Homes call to cut crime
More affordable homes must be built in Cannock Chase to help combat crime and improve public safety and the health of residents, council chiefs have ruled.
The need for new affordable housing far outweighs current supply, house prices are rising faster than incomes and there are "consistently high" numbers of homeless people, a report said.
Cannock Chase District Council's cabinet has approved a three-year housing strategy to tackle issues, which also include deprived estates and poor quality homes, particularly for former coal miners.
The strategy was unveiled at the cabinet yesterday and will run until 2010.
Its main aims are to build more modern and affordable housing, help vulnerable people including the homeless, and renew former coal mining housing estates.
It must also contribute to the council's other key priorities like crime reduction, community safety, helping vulnerable people and health improvement.
The council's aim of transferring housing stock failed earlier this year – it has 200 long-term empty homes – and the new strategy outlines how it proposes to deal with the rising costs.
In the latest round of bidding under the National Affordable Housing Programme, an allocation of almost £6.4 million was made to fund four schemes to build 132 new affordable homes between 2006 and 2008.
In a report to the cabinet, Councillor Anne Bernard, cabinet member for healthier communities, housing and older people, said: "We have set ourselves a big but deliverable challenge."
