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Local Housing Needs to be Assessed

Ensuring house builders meet the requirements of residents and communities will be the focus of work to gauge future housing needs across the borough.

Councillors agreed on Wednesday (March 1) to undertake a local housing needs assessment as part of the Council’s evidence-based approach to developing the Castle Point Plan.

The assessment is the third in a suite of studies commissioned by the Castle Point Plan Board, with work to assess potential development sites across the district and explore how wildlife and open spaces can be protected and enhanced already underway.

The housing needs assessment will focus on more than just the number of houses required. It will look at the needs of local people, including the accommodation requirements of people as they get older, those with disabilities and the various faith groups within the Castle Point community.

The work will also consider how new housing, and a variety in the size and cost of accommodation, can help create sustainable and thriving local communities.

Councillor Warren Gibson, Chair of the Castle Point Plan Board, said: “This is not a one size fits all planning by numbers approach. It is vital that we ensure that the rights homes are built in the right places for the right people.”

“There is a crucial relationship between the types and cost of housing and how communities develop.  Therefore, the local housing needs assessment will not just provide an assessment of housing need in the borough, it will also inform our placemaking work as we look to shape our communities for the future.”

The report on the housing needs assessment is expected to be presented to the Castle Point Plan Board in Autumn 2023.

Along with other studies, it will form part of the detailed and up to date information available to the Council on every aspect of the borough as it develops the framework to inform the shape of the borough up to 2050.