8. Arun District Council’s housing, homelessness and empty homes policies
Arun faces huge housing challenges and tackling them is an essential priority for the council. Arun can be a very unaffordable area to live in as average house prices of £378,0004 are nearly 13 times the gross UK yearly average household income of £29,355 per annum5.
The high demand for housing and limited supply of it causes hardship for many local people and threatens the local economy. To deliver more housing and effective, efficient homelessness prevention services, the council will need to prioritise activities to increase housing supply, improve access to quality affordable housing, and deliver more innovative approaches with existing and new partners.
Arun District Council’s Vision 2022-2026 sets out that we will be “delivering the right homes in the right places” and that to achieve this, amongst other measures, the council will “ensure the existing housing stock in the district (private sector and council owned) is maintained to a high standard”.
The council’s current “Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019-2021” sets out Arun District Council's vision for housing and how it will with partners to prevent and tackle homelessness and to meet housing needs. It combines and replaces what were previously three separate strategies (‘Raise the Roof’ Housing Strategy, Arun’s Homelessness Strategy and Arun’s Rough Sleeping Strategy), making it easier for our customers and stakeholders to understand how we intend to build on our achievements to address the housing challenges for Arun.
The priorities in this new combined strategy will seek to ensure that good quality housing and housing related services contribute towards improving and enhancing the health and wellbeing of local people and have a positive impact on building sustainable and prosperous communities where diverse needs are met.
We want Arun to be a place where residents have access to affordable and high-quality homes that enable them to build settled, safe and healthy lives within sustainable and thriving communities.
The additional licensing scheme will be implemented as part of our overarching housing objectives. The council’s current Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019 to 2021 is available to view on our website. The new housing strategy (2023-2026) is being developed and will replace the current one when confirmed by the relevant committee and Full Council and will then be available to view online.
Arun’s current objectives are to:
- Increase housing supply across all tenures to:
- Supply the housing that Arun residents need and maximise the development of affordable homes
- Maximise Homes England grant funding to ADC and develop and acquire affordable council homes for rent
- Make housing affordable and sustainable and enable the development of affordable extra care housing
- Work in partnership with housing associations to maximise delivery of affordable housing and promote community-led housing
- Bring empty properties back into use
- Make best use of council housing and private rented sector accommodation and promote community-led housing
- To prevent and relieve homelessness:
- Deliver early intervention actions alongside effective partnership working to prevent homelessness and administer and embed the full duties of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
- Reduce rough sleeping through multi-agency partnerships and supported pathways towards sustainable housing and undertake effective early intervention to prevent homelessness
- Increase accommodation solutions
- Reduce the use of Emergency Accommodation (EA)
- Make best use of Arun’s Temporary Accommodation (TA)
- Improve the housing conditions across all tenures:
- To work with landlords and owners to reduce hazards for occupants and visitors
- To enforce standards
- To improve energy efficiency and accessibility across all housing tenures
- To review and update Arun’s lettable standard
- Ensure up to date policies, procedures, and practice in council housing, Emergency Accommodation and Temporary Accommodation
- Remove Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) category 1 hazards and significant category 2 hazards
- Provide effective regulation of HMOs
- Provide advice and information to landlords
- Ensure consistent, centralised health and safety reporting and monitoring
- Create sustainable communities to meet the needs of all residents:
- To deliver services that meet individual needs
- To be aware of the needs of vulnerable cohorts and residents who may be disadvantaged in access to services
- To increase engagement with housing services
- Improve the energy efficiency of homes across all tenures
- Improve access to disabled-adapted housing across all tenures
- Make available advice and information on welfare benefits, money and debt advice and income maximisation
- Increase engagement with communities and residents’ groups
- Prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour in Arun neighbourhoods
Empty homes
If properties are allowed to remain unused and neglected, they can begin to cause issues within the community and are a wasted resource that could be used to provide accommodation to Arun residents and those in need of housing.
As of October 2021, there were 385 empty properties compared to October 2017 when there were 408 in the district that were unoccupied and unfurnished. This figure does not include second homes, holiday homes, homes where the owner is receiving care elsewhere or homes where the owner has passed away. In line with central government guidelines, we intend to work with owners of empty homes to bring their properties back into use. The initial focus is on the properties that are unoccupied and unfurnished as these are a wasted resource that could provide much-needed homes for local people. The Empty Homes Strategy looks to engage, encourage and if necessary, enforce against owners of empty properties to bring these properties back to their full potential. The full Arun Empty Homes Strategy 2023-2028 can be found on the council’s website.
Table B. Number of empty homes and reason for them being unoccupied.
| Reason for being unoccupied | Number of empty homes in Arun |
|---|---|
| Second homes or holiday homes (furnished) | 1665 |
| Unoccupied and unfurnished for 12-24 months | 254 |
| Unoccupied and unfurnished for 2-5 years | 87 |
| Unoccupied and unfurnished for 5-10 years | 18 |
| Unoccupied and unfurnished for 10+ years | 5 |
Information provided by Council Tax records 2022.
Table C. Empty homes figures for the financial years of 2017/2018 to 2020/2021.
| Year | Number of empty homes in Arun |
|---|---|
| 2017/2018 | 398 |
| 2018/2019 | 426 |
| 2019/2020 | 540 |
| 2020/2021 | 385 |
Source: Arun Empty Homes Strategy 2023-2028
Arun will continue to focus on all empty homes within the district with our target increasing from 17 in 2014 to 30 in 2018 to 50 from 2022. This reflects the number of empty homes bought back into use each year through direct intervention of the Empty Homes Officer.
Table D. Number of Empty Homes which have been brought back into use through direct intervention by Arun District Council in the last 5 years.
| Empty Homes brought back into use | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target | 30 | 30 | 30 | 50 | 140 |
| Actual | 82 | 67 | 76 | 141 | 366 |
Source: Arun Empty Homes Strategy 2023-2028
4UK House Price Index England: November 2022. HM Land Registry, January 2023.
5Annual Survey of Hours and Earning, Office of National Statistics. 2022.