Private housing policy

We contribute to privately rented housing by assisting with financial arrangements and with legislation to improve housing conditions.

Our strategy

Our Community Strategy, Building for Success, identifies 4 Community Ambitions:

1. Balancing economic prosperity with a sustainable quality of life
2. Being a healthy and well educated community
3. Supporting and caring for people who need help
4. Being a community where everyone feels safe, welcome and respected
   
    

Our 2 key objectives are:

1. To maintain the good health of the population through prevention of illness and access to quality health and social care facilities
2. To reduce crime and the fear of crime

Key areas

The strategy goes on to detail more explicit actions, relevant to housing, such as: 

• Community Development
• Crime and the Fear of Crime
• Care for the Environment
• Health and Social Care Services
• Health Improvement and Wellbeing
• Providing Homes for All

Finance

We are able to support with Disabled Facilities Grants. We make grants available for works of adaptation to enable those with a disability to remain in their home. For more details visit our grants page.

Flexible loans [currently unavailable as of 03/01/24]

We offer loans for home owners over 60. These loans, of up to £20,000, can be used for repairs, double glazing, security or improvements. Loans can be repaid regularly, when finance permits, or when the property is sold. 

Disrepair

We will advise owners and tenants of their responsibilities, and where called for, use legislation to achieve the necessary living standards. 

Empty homes

When an empty home causes damage to an adjoining home or becomes dangerous or detrimental to the value of an area, we will investigate. We can use legal powers to bring the property back into use as a home. Read more on our empty homes page.

Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

Certain larger types of Houses in Multiple Occupation must be licensed with us. The reason for this is that they present particular types of risk such as escaping from a fire, which smaller properties don’t. We will work with landlords to achieve the required standard.

To find out more visit Gov.uk website Houses in Multiple Occupation information.

Affordable warmth

To promote a sustainable future we work with our partners to promote high levels of insulation and reduction in energy use. We work in partnership with organisations which share these goals and provide Wokingham residents with the best possible advice and assistance.

Mobile homes (park homes)

We ensure safe and comfortable accommodation by implementing a licensing scheme. Sites are inspected on a risk-assessed basis to ensure that licence conditions are met. Read our park homes page for more details.

Enforcement

To ensure that any enforcement work undertaken is fair and in accordance with the legislation we follow our Enforcement Policy.