Public consultation launched on Shropshire Council's vision for housing
Shropshire Council is asking people in the county for their thoughts on its vision for housing for the next five years.
A six-week consultation into the council’s draft housing strategy begins today and runs until September 16.
The council says ensuring everyone in Shropshire has a roof over their head is a key aim. Its plan includes meeting current and future needs of the county's growing population and ensuring those who can't access open market housing have somewhere to live.
It says all housing must be well-designed, decent homes of high quality.
"This will protect Shropshire’s unique urban and rural environments and ensure it is a great place to live," the vision said.
It wants a mix of housing in both town and countryside, saying: "All Shropshire residents have access to the ‘right home in the right place’ to support and promote their health and wellbeing throughout their lives."
Preventing households from becoming homeless is another key aim.
The council also says ensuring that there is enough housing to help businesses to attract their workforce will help economic growth and wants to work to minimise the environmental impact of housing in the county.
The strategy will be supported by a detailed action plan outlining short, medium and long-term actions.
Key issue
Robert Macey, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for housing and strategic planning, said: “The council already has a leading role in housing, but we recognise that we don’t have control over all actions and activities relating to housing provision. The vision set out in the draft strategy is about working collaboratively across the public sector, private sector and communities.
“The purpose of this consultation is to seek views on the vision and related objectives, and how these can be achieved. Housing is a key issue for Shropshire and I encourage everyone to look at the draft strategy and feed in their thoughts.”
"All comments will be carefully considered and used to inform the final version of the strategy, which will be considered by the council’s Cabinet in the autumn," Councillor Macey said.
The consultation into the council’s draft housing strategy runs until September 16 at shropshire.gov.uk/get-involved/draft-housing-strategy-2020-2025-consultation or by requesting a hard copy of the documents on 01743 254633.
The six objectives in the draft strategy are:
To meet the overall current and future housing needs of Shropshire’s growing population by addressing the housing needs of particular groups within communities;
To ensure people whose housing needs are not met through the local open market housing, can access housing that meets their needs; Work to reduce and prevent households from becoming homeless; and where this is not possible ensuring they have safe, secure and appropriate accommodation until they are able to resettle;
To ensure people can access a mix of housing options within Shropshire’s urban and rural landscape, that best meets their needs in terms of tenure, safety, size, type, design and location of housing;
To minimise the environmental impact of existing housing stock and future housing development in the interest of climate change.
To work with policymakers, developers and private and social landlords to maximise resource efficiencies and to ensure optimum use of sustainable construction techniques;
To support the drive for economic growth by ensuring that there is enough housing supply to enable businesses to attract and retain the local workforce that they need.
