Housing
Cheshire West & Chester Council
Multi agency rough sleeping (MARS) partnership
Our Multi-Agency Rough Sleeping partnership (MARS) is built on an ethos that truly focusing on the needs and aspirations of vulnerable people, and working effectively with our partners, can have a profoundly positive effect on those who need our help the most. Through our new ways of working and engaging, nearly 75% of the individuals we worked with - who were rough sleeping or at considerable risk of doing so - were supported into accommodation and been empowered not to return to a situation of homelessness.
West Oxfordshire DC
The Our House Project, West Oxfordshire District Council
WODC Our House Project was developed as an innovate approach to tackling the issues and lack of housing options facing young people who were either homeless or about to become homeless. The Our House Project offers young people accommodation across 3 small shared houses within the district to up to 12 young people from the district at any one time, with bespoke specialist support to not only give them a safe place to live, but to encourage them back into education, training or employment. The goal is to help young people overcome challenges and to build a brighter future.
Coventry City Council
HMO licensing – the Coventry way
The growth of the PRS and in particular, the number of HMOs in Coventry has been a major concern for the Council which led to it introducing a citywide HMO licensing in 2020.
But this isn't just any old scheme it's HMO Licensing - The Coventry Way.
Innovative criteria linked to fair and effective fee structures that reward good landlords and punishes bad supported by robust enforcement and accreditation.
Three years in the Council has undertook a review of the effectiveness of its scheme highlighting the successes so far, whilst recognising more needs to done.
Greenwich RBC
Multi-strand affordable housing delivery
Royal Borough of Greenwich has pioneered a unique, multi-strand approach to tackling the housing crisis, combining affordable housing delivery, improvements to existing homes, and neighbourhood regeneration, ensuring that our residents have access to a safe, secure and sustainable home that meets their needs.
From our own 1,750 council home-building programme, partnerships with private developers and a huge programme of estate refurbishment, to grassroots community-led development with Community Land Trusts and the buying back of housing stock previously sold under Right to Buy rules, we are exploiting every avenue to maximise the creation of homes.
Haringey Council
Housing delivery programme
Haringey Council should win for the scale and pace of its £1bn housing delivery programme to build 3,000 council homes by 2031. With 2,027 new council homes completed or underway, with 500 more expected to complete by summer 2024, more residents will soon echo one mother’s words: “my daughter fell in love with the house, her dream home”.
Haringey’s programme uses Innovative technologies and careful design to deliver sustainable homes to tackle climate change, bespoke homes adapted for tenants’ specific needs, family-sized homes and placemaking, and empowers residents with extensive community engagement. Mayor Khan describes Haringey’s approach as “a game-changer”.
Newham LBC
Building A Fairer Newham – Private Rented Sector Licensing
Newham Council has been a leader in large-scale property licensing since introducing our first schemes in 2013, as the first Council in England to do so. In 2023 we introduced our third selective and additional HMO (house of multiple occupation) licensing schemes covering privately rented small HMOs and family homes across 22 out of 24 wards in the borough. We have also developed a range of innovative projects as part of licensing to support private tenants.
Licensing enables us to effectively support private tenants, ensuring that the management and property standards set out in the licence conditions are upheld.
North Lanarkshire Council
A warm welcome – Ukrainian resettlement
The council responded to the Scottish Government’s request to support people arriving in Scotland who had fled the Ukrainian conflict. The council’s existing tower reprovisioning programme is replacing demolished towers with new-build housing but the opportunity arose to support Ukrainian families by refurbishing empty properties where demolition had yet to start. The council rapidly responded and achieved its objective of turning around 200 empty properties in two towers within six months, supporting the resettlement of around 200 Ukrainian families previously living in welcome hotels, with a warm home and a range of supportive services such as schooling and benefits.
North Lincolnshire Council
Changing lives through a unified housing, rehabilitation and recovery approach across North Lincolnshire
Housing and homeless prevention functions were recently integrated into adult social care in the council. This has driven a transformative approach to service delivery routed in a system wide unified model of housing, rehabilitation and recovery that focus on the overall wellbeing of a person that enables them to build a life they choose, living in a place they call home, with friends and family they care about care about them, contributing socially and economically to their local community.
OX Place for Oxford City Council
The curve
Injecting new life into a brownfield site to create a thriving community, whilst providing 38 much needed new homes - a mixture of shared ownership, affordable and social rent - is what The Curve in Cowley, Oxford achieved. Whilst also contributing >£2m for council budgets for the provision of essential services.
The homes are beautiful, and their contemporary aesthetic aligns with the modern construction approach – achieving 56% below the Building Regulations 2013 carbon target (16% beyond the internal target), making them more cost-efficient to live in whilst minimising their intrinsic environmental impact.
Wiltshire Council
Delivering success on the home front
Wiltshire is an area that has taken in one of the largest numbers of Ukrainians in the country – 1,566 to date – and has seen wider demand spike since the end of the pandemic. When refugees were evacuated from Afghanistan and then began arriving from Ukraine, Wiltshire Council sought out accommodation where it could control tenure and offer greater stability and security for tenants. It has adopted an innovative and mixed economy approach to delivering sustainable housing solutions.