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Housing
The extent to which the Urban Living area functions as a successful housing market
depends on how it copes with the broad range of housing requirements and choices
that are found within it's boundaries. This is about price, size, tenure and quality.
Urban Living’s objective is to improve the long term sustainability of the area.
We are doing this through work to improve the range of property types, tenure, pricing
bands and the physical accessibility of all accommodation to the widest possible
range of residents and potential residents.
Affordable Housing Policy for Urban Living 2008-11
We call the routes into the different opportunities for accommodation Housing Pathways.
Urban Living works with its key partners – Birmingham City Council, Sandwell MBC,
Housing Associations and Lenders - to review the efficiency of the Pathways that
residents and prospective residents choose to take when deciding to move or improve their home. We
try to make these Pathways as easy and stress free as they reasonably can be.
We meet regularly with Partners to consider how well the various Pathways are working.
We monitor their efficiency from time to time. We are putting an emphasis
on the intermediate housing market at the present time – in other words looking
for ways to assist people who are experiencing barriers into full owner occupation such
as first time buyers
We also try to provide leadership where it is appropriate – an example of this is
the Housing Pathways Conference we held on 2nd July 2008 to consider what Pathways
problems Urban Living residents are experiencing in light of the credit
crunch. We responded by developing new products with partners to mitigate some
of the barriers caused by the new era of cautious lending practises.
Housing Pathways
Please click here for a more information on Housing Pathway vehicles and a range of affordability products.
Private Rented Sector Housing
Please click here
for more information
Overcrowding and Under Occupation Survey
Urban Living is working with Sandwell and Birmingham Councils to transform the housing market in areas of the West Midlands. A key aim is to tackle overcrowding. Overcrowding means having too many people living in the accommodation; it may mean people having to share bedrooms, or sleeping in one of the living rooms. To tackle overcrowding, we need to understand why families become overcrowded, and what the best solutions are.
We have recently undertaken some research to find out more about the impact on households living in overcrowding conditions and how overcrowding can be alleviated. This included both an online survey as well as in depth interviews with over crowded households. We also looked at whether people living in accommodation which is larger than they need would be interested in moving, and what incentives they would need to do so to free up accommodation for larger households.
The results of this survey will be published on the website later this year.
We would like to thank all those of you that took part.
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