A five-year strategy to make sure everyone has a safe place to live throughout Bracknell Forest has been agreed.

Since August last year, officials at Bracknell Forest Council have devised a strategy to meet the housing needs of the area.

The core aim is to make sure that everyone has a safe, stable, and genuinely affordable home where they can be independent and financially secure.

To that end, officers in the council’s ‘people’ department have devised its Housing Strategy for 2023 to 2028.

The strategy governs how the council hopes to meet the housing needs of the area.

It specifically mentions vulnerable groups such as wheelchair users, the elderly, those with mental health conditions and addictions, and those eligible for affordable housing.

READ MORE: 'Nobody's home': Number of Bracknell homes sat empty revealed as HUNDREDS not in use

For wheelchair users, the strategy has a stated preference for two and three bedroom adapted homes.

To assist older people, staff at the council department will emphasise the need for extra care housing and affordable renting units for those who can’t afford to buy.

And for those with mental conditions, the council has acknowledged a need for more specialist housing, short term, and temporary housing.

The strategy lays out four core priorities:

  1. Preventing homelessness
  2. Deliver new homes in sustainable communities
  3. Make the best use of existing homes
  4. Provide a range of housing options for those with care and support needs

 

These priorities were presented to Bracknell Forest Council’s executive committee by its Grainne Siggins, executive director for people.

The executive committee unanimously agreed to the strategy at its meeting on Tuesday, January 24.

Councillor Dale Birch (Conservative,  Little Sandhurst and Wellington), executive member for housing, called it one of the most comprehensive housing strategies the council has ever produced.

He said: “As a housing strategy it is a complete and composite document.”

It was constructed in a six week consultation process that involved housing associations, housebuilders, and councillors.

Cllr Birch said: “A lot of the casework members get is about housing issues, and so it was vitally important that all of those bits of casework come together.”

He stressed that the housing strategy is separate from the council’s Local Plan process, which involves selecting where new homes should be built over a minimum of 15 years.

READ MORE: Bracknell plan that will see thousands of homes built submitted to government

Cllr Birch added: “However, it will enable us, once a new Local Plan gets approved to be ready and able to take advantage of the additional affordable housing numbers that have gone into that plan, with the hope that those dwellings that we will be delivering will have a greater percentage of affordable housing on it.”

The Bracknell Forest Local Plan is still going through an investigation phase since it was submitted to the government in December 2021.

The executive committee unanimously approved the strategy for implementation.