Council helps create thousands of more homes in Denbighshire

More than 1,000 additional homes have been created or brought back into use in the past five years in Denbighshire.

Denbighshire County Council has helped deliver 394 affordable homes, worked in partnership to develop two extra care facilities providing more than 100 homes, delivered 34 additional council homes while 695 empty homes in the private sector have been brought back into use.

Additional properties have been provided in communities right across Denbighshire – including Rhyl, Prestatyn, Dyserth, Rhuddlan, Cefn Meiriadog, Trefnant, Meliden, Denbigh, Ruthin, Gellifor, Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, Llangollen, Corwen and Llandrillo – including the first brand new council homes to be designed and built for the Denbighshire area in 30 years.

The Council’s work was carried out under the Housing priority as part of its Corporate Plan 2017-2022, which set the direction and ambitions for the authority for the past five years.

Cllr Tony Thomas, the Council’s Lead Member for Housing and Communities, said: “The Council has carried out a wide range of work on improving and creating housing for the needs of our residents.

“We set ourselves ambitious targets under our Housing priority and we have exceeded many of these, helping to ensure there are more homes across the county for our residents.

“As a Council we recognise the need to ensure housing is available to meet the needs of Denbighshire residents, and affordable housing is an essential part of this, so we can retain and attract young people to live in the area.

“The affordable housing created is a mix of social housing, intermediate rental, and home ownership through shared equity, rent to own options and private developments.”

Two extra care facilities have been developed in partnership with Grwp Cynefin at Awel y Dyffryn, Denbigh, opening in February this year, and Llys Awelon, Ruthin, due to open next year.

These developments will see 70 extra self-contained homes in Denbigh and 35 in Ruthin which give residents a balance between living at home and having on-site, dedicated care available if needed.

A total of 34 additional council homes have been delivered since 2017 and this includes new builds, conversions and the purchase of properties.

Further developments of new energy-efficient council homes are underway in Denbigh, Dyserth and Prestatyn with 45 new properties due to be completed this year, with work starting on a further 59 new council homes during 2022.

The Council has made a number of improvements to the homes of council tenants which includes installing 1,100 new heating systems, 465 new roofs, 325 new windows, 125 air source heat pumps, 775 kitchens and bathrooms while 2,550 properties have also been externally painted.

Nearly £2million has been invested on neighbourhood improvements for council tenants, including 17 new play areas.

Other work as part of the Housing priority included the successful resettlement of 20 Syrian families under the UK Resettlement Scheme.

The Council has contacted owners of empty homes and helped encourage renovation or matched them with developers, with a view to bringing them back into use on the housing market.

A total of 695 empty homes have been brought back into use to date, exceeding the Council’s target of 500 between 2017 and 2022.

The Council has launched its Housing & Homelessness Strategy to co-ordinate its work to ensure everyone is supported with pride to live in homes that meet their needs and to end homelessness in Denbighshire.

The aims of the strategy include providing more housing, ensuring housing is of good quality, supporting people with their housing issues, addressing homelessness and supporting communities.

This includes developing our approach to homelessness by providing even more of our own emergency and temporary accommodation with onsite support and renewing the focus on early intervention to prevent homelessness, with a model of rapid rehousing at its heart.

Cllr Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets, said: “Supporting the creation of so many new homes has taken a considerable amount of work to achieve and has involved sound financial planning. We have taken advantage of a wide range of funding grants and affordable homes have been built by private developers and in partnership with Welsh Government and registered social landlords, with the Council managing the Social Housing Grant programme, which has enabled the building of the majority of affordable homes in the county.

“We will be continuing to build on this success and provide more affordable homes in our communities which is part of our ongoing work to retain more young people in Denbighshire as well as ensuring there is adequate housing for the needs of all our residents.”