New council homes are set to be delivered in one part of Birkenhead.
Last night, Wirral Council’s housing committee approved the purchase of six homes from Lovell Partnerships' Sevenoaks scheme in Rock Ferry.
The houses will be available at a ‘social rent’, which is anywhere up to 60% of the local market rate as a rule of thumb.
They will also be specially adapted, meaning better access for people with disabilities.
The council is pushing for the homes to have solar panels attached, which would help the environment and could significantly reduce people’s energy bills.
Overall, the Sevenoaks project has seen 220 new homes delivered already, with a planning application for a further 43 units in the final phase of the project currently being considered.
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At last night’s meeting, Labour councillor Stuart Whittingham said that if the council is to meet its housing targets and help people struggling on unaffordable private tenancies, it should focus on providing good quality council housing.
Cllr Whittingham said the sooner this could happen the better.
Chairing the meeting, fellow Labour member Julie McManus said the authority’s purchase was a positive development and that council officers and previous cabinet members including Cllr Whittingham should be congratulated for delivering 687 affordable homes in the last five years.
Conservative councillor Ian Lewis drew attention to Wirral’s huge housing waiting list, which he said contained over 11,000 people.
Cllr Lewis said the purchase of six homes was a good move, but he pushed officers for a date on when the authority will look to move forward with plans for many more council houses in the borough.
Alan Evans, Wirral Council’s director of regeneration, said he will present plans on this to councillors in a workshop before May.
The plans may then be discussed and developed if councillors want the authority to build more council homes, as members from all political parties have previously suggested they would like it to do.
Cllr Allan Brame, who represents the Liberal Democrats, said it was a “modest development” of just six units, but was nevertheless an “important first step” on a path towards making council homes a bigger part of the housing offer in Wirral.
