Sunderland City Council sets out housing vision

Sunderland has laid the foundations of a range of ambitious housing plans, at an event to launch its 15-year city masterplan.

Sunderland City Council has spelt out its plans to develop housing that matches its ambitions for the future, exploring ways of fulfilling the city’s housing needs without risking over-supply.

The launch of the Sunderland Economic Masterplan, which aims to position Sunderland as ‘an entrepreneurial university city at the heart of a low carbon regional economy’, has seen the council turn its attention to its housing provision, in order to ensure that the city is equipped for growth.

Council leaders and local MPs, as well as the BBC’s home affairs editor Mark Easton, attended a round-table event, during which Sunderland outlined its intention to develop improved housing provision.
Better housing is seen as being key to driving forward the city’s economy. Council Leader, Councillor Paul Watson, said: “The city’s housing provision is of fundamental importance to the future growth and development of Sunderland.

“Ensuring that we have varied housing, that meets demand, and positions Sunderland as a really attractive place to live and work is critical, and will lead to increased spending power in the city. We see the development of private, and indeed high-quality social housing, as being a key part of our plan for the next 15 years.”

Sunderland is exploring what it describes as ‘new approached to funding and investment’ to deliver the right housing solutions for the city, with the council exploring ways to build new housing and development partnerships to meet its aims.

Janet Johnson, deputy chief executive at Sunderland City Council, said: “We plan to improve the housing offer by creating sustainable, low carbon city villages via a wide range of housing options and high quality homes in all tenures. By managing private and social housing properly and by ensuring that empty properties are brought back into use, we will improve communities and continue to help improve the residential offer. In turn this will lead to more people being attracted into Sunderland, creating a vibrant living city.

She added: “Identifying new ways of funding developments is vital if we want to continue to develop and improve the city’s housing provision. But with innovation and will, a Local Authority with strong community links and buy-in from necessary stakeholders can deliver this vision despite limited funding.”