We held a digital focus group where our customers could share their views on our development strategy to help us ensure our aims and principles meet local housing need.
Our challenge is to ensure we maximise the number of homes we build, while retaining our flexibility to deal with new and future regulations regarding quality, safety and carbon reduction.
What happened next?
Your valuable feedback and views have been reviewed by the development team, as detailed below.
| You said | Our feedback |
|---|---|
| Q. Should we be providing options for home ownership? | |
| Providing options is a positive. | We provide low-cost home ownership options through shared ownership. |
| Q. Do you think we have the right balance of rented homes & shared ownership in our development plans? | |
| The split between shared ownership and renting is right. | This is positive to hear, the balance we aim for is 60% rent and 40% shared owner. It can vary by council area and sometimes by scheme to reflect local housing need or what we have been able to secure through the bid process. |
| Q. Do you think we are meeting the right level of environmental/energy standards, or should we be doing more? And if so, what would you cut? | |
| Higher standards cost more money – Selwood Housing appears to be doing what they can (with funds available). I was unaware of how high the standards are for developments; the standard Selwood Housing aims for is right. | We will continue to build to an EPC B rating but not to take on new technologies especially for heating until the products / systems are proven. |
| Q. Do you think we should focus house building in towns or villages? | |
| The consideration for development should be services within the area, requirements can differ depending on customer but generally access to doctors, shops and public transport are needed. Therefore, not too rural. Keep to towns please – leave the countryside to be enjoyed as it is. | We will consider rural / village schemes based on an assessment of local housing need and local services. This is not always an easy balance to find and will take a scheme-by-scheme approach. |
| Any other questions? | |
| Are there age restrictions on shared ownership? | No, we do not have age restrictions for shared owners. |
| Can the levels of energy efficiency we demonstrate in new homes be applied to older properties, such as installing solar panels? This would help older customers offset the rising costs/loss of financial help. | Selwood Housing is working to bring all of its homes up to an EPC C standard by 2030. The approach is to take a fabric first approach. |
