Council to use £5m to buy 10 additional homes

The funds will be taken from a £14m pot made up of contributions from developers who have been allowed to build in the area

A West Sussex council is to use £5m to buy 10 additional homes for larger families on its housing waiting list.

The funds will be taken from a £14m pot made up of contributions from developers who have been allowed to build in the area.

The decision was agreed during a full Horsham District Council meeting and the homes will be leased to Horsham District Homes, the council's affordable housing company.

Mark Baynham, cabinet member for finance, said: "The number of families on our housing register continues to grow while the acute lack of new-build large homes being delivered by registered providers remains."

Mr Baynham added that the purchases were "of obvious social benefit, but also make sense financially" with a yield of 2.9% anticipated.

This compares to paying £580,000 per year to house 10 families in nightly paid temporary accommodation, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Horsham District Council agreed to accept a £77,000 grant from West Sussex County Council to pay for a housing management officer for the next two years, with the grant being topped up by £10,000 from reserves

Sam Raby, cabinet member for housing and communities, said: "It's really important to think about who's going to be in these homes.

"These are often families that have been stuck for up to ten years, and without getting these properties, these are the families that would still be stuck on the register as we become a unitary authority and possibly beyond."