Introduction
Our new Housing Strategy for 2025-2028 sets out the Council’s Housing Service commitment to provide genuinely affordable homes for our residents and communities in Dartford and ensure that our homes in the borough are safe, secure places to live.
This Housing Strategy sets out our plans on how we intend to contribute to the delivery of housing services to residents in Dartford over the next three years. An action plan is contained within the Strategy which includes the key priorities we want to deliver on over the course of the Strategy period.
We believe that everyone should have access to safe, affordable housing, but also recognise the challenges in place that make this difficult. Housing is in short supply across the country, and rents in the south can be particularly high. We are committed to providing or enabling affordable homes for local people where possible, tackling challenges and delivering as best as possible in the face of competition for land and rapid increases in construction costs.
Although we are a relatively small borough, we have built or acquired 142 homes for affordable rent and have ongoing projects to provide more affordable housing in the borough through new build and acquisition.
The provision of affordable housing will also be delivered in partnership with a range of stakeholders in the area. This will include other housing providers and property developers. Our newly adopted Local Plan sets out our plans for increasing overall housing delivery in the borough and provides a new and ambitious affordable housing target on development sites with an emphasis on housing for affordable or social rent.
Strategic Housing Priorities
We have identified a number of key priorities for the Housing Strategy:
- Increase the supply of genuinely affordable homes across the borough
- Relieve homelessness and end rough sleeping
- Deliver the outcomes of the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer and economic standards
- Improve housing conditions in the private rented sector and reduce the number of empty homes
- Provide a high quality housing service and ensure our homes are well maintained
- Engage with and listen to our tenants and to take their views into account when developing new housing services and policies.
- Engage meaningfully with our tenants and improve communication.
More information on how we intend to deliver on each of the key priorities can be found in the action plan.
Our Corporate Vision for Dartford
This Housing Strategy will be delivered in line with our Corporate Plan objectives. The Corporate Plan 2024-2027 sets out the Council’s priorities for the next three years. The plan is divided into a number of themes, each containing several objectives and key actions the Council want to achieve. For Housing, some of the key ambitions within the plan include providing more of our own housing stock, influencing the condition of homes in the private rented sector and driving up the fairness and transparency of service charges levied by management companies on new private estates. The Plan strives to make a difference and help as many people as possible, but in particular will prioritise the housing need of established Dartford families and their children.