Chas Fellows’ column

The ones that hit the headlines were about money for councils to build homes and a preference for local homes for local people.

We are waiting for more detailed information on how these proposals will work but a third announcement, made by the housing minister proved particularly interesting.

Currently, around 5,200 properties in this district are council homes.

Maintaining them is a big and costly operation, but at the moment, a third of the rent our tenants pay us goes straight to the Government.

This year that equated to around £6million.

Some of it is given to other local authorities for their housing and some goes towards general government spending.

We and many other councils see this as unfair - our tenants’ rent should be used to maintain their properties and communities.

But it now looks like we have some good news on the subject.

Housing Minister John Healey has announced that this system will now come to an end.

We do not have any detail yet but councils might be able to keep their rental income to spend on local housing.

In his own words, he said, "…this will enable councils to plan long term and to improve the management of their homes, secure greater efficiencies and improve the quality of service to their tenants…"

Deputy leader of Stroud District Council, Frances Roden, has been working with the Local Government Association to lobby Government for this change and I am delighted that their hard work has been such a success.

Having more money to spend on affordable housing is a major step forward but we are likely to have to pay a significant sum to buy ourselves into the new system.

How much? We don’t know yet. And that will be important.

It will take time for these proposals to become a reality and there will be much consultation on them.

We are waiting for more meat on the bone but it looks like a step in the right direction. Fingers crossed.

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