About Local Housing Watch
- Why did we create this site?
- What do we mean by affordable housing?
- What is the housing league table?
- Where does the data come from?
- How did Shelter rank the councils?
- The challenges of affordable housing delivery
- What can councils do now?
- Councillor data
Why did we create this site?
The need for affordable housing has never been greater.
The average price of a home in England and Wales is now £175,000 – well beyond reach for most first time buyers. In England alone, 1.8 million households are on waiting lists for affordable housing.
The role of councils in tackling this crisis is vital. You can use this site to check your council's performance on ensuring delivery of the affordable homes that are needed, and to take action by email if you think they should be doing more.
It also an invaluable local housing data resource – providing councillors and their communities with an insight into the housing situation in their local area, and equipping them with the knowledge they need to get involved in the local housing debate.
What do we mean by affordable housing?
We mean housing that is available to buy or rent at a lower cost than homes on the open market.
Often subsidised by government, affordable housing includes social rented housing, low-cost home ownership schemes and below-market rental schemes.
What is the housing league table?
In March 2010, Shelter launched a housing league table. It provided a snapshot of how well councils were doing at delivering the new affordable housing needed in their areas, comparing their performance to give each council a ranking.
Where does the data come from?
The need for new affordable homes
Every council should undertake an assessment of the need for new affordable housing in their area. These are called Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMA) and the majority of councils have done one. Where a council hasn't done so, we used their Housing Needs Assessment (HNA), an assessment that preceded the SHMA. These assessments indicate how many new affordable homes are needed in each area, each year.
How many new affordable homes councils planned to deliver each year
Councils provide the Government department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) with details of the number of new affordable homes that they plan to be built in their area. This data is held on the CLG website in a report called the Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA).
The number of new affordable homes delivered
Each year, CLG collects data from councils on the number of new affordable homes delivered in their area that year. This data appears in Table 1008 on the CLG website. The table’s number is 1008.
Other data on this site
For all other data on this site, Shelter has provided the source. Simply click on the [+] next to the information.
How did the 2010 Housing League Table rank the councils?
Councils across England were ranked on the extent to which they and their partners met the need for new affordable housing in their area. This was done using data sources in the public arena. The sources used were assessments of affordable housing need undertaken by councils and the delivery of new affordable housing by councils, housing associations and other developers.
We looked at the average number of new affordable homes delivered in each area over a three year period, using Table 1008 on the CLG website. This gives the fairest assessment as it takes account of the situation over time, smoothing out temporary ‘blips’.
We then divided the average number of new affordable homes delivered by the number of new affordable homes needed in each area each year (SHMA and HNA). This shows what percentage of the annual need for new affordable homes is being met. The bigger the percentage (or in other words the more the council met the need for affordable housing), the higher the council appears on the ranking.
The challenges of affordable housing delivery
We know that the recession made delivering affordable homes more challenging than ever.
Developers, who play a key role in ensuring the delivery of affordable housing, have not been in a position to do so. Government funding has had to cover more of the affordable housing build costs than it would normally, reducing the number of new homes built.
Councils have perhaps had less say over the allocation of housing investment and many of the developments they have been trying to push through have stalled from lack of funds. In addition, in some areas, there is also an acute shortage of land for residential use.
As a result of these problems many councils have struggled to deliver the level of affordable housing they have identified as needed.
What can councils do now?
We think that by working creatively with their partners, councils can develop innovative ways to address the current challenges to delivering affordable housing.
Some examples of what councils might do are listed below and can also be found in ‘delivery solution’ section and include:
- Selling public land at below-market prices
- Encouraging landowners to lease their land
- Splitting up larger sites
- Encouraging the building of affordable housing on smaller sites
- Being creative about other sources of local funding
Our league table will also let councils compare how they are doing against their peers, and to identify councils with good practices. At the same time, it will give councillors and the community housing statistics to make the case for prioritising delivery of affordable housing in their area.
Councillor data
Councillor data supplied by GovEval. Please let us know of any corrections to the councillors' information.
Because of the local elections on 6 May 2010, some local councillors will change. We will update these details as soon as they are available.
