Bids for Housing Advisers Programme opens

The Local Government Association is launching its third year of the Housing Advisers Programme, an innovative scheme to help councils overcome housing challenges in their local areas.

In the previous two years of the programme, the LGA has funded more than 100 councils to help them build homes, reduce homelessness, plan for ageing populations, understand the student housing market, increase supply of modular housing and more.

The programme, which funds the provision of independent expertise for councils undertaking specific projects to tackle the effects of the housing crisis in local communities, will support a smaller number of larger, strategic housing projects this year.

Each successful project will receive up to £50,000 for the purpose of securing expert advice in transforming how a service or partnership meets the housing needs of communities. Best practice and lessons learned from each project will then be shared with councils and embedded into the sector-led improvement currently on offer from the LGA.

Martin Tett, LGA Housing spokesman, said: “The country’s housing crisis is forcing difficult choices on families, distorting places, hampering growth, and putting significant pressure on local services and council budgets. However, local government is at the heart of the solution. The LGA’s Housing Advisers Programme can make a huge difference to councils and the communities they serve.

“The programme aims to help councils deliver local priorities, and can be a valuable source of expertise to councils wishing to innovate and improve in their efforts to build more homes, reduce homelessness, and plan prosperous places and economies. It’s well worth councils who haven’t already done so looking at the programme and seeing how it can benefit them – a simple visit to the website is all that’s needed.”