Draft Wandsworth Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2023-2028

Overview

The Council would like to hear your views on the draft Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2023-2028 – New direction for housing in Wandsworth. The draft strategy sets out the Borough’s plans for housing and homelessness services for the period 2023-2028. 

The strategy sets out how we will help our residents meet their housing needs and ambitions. It covers how we will work to improve social and private sector housing in the Borough, prevent homelessness and support our vulnerable residents, including rough sleepers.

The strategy follows five proposed themes, each of which plays an essential part in providing housing for the Borough:

Theme One – Delivering for our council tenants and leaseholders: The Council manages 32,700 homes and strive to ensure homes are in good repair, safe and suitable.  This theme sets out how we will respond to the requirements laid out in the Social Housing Regulation Bill refocussing attention on social housing building safety, decent homes and engaging with residents.

Theme Two – Building More Homes: The Council has embarked on a significant programme of council house building under its Homes for Wandsworth Programme to deliver 1,000 council rent homes.  We will ensure schemes add value to the wider community, including environmental improvements such as new play spaces, gardens, and landscaping.

Theme Three – Improving Standards for Private Renters: We will work to ensure high standards in private rented housing and take action with landlords where required.  We will implement the Mandatory licensing scheme to ensure all larger houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) comply with the improved HMO standards to protect the health and safety of our residents and carry out a feasibility study for Additional and Selective Licensing in Wandsworth, which will improve landlord standards across the Borough.

Theme Four - Tackling Homelessness and Rough Sleeping: We will work with those who are homeless or threatened with homelessness to prevent or relieve this at the earliest point, whilst also looking to liaise with, support, improve and fund local rough sleeping services.

Theme Five – Supporting Residents with Additional Needs: We will support residents to live independently in their homes, and work closely with our partners to provide a range of suitable housing options for people with a range of needs.

We would like to hear your views on our draft strategy. What have we got right, do you agree with our objectives, and where do you feel we should prioritise our resources?

Your feedback will help us shape the development of the strategy.

Have your say

Please read the draft strategy document here and give us your views using the online survey below.  An Equalities Impact Assessment can also be found here, which looks at potential impacts on residents with protected characteristics under Equalities legislation. 

If you require the questionnaire or documents in paper form or another format please contact hms@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk or 020 8871 8942.

What happens next

After the closing date all feedback will be carefully considered. If significant changes are required, the changes will be reported to the Housing Committee, where a final decision will be made. 

If there are however no significant changes required following the consultation, approval will be made by the Director of Housing and Regeneration with delegated authority to adopt the Housing and Homelessness Strategy to apply from September 2023.