Landmark housing plans outlined for city

Plans which have been hailed as the biggest house building programme in a generation have been outlined for Stoke-on-Trent.Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s cabinet has announced the proposals which include committing £30m from its capital programme for its housing company Fortior Homes to build 450 new homes over three years from 2021.The homes will be split equally between 225 private rented houses and 225 open sale homes.The authority also wants to invest £125m in building 1,000 new council homes over the next five years, on top of 370 already in the pipeline. The new homes include plans for 600 more properties for older people.The council will also invest an extra £30m over six years on existing council housing and launch a £1m ‘home buyers scheme’ to tackle the city’s 3,500 mainly privately owned long-term empty homes by providing low interest loans to help people buy them.The strategic housing investment programme was agreed by the council’s cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday 14 January.