9.1 Increasing Housing Supply
The central challenge for Dorset is delivering homes which are affordable for our residents to acquire and to live in.
To address affordability issues, we need to increase the supply of new housing whilst also ensuring that existing homes are put to good use.
Whilst growth in housing supply is a priority, it is essential that delivery is not just about numbers. Providing homes which are the right type, the right tenure and in the right place are also key.
Whilst we do want to increase the supply of homes, we need to consider and address the challenges facing our partners. Development costs, labour and materials shortages, land costs, and nutrient neutrality mitigation issues create barriers for developers.
Whilst we have less control or influence over labour shortages, we encourage developers to take on apprentices and employees from the Dorset area and promote education in trade skills and qualifications.
We encourage and support innovation in building and development, providing homes at a good value and by utilising initiatives such as modern methods of construction or modular building.
It is important that we maximise opportunities to increase availability of the right homes in addition to newly built homes.
This includes exploring how we bring properties back into use, to seek partnerships with organisations and landlords who will provide new settled accommodation and to consider how we make the best use of existing buildings, homes, and land.
9.2 Right place
Our residents have told us that they want us to make sure that any new development is sensitive to their needs and that we prioritise local homes for local people. Community engagement on proposed developments, the delivery of new homes by community land trusts, co-housing, and neighbourhood plans are ways that we already do this.
The protection of our green spaces is also a priority for our residents.
Our area includes, urban, coastal, and rural settings, and is diverse geographically. It is important to ensure that there is sufficient infrastructure and services tailored for each diverse location to meet identified local needs, and to sustain effective development of housing.
9.3 Right property
A property can be considered ‘right’ in terms of size, cost, design and attached support. Providing the right property ensures residents can access homes that meet their needs. Having a well-designed home, sensitive to its surroundings, is also a key component of a successful, sustainable home.
Delivering homes and support services that meet current needs but also future needs, means we, and our partners, use resources wisely. We acknowledge and encourage the positive support of our partners in ensuring developments are closely linked to local need.
Some residents need support they can access easily either in their home or community. The reasons for support vary but include age or health related care, support linked to homeless or young people who we have looked after and continue to support.
The right homes can help with recovery and independent living and can reduce non-essential delays in health-related rehabilitation at home. Residents are better able to live independently and maximise their own choices. Expensive care and residential placements could sometimes be avoided if the right home was available, and this would also help reduce these costs.
9.4 Data Insight and Development
Dorset aims to meet local housing needs and objectives with our partners in a data informed way. We will make best of all relevant data including independent sources.
The council and our partners provide a wide range of services to residents. Housing needs are routinely captured by departments within the council, and by our external partners.
Our Housing Register plays an important part in capturing the detail of housing need and the number of people who require affordable housing to rent.
It is important that we:
- bring our data insights together – including the Housing Register - and use it to make decisions, prioritise and make best use of our resources.
- mature our housing need data insights related to residents who are:
- older residents who need property adaptations and/or support to help them to live independently for longer
- disabled residents (adults and young people) who require property adaptations to meet their specific needs
- residents who need supported housing, for example people with mental ill-health needs, special educational needs, autism, learning difficulties, people leaving care, people leaving hospital, young people (16–17-year-old) and people who are homeless
- victims of domestic violence and abuse
- women and children
- people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness
- specific housing for identified groups of people such as essential local workers (key workers), refugees, unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people, current and former armed forces personnel and their families, gypsies and travellers, students, young single adults and low-income families, prospective foster families, and adopters
- living in a rural location and in housing need
9.5 Homes for Dorset Residents
The impact of second homes, and inward migration, on the availability of housing for local residents is identified as an area of concern in the public consultation – due to this being perceived as reducing the availability of homes for local people.
Making sure that enough is available for local people is a theme of this strategy, whilst balancing the accommodation needs for visitors and tourists.
Through partnership working with our registered providers, and the housing allocations policy, we already ensure that affordable housing is only allocated to those people who meet the local connection criteria or are excepted.
We cannot control those who move into the area through the social housing mutual exchange process, but this is a system which also benefits residents by supporting moves when necessary.
Dorset has a strong record supporting housing development through Community Land Trusts (CLT). These arrangements are led by our communities and bring forward new affordable homes needed by local communities. The groups are supported by us and our registered providers.
We are committed to continuing and strengthening the support we offer CLTs and rural enabling work.
We aim to work with external enabling partners by maximising opportunities for joint arrangements, government initiatives and funding opportunities.
9.6 Dorset Landlords
As of September 2023, just over 360 landlords have joined our Landlord Forum and we are encouraging new members from across the whole Dorset Council area. Whilst this is a sizeable number, membership is mostly landlords with properties in the west of our area, who have been established as a group since before Dorset Council became a Unitary Authority in 2019.
The Landlord Forum provides an opportunity for landlords to engage with Dorset Council, and each other, through regular meetings, updates, training, and quarterly newsletters. Members also have access to a dedicated contact and receive a discount on licencing fees for houses in multiple occupation.
In a survey of Dorset landlords, 25% of respondents said that they were planning to leave the market or reduce their number of rental properties, within the next 5 years.
Our landlords’ biggest concerns are:
- the impact of the capped local housing allowance on tenants’ ability to meet their rent costs
- the increased costs needed to meet any new property, energy efficiency or Decent Homes standards
- their ability to meet these standards based on the age and construction of their properties
- that confusion over standards might lead to landlords being asked to complete unnecessary and costly works
We are already working with our private landlords to provide useful support and guidance to help them meet new standards, understand their obligations and to encourage and support those who provide homes for our residents who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
People’s housing needs change and sometimes existing homes no longer meet their needs but could with some adaptations.
This strategy has identified that households who privately rent their home can face barriers to having adaptations installed and this can result in a need to move.
Due to the demand for housing, finding suitable accommodation can be a lengthy and challenging process. Supporting tenants to remain where they are often provides a better solution.
Our landlords told us that they welcome opportunities to work more closely with Dorset Council and are keen to find solutions which will support both residents and landlords.
Working together with our private landlords, we aim to ensure our range of options is effective and positive.
It is important that we value and promote our private landlords by continuing to offer support, guidance, and advice and by seeking to expand the number who work with us to meet the needs of our residents.
9.7 Empty Properties
Dorset has a strong record of positive work in relation to empty properties. We already offer support to property owners to bring empty homes back into use and will acquire homes, when necessary, affordable, or available.
We will refresh our empty homes policies and identify opportunities to enhance our role. The Local Government Association’s Empty Homes Report identifies areas of best practice which should be applied to Dorset, to increase the numbers of empty properties being brought back in to use.
This Strategy recognises and supports our work to bring empty homes back into use. The complex nature of the work means this is a long-term activity but is beneficial to many and continues to be supported.
9.8 Building healthy communities
Housing quality has a significant impact on both physical and mental health with people who live in poor quality homes. Inadequate housing contributes to inequalities in health, including families as well as single adults.
As well as the condition of housing, the health impact of housing includes whether homes are overcrowded and whether they meet the physical needs of the occupants.
Concerns about security of tenure, not being able to pay bills, and the threat of homelessness have all been shown to have a negative impact on the health of adults and children.
Problems caused by substandard housing are more likely to affect low-income households and are compounded when there may be difficulty in paying household bills.
The need to improve availability of good quality housing is recognised by partners across the Dorset Integrated Care System (ICS).
Reducing health inequalities is a core purpose of the ICS. Doing so requires the ICS to act on opportunities beyond improving healthcare access, experience, and outcomes. It requires action to improve the environment in which people live, including housing, to enable more people to enjoy good health for longer.
Our consultation identified shared support from the local NHS Trusts regarding the impact housing has on health, our objectives and how we can deliver them.
Working in partnership with the NHS we aim to strengthen housing expertise in health settings, improving patient housing pathways, promoting access to mental health support that prevents and relieves homelessness and improves outcomes for residents within our communities.
Our NHS Trust in Dorset tell us our community hospitals have a small percentage (5%) out of 208 beds of people who cannot be discharged due to housing related issues. The reasons include:
- housing is not fit to return to
- people don’t have a home base but were staying with friends or relatives previously and are not fit enough to return there
- life changing physical conditions that require a change in housing provision
- properties not on national grid and therefore equipment cannot be used that requires power
We are already working closely with our health partners to support successful discharge and will continue to use our expertise and explore opportunities. We are also working with health and other public service employers to explore options to support employees to find and sustain tenancies or buy homes in the area.
9.9 Best use of Council Assets
Dorset’s Council Plan includes a commitment to make the best use of our land and assets. The transformation vision states that we will be “reviewing the council buildings and properties to ensure best use and value of assets and help drive prosperity whilst adopting a focus on places and spaces”.
Our Property Strategy & Asset Management Plan (2020 – 2024) supports this commitment through its aim to “work in collaboration with other public sector partners to utilise assets to:
- create economic growth (new homes and jobs)”
If a Council asset or piece of land is suitable for new homes, then it will be considered as part of a robust appraisal of what provides the best outcome for Dorset Council and its residents.
9.10 Social Housing
There are 52 providers of social housing in Dorset and together they own 12% of the homes in our area.
We do not have our own social housing stock and rely on our registered providers, and other organisations, to build new homes. Dorset Council is a Registered Provider in our own right, but this is limited to acquiring temporary accommodation to alleviate homelessness and our approach does not seek to compete with other registered providers.
Our role is to support and enable our partners to develop affordable housing on land they acquire, using funding from Homes England.
We welcome Homes England’s move towards providing funding for properties developed under the social rent model which supports this and aim to work with our partners to maximise their opportunities to deliver homes at a social rent.
It is important that we support our partners to deliver higher numbers of new affordable housing meeting local need.
Whilst most Dorset social housing tenants have the right number of bedrooms to meet their households needs, 38% said that they have at least one bedroom more than they need. 6% said that they don’t have enough rooms and are living in overcrowded conditions which can have a negative impact on the development of children which can lead to health and educational challenges.
Our registered providers tell us that, whilst they support and promote downsizing, they have limited resources to financially incentivise this. Instead, those wishing to move are often signposted to our housing register, or to mutual exchange sites like Homeswapper.
In mutual exchanges all tenants ‘swap’ their properties with other tenants of social housing providers and offer an opportunity to look outside of their own landlord’s stock.
Using the data available to us, we have the potential to match existing social tenants on our housing register with each other. We plan to match downsizers with those who are overcrowded, and those living in adapted homes they no longer need, with those who need homes with adaptations.
This is expected to reduce the waiting time for some households and assist social landlords to make best use of their stock.
9.11 Supporting Sustainable Tenancies
The Homelessness & Rough Sleeping strategy identified a need to develop pre-tenancy training and a qualification to equip homeless households to become tenancy ready. This includes advice on saving for rent in advance, resolving former tenancy debts, or demonstrating sustained improvement in behaviour which would normally be a barrier to being offered a tenancy.
Once finalised, we plan to extend this service to our residents who have applied for housing through our housing register, in particular those who have never had a tenancy before or who have previously lost one
Having tenancy ready accreditation will provide a show of good faith to landlords and our registered providers indicated this would be a welcome initiative.
Our work with children, young people, care leavers and adults with a higher level of support needs already helps them to access support to sustain and manage tenancies and we have been developing these initiatives.
It is important that we support all households to support a tenancy ready status that will help them access both social and private rented homes to solve their housing need.
9.12 Enhancing our temporary accommodation offer
Despite the innovative approaches our homelessness services have taken to prevent and resolve homelessness, the increasing levels of approaches mean this is not always possible. When homelessness cannot be prevented, some households find themselves in need of emergency accommodation.
This can often take the form of expensive bed and breakfast accommodation, before a move to either a new home or more settled temporary accommodation.
Reducing the use of bed and breakfast accommodation is vital, to reduce the financial burden on the council and to find settled homes for people and families.
Temporary accommodation plays an important role in providing short-term access to housing until a more permanent solution can be found.
To reduce the cost of bed and breakfast accommodation we are working to increase the levels of more financially sustainable temporary accommodation and continue to build on the existing programme of work which is already happening.
9.13 Sustainable Homes & Developments
We are committed to working with our partners to ensure that all new housing is designed and built to the highest standards and that they are sympathetic to their surroundings, to enhance the quality, character and integrity of Dorset’s unique environment and heritage.
Good design and construction will prevent environmental damage, make homes healthier and cheaper to run, and protect owners from future retrofit costs. All new
builds should therefore aim to be net zero, nature positive and resilient in their location, orientation, design, and construction. It can:
- enable sustainable construction methods that are resource and energy efficient
- enable homes to better reduce, reuse and recycle
- support homes to enjoy opportunities for community growing
- enable homes that better protect and enhance nature and provides opportunity for residents to enjoy nature – through nature-positive development, wildlife-friendly gardens & green infrastructure, and well-maintained rights of way & public greenspace
- ensure our homes are resilient and well-adapted for climate risks from extreme weather and other climate pressures
As a local authority we have an important role, working with landlords, enabling the retrofitting of existing housing stock, including further supporting home retrofitting through our Healthy Homes Dorset programme, continuing to work through our Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) project to drive progress in the private rented sector, and further supporting retrofit grant funding for our social housing providers.
Sustainable development is a lever to nurture more prosperous, stronger, healthier communities. It is an opportunity to ensure that future homes are healthier and cheaper to run, better connected, and creates new skilled jobs.
9.14 Accessible Homes
With a higher number of people aged 65 or above, when compared nationally, the provision of appropriate housing for older and disabled people is an important factor in the supply of housing.
Our ageing population will see the numbers of disabled people continuing to increase and it is important we plan early to meet their needs and to avoid the need to retrofit accessibility measures.
This Strategy links to wider strategies relating to accommodation with care and support for older people, and those with disabilities, when these are needed.
Including specialist occupational therapists further into design and development can help to ensure homes meet any identified local need at the earliest stage.
New homes are built to the latest national building regulations, meaning that they are more energy efficient and tend to be more accessible than older homes. However, we wish to seek further improvements in the quality of new homes.
We are committed to increasing the supply of accessible homes and wheelchair friendly properties. We will continue to work with developers to increase accessibility of new developments.
9.15 New Models for Housing Delivery
Currently most delivery of new affordable housing is done in partnership with registered providers, with them levering in their own private finance and Homes England grant.
In addition to the existing and valued ways we supply new homes, exploring other ways to increase supply is key for Dorset and will make a significant contribution to meeting resident’s housing needs. Key homes are:
- low cost settled accommodation
- temporary accommodation
- supported accommodation
The delivery plan to this Strategy will explore new models of delivery when this is necessary. This is to recognise the need to stay alert to economic and social trends and to provide cost-effective and sustainable solutions, in delivering our Strategy and responsibilities.
9.16 Funding
Acting on opportunities and tackling housing challenges in our area requires effective financial planning to be at the core of our work. We can bolster support and extend this to partners and residents by ensuring we promote existing grant funding, exploring joint funding opportunities and promoting uptake of new initiatives.