Actions to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing in Kent, Essex and East Sussex were debated at a virtual roundtable webinar on Thursday, 30 November.
Chaired by the South East Local Enterprise Partnership’s (SELEP’s) Strategic Housing Advisor, Brian Horton, and facilitated by DHA Planning, the Roundtables bring together developers, local planners, housing officers and Government, and Homes England.
The ‘Affordable Housing Roundtable’ continued discussion from a previous roundtable and focused on the sector’s emerging asks of Government relating to rent policy, grant and local housing allowance – with the aim of increasing revenues and stimulating housing delivery.
Further webinars will be held in 2024 as part of the affordable housing roundtable series which will draw together the many actions and issues on the topic that have been identified by SELEP’s Housing and Development Group.
More than 80 people attended the previous roundtable in July, also chaired by Brian Horton. It focused on affordable housing delivery, particularly on the current issues and the reported reduced appetite and capacity for Registered Providers (RPs) to engage with S106 opportunities, and to scope out potential solutions.
Mr Horton said: “Through our partnership work with the wider public sector and businesses and organisations involved in the housing sector, it became apparent that we urgently need solutions to accelerate and support housing delivery in the SELEP area of Kent, Essex and East Sussex.
“The webinars act as a focus group, bringing together partners from across the housing sector to share messages, find common solutions and raise issues with Government. We’d urge any businesses and organisations with an interest in supporting this agenda to attend our webinar.”
Matthew Woodhead, Director at DHA, said: “This is a vitally important topic and has proved a very useful forum to discuss the issues and bring about changes to help unlock the delivery of affordable housing. It is open to all of those involved in affordable housing delivery and we look forward to hosting.”
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