King's move

King's Lynn & West Norfolk council is attracting a lot of Whitehall attention these days.

It has protested loudly about council tax on second homes, got one step ahead of the government by undertaking its own efficiency review, is striving to improve the housing of migrant workers in the area and is home to one of the flagship millennium communities.

It also has its fair share of local problems. The area needs 466 new homes a year but the 80 new ones built last year barely replaced homes sold through right to buy. Right to buy sales have shot up by 32% since April (which equates to 199 applications) bolstered by the council's plans to ballot tenants on stock transfer in the autumn.

"We have more than 4000 people on our register and we are re-letting something like 600 properties per year so many people will never see the inside of a council or RSL property," said the council's head of general housing services Dennis Brown.

The council's new choice-based lettings scheme has been a great success but it has encouraged more people to apply for homes – exacerbating the shortage.

Help may be on the way in the form of a new millennium community in South Lynn. The environment-friendly villages are a pet project of deputy prime minister John Prescott. The project, which is backed by £6m of funding from the regional development agency, £2m from English Partnerships and £8m from the council, will provide about 700 homes, a business park, shops, a park and a marina. It will be completed in 2010.

Meanwhile, the council is doing its best to get a bigger slice of second-home council tax to spend on affordable housing. The announcement that local authorities would be allowed to increase council tax on second homes from 50% to 90% from April seemed to offer the council extra money for housing. The area has nearly 3000 second homes and stood to raise about £1m.

But Norfolk County Council decided that 80% of that money should be distributed to local strategic partnerships including the voluntary sector and the police, and King's Lynn would then have to bid for it alongside other districts (HT 23 January, page 7).

Only 10% of the cash would be earmarked for King's Lynn.

Initial complaints to local government minister Nick Raynsford fell on deaf ears, but King's Lynn plans to join forces with North Norfolk council to take up the issue again in time for next year's council tax rounds.

The council also needs to find £45m if it is to bring its 7100 homes up to the decent homes standard by 2010. This autumn, it will ballot its tenants on transfer to a new housing association, provisionally called Three Bridges Community Housing.

The council showed itself to be one step ahead of the government by unveiling its own efficiency review a month before Sir Peter Gershon's review of central government.

The King's Lynn review found the council could save £4m a year, largely from bulk-buying (HT 11 June, page 9). It says it will be implementing plans to improve procurement in housing.

Attempts have already been made to improve conditions for tenants in the private sector as well as in council homes. In particular, attention has been focused on tackling the squalid housing that migrant workers from China and Portugal are forced into by their employers. The workers often come to Norfolk to work on farms or in food factories.

Brown says the council is doing its best to regulate the use of these houses through multiple occupation registration schemes. The problem seems to have eased – perhaps through a combination of increased regulation and a lower number of migrants coming into the area.

He adds: "We'll remain optimistic and keep pushing forward with service improvements."