Maximising housing growth and increasing the choice of housing

Innovation around the supply of housing land

Due to council success in delivering a significant amount of housing on brownfield sites and in the inner urban area, it will now be necessary to explore different opportunities to increase the city's housing land supply including: bringing vacant properties back into use; utilising surplus to requirement land, considering some open space that no longer performs its original function and in exceptional circumstances exploring the potential use of a small amount of Green Belt land.

We will deliver a greater choice of housing through best use of council land
We will bring empty properties back into use via the Housing Delivery and Investment Plan
We will consider surplus to requirement land for housing

Housing Delivery

The Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) assesses the future requirement for homes in Sunderland. The assessment identifies that Sunderland's housing stock is dominated by terraces and semi-detached properties and there is a shortage of detached dwellings.

This indicates a need to diversify the existing housing stock to ensure that sufficient homes are provided in the right place and in the right tenure.

With the country accelerating its housing growth, there is a known lack of capacity within the larger and mainstream housing developers and as such there is an increasing role for exploring modern methods of construction and for working with Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and self builders.

We will take positive action to support and advise SMEs as well as self-builders by bringing forward small sites, making them available to smaller builders and "de-risking" sites by making the planning process as straight forward as possible or by making sites with outline planning permission or planning in principle available to SMEs.

We will facilitate this by the council's self-build register, brownfield site register and a small sites register.

As well as working with SMEs and small builders, the council will continue its role as a housing developer to deliver housing solutions where there are gaps in the housing market. The Housing Delivery Investment Plan (HDIP) identifies a need for 574 affordable rented units for the city which the council will build, repair and manage as a registered provider of social housing.

Whilst the speed of delivery is important, this must not be at the expense of design or quality.

Housing will play a significant role in reducing energy demands through the incorporation of the principles behind low carbon development. The layout and orientation of buildings and green space play an important role in mitigating the effects of climate change and improving energy efficiency.

In addition to this the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of the home and access to outdoor space.

We will:

Deliver an increased number of new homes (affordable for rent, to buy and market housing) to meet demand
Influence Registered Providers, developers, and Homes England around the strategic housing needs within the city via quarterly development networks, holding them to account where delivery does not meet need
Facilitate the unlocking of stalled and unviable sites so that they can come forward
Continuing practical support and dialogue with all developers, including SMEs and self/custom builders. Explore financial support to accelerate delivery on these sites where possible
Work with partners to explore the use of new technologies, assistive technologies and modern methods of construction - ensuring a focus on PAS2035, which is a whole house approach to energy efficiency measures, and Sunderland's ambitions to become a Carbon Neutral City
Continue to support the regeneration sites of Groves, Pennywell, Vaux, Sunniside, and Hetton Downs and prepare council led masterplans to facilitate their delivery
Secure different sources of funding according to housing needs throughout the city, ensuring a key focus on health and building communities

Ageing population

Housing for the ageing population plays a fundamental role in ensuring the health and wellbeing of older persons. The number of older people aged 65+ years in Sunderland is projected to increase by 34.5% by 2041. This presents a strategic challenge for the city. Working with partners, providers and older residents, it is vital to ensure more housing choices are available to support the increasing group of older people with a variety of housing needs.

The council identifies a shortage of bungalows and is committed to the delivery of 117 bungalows as part of the HDIP by 2024.

We will work with older people who wish to downsize to release larger houses to families currently in need via the council's purchase to rent back policy.

A recent stock condition survey also shows a large proportion of older owner occupiers are living in non decent housing which may have a negative impact on their health. Affordable housing solutions must be developed for this group of older people to bring about more positive health outcomes for them and the city as a whole.

We will:

Prepare a Housing Market Position statement to communicate older people's housing need throughout the city with partners
Develop "age friendly neighbourhoods" as part of the Healthy City Plan
Work with registered providers to deliver accommodation for older people that meets need and addresses long term voids in larger "sheltered" schemes
Offer an improved Disabled Facilities Grant offer by providing a "top up" to reflect the increase in cost of works