Funding boost for Melton Council to buy three new homes

Members of the cabinet agreed unanimously this afternoon (Wednesday) to accept the money from the government’s Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF), which would meet 40 per cent of the cost of the properties.

The council will be required to contribute the remainder of the cost of the three homes – £390,000 –which will be met from Section 106 funds from developers building new homes in the borough and from Flexible Housing Funds.

A report before the committee indicates that three properties priced up to £250,000 each could be afforded with the new funding.

Two of the homes will be offered to those in the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme or Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy – a requirement of the grant funding – and will be allocated through specific matching and lettings processes.

This is part of a commitment by the UK government to give homes to people who helped British forces in Afghanistan and who now fear for their safety following the Taliban’s takeover of the country two years ago.

The new funding also enables the council to buy a third property to support local housing demand and to support homeless people.

Following the cabinet meeting, Councillor Pip Allnatt, leader of the council and portfolio holder for housing and landlord services said: “The need to support families displaced by the war in Afghanistan into settled accommodation is a matter for all councils and it is important that we assist where possible in providing settled accommodation and a place to call home within our communities, particularly for those households who have worked alongside the UK government and risked their lives alongside our armed forces, or have assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan.

"We are exploring a range of ways in which we can play our part, and this is one of the ways in which we can do so, whilst also increasing the availability of accommodation to support local housing and homelessness pressures.

"The funding available from the Local Authority Housing Fund means that we can make the money we have available to us go further, supporting households in need right now and also into the future.”

The new homes will be available for use by March next year.

They will eventually become part of the council’s general needs housing stock but as a condition of the government grant funding, initially two of them will be used to support families who have fled the war in Afghanistan.

The LAHF was set up to support local authorities in England to obtain housing for those who have arrived in this country from Afghanistan and those people who have fled here from the war in Ukraine.

The money comes from the second round of LAHF funding from a £250 million pot to support the government’s humanitarian obligations to provide safe and suitable housing to those fleeing Afghanistan, alongside helping to deliver the Department for Levelling Up, Housing Communities’ commitment to help those who are homeless to secure accommodation.