More than 400 new council homes and upgrades to existing stock in the pipeline
Gateshead Council in Tyne and Wear is set to pump £260m into improving existing council properties and building over 400 new homes by 2030.
The local authority’s housing capital programme for 2025/26 to 2029/30 outlines a £64m investment in the delivery and acquisition of new housing.
Meanwhile, £78m of the housing revenue account budget is ringfenced for stock improvement such as replacing kitchens and modernising bathrooms, and £8m for upgrades to communal areas and CCTV.
Spend on the day-to-day maintenance of the council’s 18,000 homes will total £35m a year.
This is a £10m increase from four years ago, when the council dissolved its not-for-profit management organisation, The Gateshead Housing Company (TGHC), and took direct management back in-house.
The programme will also connect 550 homes to the Gateshead District Energy Network, a low carbon energy supply scheme.
Chris Buckley, Gateshead Council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “Every tenant has a right to a decent and safe home. We recognise this as a priority which is why we are planning to use this funding to invest in the maintenance and improvement of council-owned homes.
“Our tenants deserve the best we can afford, and we are determined to get schemes in place that deal with the issues which some of our tenants are currently facing. Our strategy makes clear that some of our properties are not in an acceptable condition and sets out how we’re looking to address this over the next five years.
“We have a long-term plan to prioritise making our homes decent and investing in our homes in both our housing stock as well as our high-rise blocks.”
The strategy was agreed at a cabinet meeting yesterday morning and includes the demolition of unsustainable buildings, including two 20-storey residential towers at Eslington Court and Redheugh Court, which were built in 1965.
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