Approval has today (Tuesday 13) been given for 60 homes to be purchased across the city to help reduce the council-house waiting list.
Many of the properties that Nottingham City Council will buy are former council houses that have been previously purchased under the Right To Buy scheme, which allows most council tenants to buy their council house at a discount.
The authority will buy the 60 properties with money from both the Housing Revenue Account, which is spent on the running of services related to council housing, and funds from the receipt of the sale of council houses received from the Government. The latter can only be used on the provision of housing that people can afford, and will meet up to 40 per cent of the cost of each purchase.
The council will be seeking to actively purchase properties from May this year that fit the needs of people on the waiting list. It is likely that these will be two and three-bedroom houses, bungalows, and high and low-rise flats.
The plan was discussed at a meeting of the council’s Executive Board this afternoon.
Councillor Jay Hayes, Nottingham City Council Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: “We’re not restricted to only buying former Right To Buy homes, but they are our prime target. By law, anyone selling a property that they’ve bought through the scheme in the past 10 years has to give the council first refusal if they decide to sell.
“Having said that, we’re also keen to explore options in terms of homes built by private developers on smaller new-build sites – if those sites are in the right locations for us.
“The investment in these homes will allow us to reduce the number of people on the waiting list and help increase the number of council homes we can let at rents people can afford across Nottingham.”