed new homes on unused council land, and in December, Cabinet agreed the first tranche of sites that will be approved.

The sites – which include empty buildings, vacant land or properties that have been decommissioned – will be developed to provide new social housing homes to rent at affordable rates and shared ownership properties to help more people get on the housing ladder. These sites will go through a tender process using the new Affordable Homes Framework (AHF) in 2023 and we anticipate that this will create almost 300 new affordable homes.

The need for more affordable homes in Southampton has been heightened in recent years with Right to Buy sales depleting our housing stock and increasing numbers of people applying for council housing. With over 7500 people currently on the housing register the wait for a council property can often take many years. Using empty council buildings and vacant properties in the first tranche of sites means the much-needed affordable homes can be delivered at a quicker pace.

This is just the first list of council sites that we hope to make available for affordable housing to help meet our target of developing 8,000 affordable homes in the city by 2040. 

Our affordable housing provider partners will also be tasked with ensuring that more specialist housing is built in the city, including developing homes for people with disabilities and housing with care (extra care). There is a requirement that 5% of the new properties developed must be fully wheelchair accessible.

Find out more about the Affordable Housing Framework.