Eastleigh works on Levelling Up
Eastleigh Borough Council is pleased to be working with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to explain how our innovative capital investment strategy is moving forward the Government’s ambitions such as Housing, Regeneration and the Green Agenda.
The Council’s financial investment into our communities has led to borrowing of over £500M. Almost half of this relates to our commercial property portfolio which has been a long standing success both for our businesses and for the Council. We firmly believe that acting as a responsible landlord to so many tenants throughout the pandemic has enabled our business community to survive and we are now seeing it thrive again. Most of the remainder of our borrowing relates to our intervention in the housing market where we act on the real need for new homes and communities to be built and developed.
By investing in projects such as our new 2.500 home community at One Horton Heath we are able to offer a mix of housing, including affordable housing for those most in need. We are also able to take advantage of newer, green technologies to ensure that we are moving closer to our climate change net zero ambitions both for the Council and the Borough.
Council Leader Keith House said, “Decisions to invest in capital assets are always backed by prudent business cases which take account of risks and ensure that monies are set aside for future maintenance and replacement and also to repay debt. We look forward to sharing how we deal with our borrowing portfolio and how we repay this borrowing with DLUHC.”
He added, “We are very supportive of the transparency that the review process will offer to demonstrate how a sound capital investment strategy can improve our places for both residents and businesses. It will be a very positive process that will show how our priorities are aligned to the Government’s Levelling Up Agenda by securing jobs, holding down Council Tax, providing much needed housing and protecting services at a challenging time for our communities.”