Shorey Bank development

The Government recently announced changes to the funding of registered providers of social housing including one per cent rent reductions every year for the next four years.  This has meant all development projects by the Together Housing Group have been put on hold across the whole of the north of England. One of those, the Shorey Bank retirement village scheme, has therefore been delayed until March 2016 at the earliest.

The Council has been working actively to help resolve the issues including:

• Supporting an approach to the Homes and Communities Agency to seek an additional grant.
• Adjustments to starting rent to cushion the overall rent reduction.
• Further negotiations with contractor KEEPMOAT to find efficiencies.
• Committing to supporting a commissioning void loss and supported the gap on the bungalows for rent.

Together Housing Group will be presenting further proposals to their Board in mid-December and January 2016 and remain keen to address the concerns identified. The Council will continue to liaise with them during this time and has done

everything it reasonably can short of putting more subsidy in from its own resources to plug the gap that has now been created by this Government Policy.