Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Funding announcement promises new affordable homes.
"Hundreds of new affordable homes for rent will be built across West Wiltshire by 2010, thanks to Government funding.

The District Council has succeeded in its bid for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits to deliver at least 400 new affordable homes for rent. This funding is in addition to the land contribution being made by the Council to support the scheme.

Although exact details of the types of homes and their locations will not be finalised for some time, the Council has identified a need for a broad mix ranging from one bedroom flats to four bedroom houses, located in the five towns and some of the larger villages.

The Council will now seek to appoint a PFI contractor to design, build, finance and operate the homes. All of the properties will be let exclusively to people nominated by the Council for a contract period of 30 years, and a specification is being drawn up to ensure that the homes and services are of a high quality.

Councillor Trevor Carbin, chairman of the PFI Project Board, said: “Our housing needs survey in 2001 showed that we had an annual shortfall of 194 affordable homes, and a further study showed that this had risen to 380 by 2003. This PFI scheme will allow us to provide a significant number of new affordable homes to rent, giving at least 400 households somewhere decent to live by 2010. Now that we have the Government go-ahead, we can start the process of tendering for a housing provider to take the project forward.”

Chris Trowell, the Council's project manager, added: "We are delighted to have PRG approval, especially as our scheme is based on the successful contractor providing half the development land - this should make PFI more attractive for smaller councils such as ours. It has taken a long time to get to this stage, but we feel that the extra time working on our business case will pay dividends in the long run. We are likely to bring the scheme to the market during late spring or early summer."

It is hoped that a select tender list will be in place by August, with the contractor chosen by mid 2007 and work starting by the end of next year. The intention is for all of the homes to be available for occupation by 2010."