By John Baron
People waiting for local authority properties who are in the greatest need are set to benefit from a housing development being built in Swinnow.
Despite local concerns over design and access, Leeds City Council secured planning permission last October for 82 houses and apartments on the site of a former school at Hough Top.
The development – which is being delivered via Leeds’ Council Housing Growth Programme (CHGP) – will comprise 55 houses and 27 apartments, with a mix of one, two, three and four bedrooms.
The apartments will be located in a new three-storey building named Hough Top Court.
A recently released council report states new-build homes are currently allocated under a 50/50 split, with half let to people who have been on the waiting list the longest and half via housing need. But the lettings policy could soon change, with priority instead going solely to those judged most in need.
“The proposal is to allocate the new builds at Hough Top under the housing need quota only,” the report added.
“By adopting this quota system, the policy will help to address the increasing demand for housing and support the overarching allocation process, ensuring that those in greatest need are prioritised for new build homes.”
The council could adopt the lettings policy changes as city-wide policy later this year.
The report adds: “Leeds is facing an unprecedented demand for social housing, with nearly 28,000 households on the Leeds Homes Register, of which over 5,000 are in Band A, the highest priority band. Most Band A customers are waiting on average at least two years to be offered a home with the council.”
Council chiefs hope the change will increase opportunities for applicants with an urgent need to be rehoused.
The report added: “Customers may be assessed as having an urgent need to be rehoused based on being homelessness or threatened with homelessness, or having an urgent medical need to move. It also includes applicants with an urgent need to move on social, welfare or hardship grounds.
“This change will support customers with the greatest housing need and contribute to the best council objectives of tackling poverty and improving health and wellbeing.”
All 82 properties at Hough Top will be made available for affordable rent. The new homes will also be fitted with air source heat pumps, a sustainable heating solution that will help cut carbon emissions, tackle fuel poverty and support Leeds’s net zero ambitions.
The council report can be read in full here.
- WLD reported on construction progress at the site earlier this week.
- More Pudsey news and views from WLD can be found here.
- More Swinnow news and views from WLD can be found here.
Sponsored content
I have filled in the qusetionaire stating my situation at my current moment. I have been on the Leeds homes register since 2019 and had my band back dated to 2022 and I’m currently on Band B due to being overcrowed. Since I have been on the housing register I have not as yet been offered a property. I have lived In Swinnow for 12 years ,my children go to school close by and I work in Swinnow but due to the new policies I feel I wont be offered one of these new homes. I feel as though my name on the leeds homes register as gone into a black hole and I’ll never be offered a property.