Liverpool City Council is forming its own housing company to drive the type of development that it wants to see in the city.
Foundation Homes will aim to build 5,000 homes over 10 years across a range of tenures. Its ultimate aim is to increase home ownership and improve the built environment.
It will buy some council- owned development sites where the private sector may otherwise have been involved and will also look to buy privately owned sites to develop.
“We believe that by having a Liverpool City Council housing company we will be a bigger player and will affect the market in Liverpool,” said Frank Hont, cabinet member for housing.
Liverpool’s housing crisis is different to that of other areas of the UK. Large numbers of homes are in need of refurbishment, while there is a shortage of “executive housing” to stop professional flight to surrounding authorities. At the other end of the scale, just 47% of households own their own home, against a national average of 65%.
“We are going to try to work right across the tenures but it’s ‘suck it and see’ to some extent. We are just determined to be in there, able to affect the market,” added Hont.
Housing for private sale will also be used to finance social building, while refurbishment and development will be a big part of the remit.
The company, however, will have a social purpose at heart and Hont says the intention is to encourage home ownership through a rent-to-buy process.
“The plan will have to be flexible so that as the market changes we can shift direction,” he said.
The propco, which will be separate from the council, already has governance and legal arrangements in place. It will be presented for cabinet approval in the next few weeks.
The board is yet to be appointed but will report to the council’s housing select committee.
Unlike a number of other councils, Liverpool does not own any social housing and, according to Hont, the company will be able to start from a clean slate.
Central government and the council are keen for the city to try and direct development in this way, according to Hont, who was despondent about the loss of Gavin Barwell as housing minister after he lost his seat in the General Election.
He said: “The government has realised that the answer to the housing crisis is not simply more people owning their own homes but that there has got to be a mix in the market.
“I thought we were making progress with Gavin Barwell regarding this… We have got to start all over again now.”
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