2:19pm Friday 19th March 2010
Chorley council ranks among the worst in the country for delivering enough affordable homes to meet local need, housing charity Shelter has claimed.
Shelter’s Housing League table, launched last week, shows Chorley is delivering six per cent of the affordable homes that are needed, and is ranked 297 out of 323 English local authorities for affordable housing delivery.
However the council claim that people looking to get their foot on to the property ladder are being helped by a rise in affordable homes with the increase in such homes almost doubling over the last year.
Shelter’s research has found that 76 councils, including Chorley, are delivering 10 per cent or less of the number of homes they have identified are needed.
Shelter’s chief executive Campbell Robb said: “Independent experts commissioned by the council say 719 new affordable homes need to be built each year in Chorley, but an average of only 40 have been delivered in the last year, leaving a shortfall of 679 homes per year.”
The council says it has smashed its target on new affordable homes in the current year, bucking the national trend with many local authorities struggling to meet their government-set targets.
Councillor Peter Goldsworty, leader of Chorley Council, said: “We know that it’s very difficult for first time buyers to get on to the property ladder, which is why we have improved when it comes to providing affordable homes for people on low incomes.
“Since last April we’ve provided 74 new affordable homes of different sizes to rent or buy right across the borough from town centre locations to new housing developments.”
Councillor Goldsworthy added that the council has looked at a variety of ways to plug the gap in the property market from building homes on its own land, purchasing and repairing existing properties and through legal agreements with developers of new housing estates.
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