Views sought on Shropshire Council’s draft Housing Strategy

Shropshire Council is asking people 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 (Wednesday 5 August 2020) and runs until Wednesday 16 September via the council website, or by requesting a hard copy of the documents on 01743 254633.

The strategy aims to ensure that current and future housing needs are met, and sets out Shropshire Council’s vision for housing for the next five years: that ‘all homes are well- designed decent homes of high quality, which will protect Shropshire’s unique urban and rural environments and ensure it is a great place to live’; and ‘that all Shropshire residents have access to the ‘right home in the right place’ to support and promote their health and well-being throughout their lives’.

The draft housing strategy which can be download at this link draft-housing-strategy-jul20 was approved for consultation by cabinet on 15 June. The strategy sets out our vision for housing for the next five years:

That all homes are well designed decent homes of high quality, which will protect Shropshire’s unique urban and rural environments and ensure it is a great place to live.

and

That all Shropshire residents have access to the ‘right home in the right place’ to support and promote their health and well-being throughout their lives.

The six objectives in the draft strategy are:

1. To meet the overall current and future housing needs of Shropshire’s growing population by addressing the housing needs of particular groups within communities.
2. To ensure people whose housing needs are not met through the local open market housing, can access housing that meets their needs.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

You can give your views on the draft Housing Strategy 2020-2025 by clicking on this link https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ETDBti03i0O8gmfkx5ZuiWx1FwoOPDhOum3KswdmL_NUQkFVNjg4QllDMDZaSzEyNTZSVzI1WEZXSi4u

SDN says: Is enough being done to provide accommodation for people with disabilities/long term conditions and the elderly?