1,000 New homes each year for Telford

A raft of policy initiatives will make sure a target of 1,000 new homes are built every year.

Telford & Wrekin Council also wants to step up efforts to deal with rogue landlords, create communities, improve existing stock and and use new initiatives to achieve its objectives.

This week the council launched a consultation on a new five-year housing strategy up to 2030 with leaders saying the approach is about more than just bricks and mortar. They say they want to create communities too.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has highlighted some of the large number of ways in which the council hopes to meet housing needs, including in preventing homelessness.

The draft housing strategy states that the council is aiming to maintain “housing supply at circa 1,000 per annum – aligning with Government’s planning reforms and ensuring this meets local housing need”.

To do this it wants to use a range of policy levers to achieve it.

These include increasing the number of homes built by its own housing company, Nuplace, and to create a “new model of town-centre living delivering new affordable and rented homes at Station Quarter in the Telford town centre and reviewing opportunities to deliver further homes in the town centre directly and in partnership”.

It also wants to support the “regeneration” of borough towns creating new opportunities for housing to create mixed-use centres with a focus on the Oakengates Theatre Quarter and Wellington.

It sees this approach as “bringing new housing and vitality into our key centres”.

Rural areas too are seen as places where it can bring affordable homes.

But the council wants to put “arrangements in place to give priority to existing residents of these areas, or those with a strong local connection”.

The draft housing strategy also wants to educate and engaging with landlords and tenants to “provide the best outcomes and sustain tenancies.”

Officials are gearing up for a programme of surveying all blocks of flats in the borough to ensure fire safety and implement the Renters’ Rights Bill’s Decent Homes Standard.

The council also wants to implement Awaab’s Law, requiring landlords to address damp and mould issues promptly.

It is vowing to take “robust enforcement action against landlords where compliance is not forthcoming”.

Council leaders also have their sights set on empty properties.

They are looking at publishing a new empty property strategy in 2026 to set another target “focusing on the properties which have been empty the longest”.

It has already been successful in bringing hundreds of empty properties back into use.

Officials are also proposing to implement a new policy to use Section 106 developer money to help fund “affordable homes to meet unmet need, including housing for people with dementia, care leavers and larger families”.

The issue of sites which have planning permission but have not been built on will also be addressed.

Officials want to “address stalled development sites that blight local communities to regenerate brownfield land and provide new homes in accessible locations”.

They see this as strengthening the council’s approach in the use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers where necessary to bring ‘problem’ buildings and sites back into productive use.

A shortage of building industry workers has also been highlighted nationally and council officials want to get to grips with that too.

They are proposing to “work with the construction industry and training providers to address skills gaps in the borough’s workforce, including housing design, construction and new building technologies, such as modular construction”.

The consultation on the 2025 to 2030 draft housing strategy launched after Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet approved it earlier this month.

Councillor Carolyn Healy (Labour, Ironbridge), Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for neighbourhoods, planning and sustainability, said: “This strategy is about more than bricks and mortar – it’s about ensuring everyone in our borough has a safe, secure place to call home.

“We’re committed to listening to our residents and shaping a housing future that reflects their needs, aspirations and wellbeing.”

The results of the consultation will be reflected in a final draft of the housing strategy, which will go back to cabinet for approval later this year.

The council is inviting residents to fill in a survey to give their feedback at https://online1.snapsurveys.com/Interview/76a89a70-26b2-44d3-a58e-32eda28f5e81

More information about the strategy is available here: https://www.telford.gov.uk/housing-homeowners-tenants-and-landlords-better-homes-for-all/housing-strategy/