Are councils ready for the next Local Authority Housing Fund round?

The clock will start ticking from the moment that LAHF funding is awarded – so councils need to anticipate their next steps now. The devil will be in the details of the funding allocation, but there will likely be eligibility criteria for the properties that can be acquired. These could include specific features, Energy Performance Certificate rating or overall property condition. How stringent these requirements will be is yet to be determined.

The window for delivery will be strict, typically within the financial year. Local authorities that fail to utilise all the funding available could have their funding withdrawn or cancelled.

The critical first step of finding and acquiring suitable properties can often be time-consuming and subsequent stages, including acquisition, compliance checks and refurbishment works, can be lengthy. Councils need to plan carefully to ensure these processes do not create unnecessary delays.  

With this in mind, local authorities should consider the support of experienced, private sector service providers that have the experience and processes in place to support with housing delivery.

Joint ventures or partnerships can help to make the process more efficient, with private partners able to quickly identify and bring forward properties that meet LAHF criteria, or complete the refurbishment works, reducing administrative burden and accelerating project completion for councils.

Previous rounds of LAHF funding enabled SimplyPhi to support our local authority partners in delivering more than 200 homes for use as temporary accommodation. We anticipate creating hundreds more with the upcoming round.

“Local authorities should consider the support of experienced, private sector service providers that have the experience and processes in place to support with housing delivery”

For those in local housing departments wondering how to get LAHF ready, begin by mapping out your best-case delivery scenario, that is how many homes you can realistically acquire, refurbish and make available for occupation ahead of the deadline. As part of this process, identify any projected bottlenecks or anticipated challenges – these will be the areas where you should start to prepare a solution, such as working with a private partner.

LAHF is an incredibly valuable funding opportunity for local authorities, helping to increase housing offerings across the country while easing financial pressures on struggling council budgets. There is no single solution to the temporary accommodation crisis, but reaching a workable and financially viable answer needs to involve input and partnership from both the private and the public sector.

Omar Al-Hasso, chief executive, SimplyPhi