Plans to acquire new build homes for Preston council housing

Preston is poised to get its first council houses in more than 20 years – with new-build properties in the north of the city being eyed up for purchase.

Preston City Council has made a conditional offer on 19 yet-to-be-constructed dwellings, which could see the Labour-run authority return to providing homes directly to some of its residents.

The properties would be a mix of family houses and apartments, offered for what is known as ‘social rent’ – which means occupants typically pay between 50 and 60 percent of full local market rates. That makes them cheaper than so-called ‘affordable rent’ options which are set at 80 percent of the market level in an area.

The exact location where the homes are to be built has not yet been made public, with a city council spokesperson telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that, at this stage, it was “not in a position to divulge information on either the site or the developer, due to confidential and commercially sensitive financial information”. Full details will be released if and when all legal contracts have been exchanged.

However, the authority said the homes are at an early stage of construction and are expected to be completed between November this year and April 2028. There are a plethora of possible development sites for the new homes, with a major ongoing expansion of the north west of the city – where a total of 5,500 properties are being built over a 20-year period up to the mid-2030s. That ‘masterplan’ area sits largely to the south of the M55 – including Higher Bartle and Cotam – but beyond it, there are numerous developments to the north of the motorway which could be the chosen plot.

If the council housing plan comes to fruition, it would be the fulfillment of a long-held ambition which was first crystallised almost two years ago when the city council agreed to enter into a partnership with Onward Homes as part of the housing provider’s proposed development of 380 dwellings on the site of the former Horrocks Mill.

It was intended that the local authority would initially purchase up to 20 of those properties as part of a first wave of new-generation council housing – with the aim being for it to eventually have “hundreds” of town hall-owned homes on its books.

However, the broader Horrocks Mill development – off Queen Street – is yet to get off the ground, more than two years after it was granted planning permission.  Back in November, Onward also sought approval to continue using the derelict site as a car park for a further two years, suggesting building work was far from imminent.

As the LDRS revealed at the time, the hold-up forced the city authority to look elsewhere to kickstart its council housing project.   However, it is understood that the Horrocks Mill plot will still be explored as part of the council’s longer-term plans to build up a stock of new homes over time.

Cabinet member for community wealth building, Valerie Wise, told the LDRS that the authority “wanted to do this now and not wait for the Horrocks Mill site to happen”.

Time is not not on Preston City Council’s side when it comes to delivering major projects, because the authority is due to be abolished in April 2028 as part of a government-ordered shake-up that will see new, larger councils created to cover broad swathes of Lancashire.

Preston, Lancaster and Ribble Valley councils have all proposed merging with each other as part of that revamp.  Lancaster City Council already has its own housing portfolio, which, along with any properties owned by Preston by the time of such a merger, would be subsumed into the new arrangements made under the replacement local authority.

Preston City Council’s previous 6,500-strong housing stock was transferred to a social landlord, Community Gateway Association, in 2005 after a vote in support of the move from tenants at the time. In doing so, the authority joined many others across the country which, by the 2000s, were bringing the curtain down on traditional council housing altogether.

Council leader Matthew Brown said the authority had long been keen to “own quality, affordable housing again in the city” – citing the shift as “another way to help tackle the shortage of quality, social-rented, affordable homes available to Preston residents”.

The authority says demand for social and affordable-rented homes is high in Preston, where there are long waiting lists and an increasing reliance by the council on the use of temporary accommodation to meet residents’ needs.  The number of households in that situation more than doubled from 80 to 195 between 2019 and 2023.

Cllr Wise said in 2024 that she had “nothing against” housing associations like Community Gateway Association – but that “the great advantage of council housing is that we [politicians] are elected by the people of Preston [and] if you don’t like what we’re doing, then you can kick us out.”

Speaking this week about plans for the property acquisitions in the north of the city, she said: “We have delivered the highest numbers of affordable homes in Lancashire over recent years  – 2,600 since 2015 and approximately 1700 of those in the last five years.

“[That has been] either through registered providers acquiring land and building new homes or registered providers acquiring affordable housing stock built by private developers who were required to build them through our planning policy.

“However, registered providers do not have the capacity to deliver all the homes that are needed, so the council will now be in a position to increase the numbers even further. In addition, whilst the majority of affordable homes have been provided at affordable rents – 80 percent of market rents – we now have evidence that more social-rented homes are needed. This is what the council will deliver.”

Subject to an offer being accepted, council officers will carry out “technical due diligence” and draft all the necessary legal agreements, before seeking final approval from full council to buy the homes later this year. Members had given the green light to making a conditional offer during a behind-closed-doors session of the last full council meeting in January.

In order to return to owning properties itself, the city council will have to apply to the Regulator of Social Housing to become a so-called ‘registered provider’ – and approve a management partner to take on responsibility for repairs and compliance with statutory regulations.