Introduction to Annual Report for Tenants and Leaseholders

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The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

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The Annual Report in context

Destination Kingston 2011 – 2015, our medium term service and financial plan sets out our consistent vision. This is for a Borough -

which has a national reputation as the best place to live and work
where residents are confident about the future – a place where things happen
where residents consider the services that matter most are high quality
which has an outstanding reputation for innovation, engagement and designing services with users.

To achieve our vision we work with our partners in the Kingston Strategic Partnership (including NHS Kingston, Kingston Voluntary Action, Kingston University and Kingston Police) to deliver the ten objectives in the Kingston Plan, of which Objective 6 is to:

Increase the supply of housing and its affordability

Central Government’s Localism Bill (2010) has been dubbed ‘ground breaking’ and the move to establish new rights for local people is one that is most welcome. But the concept of localism is not new to us as we have been at the forefront of community involvement for many years.

A good example of this is our ground breaking Housing Strategy which has been produced on behalf of the Strategic Housing Partnership Board. It stems from Objective 6 of the Kingston Plan – (see above) and sets out how meeting Housing priorities can contribute to the overall prosperity, well-being and success of the borough as a place to live and work. There is a particular emphasis on why housing plans are important to all residents of the borough, and how housing programmes and activities can contribute towards improving the quality of life in other areas such as health, child poverty, educational attainment and incomes.

In order to properly and fully engage our community and to generate as much response and interest as possible from as wide a range of residents and groups as possible, an extensive consultation exercise was undertaken.

There has been a strong response to the consultation on the Housing Strategy and a broad level of support for the priorities and key elements identified within it. The key elements of the Strategy are:

To plan for more new housing, of all types, in suitable locations in Kingston and of the right size and quality, whilst protecting the character of the borough;
An emphasis on new affordable housing using the new Affordable Rent model;
To bring all Council homes up to the Decent Homes Standard by 2016 and talk to residents about the long-term future of some of the larger housing estates;
To provide private owners with the advice and assistance they need to make their homes energy-efficient;
To support a thriving private rental sector in Kingston, which provides accommodation for all income groups and is well-managed;
To provide co-ordinated advice and services to people who are having difficulty with their housing and to prevent and minimise homelessness;
To exploit opportunities to improve other aspects of the quality of life in the borough, for example health or educational attainment, through improving housing provision;
To continue the practice of engaging with, and maintaining suitable dialogue with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the provision of an appropriate housing market for all users.

Our challenge now is how we, in partnership, can deliver these objectives.

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