Hundreds of new council homes promised amid ‘housing crisis’ in Eastwood

Councillor Milan Radulovic, leader of Broxtowe Borough Council, said almost three quarters of people on the authority’s waiting list for council homes are from Eastwood and Stapleford.

It comes as the authority approved plans for a new housing manager to be recruited to deliver hundreds of homes in Broxtowe.

The new role within the authority will replace the interim housing manager who has been in post for three years.

The council said the person in the new role will “drive forward” developments in the area.

Coun Radulovic said: “When we drew this list up we had 2,553 applicants. 1,850 are in Stapleford and Eastwood, that is almost three-quarters between those towns.

“The ambitious plans we have set out will go a long way to resolving issues in the south. Except when you cross that line into the north of the borough there is virtually nothing.

“There is a massive need those parts of Stapleford and Eastwood to address the housing crisis. Generally, it is areas classed as poorer, low skilled, low attainment and low wage economy. That seems to manifest itself into a whole range of other problems.

“In Eastwood alone, there are 835 applicants, 386 of which need family accommodation.

“In Stapleford 1,015 applicants and 493 require family accommodation. We need to do something to urgently address this.”

Councillor Steve Carr added: “We are now moving forward very quickly to provide not only new council properties but also properties for shared ownership.

“It’s a success story for this alliance council.”

Council papers state that the Housing Delivery Plan which was approved in 2019 set out to deliver a minimum of 230 new council homes between 2020 and 2030.

“Without this post the Council will not be able to progress the current programme of new build schemes and will not be able to identify new opportunities going forward. Without this post the delivery of the adopted housing delivery programme will be adversely affected”, council papers stated.

The total cost of the role would be £63,350 including salary and other costs.