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Housing Strategy

Housing Strategy

 

Copeland Borough Council has a Strategic Housing role. Examples of Strategic Housing activities can include:

 

• Assessing and planning for housing needs across all tenures
• Making best use of existing stock to meet need, through greater local discretion in access and lettings of social housing stock to make it more mixed in terms of type, size, affordability and tenure
• Planning for and facilitating new housing supply
• Planning and commissioning housing support services which link homes and housing support services
• Ensuring effective housing and neighbourhood management through partnership working

More information on the Strategic Housing role of Local Authorities can be found here.

 

 

Cumbria Housing Strategy 2006-2011

 

Copeland Borough Council is a partner in the Cumbria Housing Strategy 2006-2011. The Housing Strategy is an overarching strategic document which sets in place a framework for consistent policies and practices across the County.

 

View The Housing Strategy document. 

An Executive Summary of the document is available to view.

 

Housing Research

 

Private Sector Stock Condition Survey

 

In 2007 a Private Sector Stock Condition Survey was carried out by the Council, which surveyed a comprehensive sample of private sector (privately rented and privately owned) housing conditions in Copeland.

 

The Executive Summary lists the main findings of the research and is available to view.

The full report of the survey can be viewed here.

 

 

Copeland’s Housing Markets

 

Research into housing markets in Cumbria is directed by the Cumbria Housing Research and Information Group.

 

At 2006 the Research and Information Group produced summaries of research into housing markets in Cumbria entitled Housing Market Assessments. The Assessments were informed by a Housing Needs Survey undertaken in 2006.

• View  The Housing Market Assessments from 2006.

 

Please click on the following links to view the assessments for the three Housing Market Areas in Copeland:

 

• ‘Millom’ Housing Market Area 2006
• ‘West Lakes’ Housing Market Area 2006
• ‘Whitehaven’ Housing Market Area 2006

 

Interim Strategic Housing Market Assessments

 

Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs) are intended to provide local authorities with a detailed picture of local housing markets. Local Authorities are required by the government to complete Strategic Assessments of the housing markets within their area. 

 

In Cumbria, Strategic Housing Market Assessments are coordinated by The Cumbria Housing Group. The group is a forum to discuss and coordinate housing activities in Cumbria on behalf of the Six Districts, the Lake District National Park Authority and Cumbria County Council, plus representatives of Registered Social Landlords and the housing development industry. The Executive of the Cumbria Housing Group includes Local Authority Member representation, which sets the policy of the Group. The Chairperson of the Executive is Councillor Richard Turner from Eden District Council. The Cumbria Housing Group (through the Cumbria Housing Strategy 2006-2011) has identified 20 Housing Market Areas across Cumbria.

 

During 2008/2009, the Research & Information Group [a sub-task group of the Cumbria Housing Group (CHG)] prepared draft county-wide Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs) for each district local authority area in Cumbria, except for Barrow-in-Furness whose SHMA is still under preparation. In total there are 20 SMHAs covering Cumbria’s six district areas. A stakeholder consultation was carried out from 31^st July 2009 for six weeks until the 11^th September 2009. Following this consultation, the R&I Group reviewed the comments made, and made appropriate amendments before publishing reviewed versions of the SHMAs here.

 

There are three Interim Strategic Housing Market Assessments for the Copeland borough. Each SHMA contains information covering: 

·         demography and household types; 

·         national and regional economic policy; 

·         employment levels and structure; 

·         incomes and earnings; 

·         dwelling profiling; 

·         stock condition; 

·         shared housing;

·         cost of buying or renting property; 

·         overcrowding and under-occupation; 

·         vacant dwellings, second homes; and 

·         housing requirements of specific groups.   

The preparation of SHMAs for each of the identified Housing Market Areas is a requirement of national Government planning advice contained in PPS3 – Housing. Each of the SHMAs follows the relevant Government Guidance [CLG – Strategic Housing Market Assessments - Practice Guidance Version 2 (August 2007) see www.communities.gov.uk] chapter by chapter to ensure alignment and that they have been completed in accordance with national advice.

 

We have worked in association with our economic regeneration colleagues at Cumbria Vision to identify a series of economic scenarios, from which five future housing scenarios, including two that identify an upper and lower limit to possible housing requirement, have been produced. Based upon the SHMA evidence and other local evidence, each Local Planning Authority will now be in a position to choose the future levels of new housing provision and the policies appropriate for their area.

 

The production of the 20 Cumbria SHMAs will therefore provide a crucial evidence base to support the future delivery of new housing and economic development in Cumbria for each of the six Districts’ and the Lake District National Park Authority’s emerging Local Development Frameworks and other strategies. As a consequence of this evidence base, each Local Planning Authority should be able to set out in their LDFs the likely overall proportion of households that require market or affordable housing, the likely profile of household types requiring market housing, and the size and type of affordable housing required. It is also intended that the local SHMAs should be used to inform future housing policies set in the Regional Strategy for the North West (RS2010) and local housing strategies.

 

The three Interim Strategic Housing Market Assessments for Copeland are available to download below. The Executive Summary for the three Strategic Housing Market Assessments is also available to download below. The Final Copeland Strategic Housing Market Assessments are due to be published in 2010.

• View Interim Millom Strategic Housing Market Assessment
• View Interim West Lakes Strategic Housing Market Assessment
• View Interim Whitehaven Strategic Housing Market Assessment
• View Copeland Strategic Housing Market Assessment Executive Summary

Please contact the Housing Strategy department for any further information on the Interim Strategic Housing Market Assessments.

 

 

 

Private Sector Housing Strategy

 

The consultation period has now ended, the draft will be amended to reflect comments and taken to Executive Committee in January 2010. The strategy will be on the website once approved by the Council. 

 

Strategic Housing Plan

 

The first draft of the Strategic Housing Plan 2009/2011 is at consultation stage, comments are due back to us by 20 November 2009 and we are looking to publish the final document is January 2010.