What Project 1000 is and why we're developing this plan.
What Project 1000 is
The pdf Project 1000 Affordable Housing Delivery Plan 2022-25 (7.35 MB) outlines how the council will focus its land, time, money, and influence to improve the way affordable housing is delivered in Bristol.
The council's ambition is to work with partners, local communities and developers to deliver 1000 new affordable homes each year by 2024.
To develop this plan, we have reviewed the successes and challenges of previous housing projects in Bristol. We will use these experiences to determine how we can support the affordable homes that the city needs.
The plan was approved by Cabinet in February 2022.
What affordable housing is
Affordable housing is low-cost housing for people who can't meet their housing needs because their income is too low to meet private market costs. This can include:
- people who need to rent a home but can't afford to pay market rents
- people who are unable to get on the property ladder, including first time buyers
Why we need this plan
There are currently over 16,000 applicants on the council's Housing Register. The housing register is a record of all the applicants who have applied to the council to be considered for housing in either a council owned home, or a home owned by another social landlord, usually a Housing Association. It is estimated that Bristol will need 22,261 new affordable homes over the next 20 years.
Project 1000 sets out how the council will speed up delivery of affordable homes to meet this need. It also shows how we'll tackle the climate and ecological emergencies while building sustainable, balanced communities.
How the council will do it
The council will maximise its influence and pull all the levers it can to secure more affordable housing for Bristol's citizens by:
- accelerating the delivery of housing through the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which has currently identified over 1000 new council homes: using research and insights the council will make sure these developments meet specific, local, affordable housing needs
- working with Goram Homes, the council's housing company, to accelerate delivery of over 2900 homes in their current pipeline, including 1400 homes at Hengrove Park
- making more housing sites available by targeted disposal of brownfield land to the HRA pipeline, Goram Homes and our other housing partners
- supporting HomesWest Bristol Registered Providers and other affordable housing partners with specialist policy, funding and delivery support and advice so they can maximise their affordable homes delivery
- supporting other council services to manage an increased workload to facilitate Project 1000, such as exploring the use of an accelerated bespoke planning service
- ensuring affordable housing is embedded in the council's land disposals and major regeneration projects such as Temple Quarter and Frome Gateway
- securing new affordable housing through the robust application of the council's planning policy for affordable housing as well as enhancing and creating additional planning policy documents that will enable more affordable housing delivery
- creating a diverse range of small-scale affordable housing projects that contribute to local community housing need by de-risking and disposing of council sites to community-led organisations, Registered Providers, small developers and self-builders
- establishing a new Affordable Housing Funding Policy that will establish updated parameters around funding for affordable housing
- creating a web-based resource where third parties can find information and opportunities for affordable housing delivery
- utilising innovative and modern methods of construction (MMC) to deliver sustainable, affordable housing at pace: the council is already seen as one of the leading UK Local Authorities using MMC.