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Hampshire council to reopen HRA
A Hampshire council has become the latest to agree plans to reopen its Housing Revenue Account (HRA).
Eastleigh Borough Council’s Liberal Democrat-controlled cabinet this week approved proposals to write to the government declaring its intention to open an HRA.
The authority previously closed its HRA in 1996 when it transferred its 4,500-home stock to Eastleigh Housing Association, now part of 31,000-home Vivid.
It follows a series of stock-transfer local authorities to announce plans to reopen an HRA since a cap on borrowing through the ring-fenced account was scrapped in October 2018.
Eastleigh Council’s development programme has seen it start work on nearly 150 homes across six sites since 2016.
Government rules mean councils which own more than 200 homes must keep an HRA, and Eastleigh expects to exceed this threshold shortly through its One Horton Heath sustainable community scheme.
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Currently, homes delivered by the local authority are held on its behalf by other organisations.
But an officer’s report to cabinet said that Eastleigh Council’s preference “is to retain these assets in future, rather than dispose of them to a housing association”.
The council commissioned Savills to undertake a review of its affordable housing delivery options, with the consultants recommending reopening an HRA as the way forward.
Eastleigh Council already part-owns a housing company, Aspect, which builds homes for market rent, in a joint venture with VIVID, Abri and Fareham Borough Council.
But the local authority decided against undertaking the lengthy process of registering Aspect as a social housing provider, citing reasons such as a “risk that governance and decision-making become increasingly independent of the council as the company grows”.
The officer’s report said the council intends to open an HRA in 2021, with the process “managed by existing staff”.
Keith House, leader of Eastleigh Council, co-authored the influential government-commissioned Elphicke-House Report in 2015, which encouraged councils to become “housing enablers”.
Other stock-transfer local authorities that have taken steps to reopen HRAs since 2018 include Liverpool, Peterborough, Sunderland, Bradford and Bromley councils.
Update: at 10.18am 25/02/21 the story was updated to make clear that Aspect is a joint venture
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