The council will spend £100m on housing over five years. Its own July figures show £549,000 of an £8.4m new build budget spent, and four schemes delayed.

Southend-on-Sea City Council announced this week that it is putting £100 million into housing over the next five years, with more than 1,200 families on its housing waiting list (Southend-on-Sea City Council).

Its own capital monitoring, published a fortnight earlier, sets out how the current year is actually going. By 31 July, four months into the financial year, the council had spent £3.617 million of the £31.38 million budgeted across its whole council housing programme, or 12%. On the new build line alone it had spent £549,000 of £8.41 million, which is 7% (Capital Investment Programme Performance 2026/27, Period 4).

That new build budget started the year at £13.806 million. It is now £8.41 million.

Southend council housing capital programme, spend to 31 July 2026 Bar chart of budget against spend. New build £8.410m budget, £0.549m spent, 7%. Acquisitions £8.293m budget, £0.995m spent, 12%. Refurbishment by the council £5.340m budget, £0.698m spent, 13%. Refurbishment by partners £9.337m budget, £1.375m spent, 15%. A third of the financial year had passed. Budgeted for council housing this year, and spent by 31 July Source: Southend-on-Sea City Council, Capital Investment Programme Performance 2026/27, Period 4. A third of the year had passed New build £0.55m of £8.41m, 7%

Acquisitions £1.00m of £8.29m, 12%

Refurbishment, council £0.70m of £5.34m, 13%

Refurbishment, partners £1.38m of £9.34m, 15%

All council housing £3.62m of £31.38m, 12% Graphic by Southend Today

The £5.4 million is a delay, not a cut

This matters to get right. The £5.396 million taken out of the 2026/27 new build budget has not been taken out of the programme. It has been moved into later years because four separate schemes have slipped. The report asks Cabinet to approve each carry-forward by name:

  • Phase 3B, 16 flats in Shoeburyness. Now expected on site during 2026/27 and complete about a year later, “a delay from previous reporting”. £1.342 million moves to 2027/28 and £200,000 to 2028/29.
  • The Cattery site, Prittlewell. Site clearance began in 2025/26 and is still going. Construction is “not now expected to start onsite until at least 2027/28”. £1.05 million moves to 2028/29 and £2.9 million to 2029/30.
  • Archer Avenue, the modern methods of construction scheme for new temporary accommodation. Planning and procurement are now expected to finish by March 2027, with a start on site in early 2027/28. £200,000 moves to 2027/28.
  • The Passivhaus project. A contractor has been appointed and site clearance has been done, but the main works will run into 2027/28, so £250,000 moves with them.

One project is moving. Phase 4 at Lundy Close in Eastwood, nine homes, is on site, with construction expected to take a year.

There is also a small piece of housekeeping worth noticing. The land assembly fund, used to buy property, has £84,000 left after one purchase completed in April, which the report says is “insufficient to purchase any further properties”. That money is being moved to feasibility work instead.

Three properties bought, not twenty

The council’s announcement says “around 20 homes” are expected to return to council ownership this financial year through the acquisitions programme. The capital report, written to the end of July, records the position more precisely: three properties acquired so far in 2026/27, with nine more with solicitors awaiting completion. The council expects to find enough further properties to use the budget in full by year end.

The acquisitions budget is the part of the programme that grew. It started the year at £1.649 million and has been increased by £6.644 million to £8.293 million, and it is forecast to be spent in full.

Within that sits the council’s first strategic acquisition: eight newly built properties in Eastwoodbury Lane, bought with a £3.5 million budget and part-funded by a £750,000 grant from Homes England that the council successfully applied for. The report replaces £750,000 of Housing Revenue Account reserves with that grant. Writing at the end of July, officers expected the purchase to complete “in the summer of 2026”; the council’s 17 September announcement still describes the acquisition as being progressed.

The heat pumps

The biggest energy project is real and under way. The council says 207 homes on the Balmoral Estate are getting heating upgrades as part of what it calls the largest ongoing ground source heat pump project in the country, and that a further 61 houses will get solar panels and air source heat pumps over the next year.

The capital report names the funding behind it: the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3 programme, covering a ground source heat pump system plus air source heat pumps, solar panels and cavity wall insulation. It “has commenced onsite and is expected to complete in 2027/28”.

Refurbishment is the better-performing half of the programme, though it is still early: £698,000 of £5.34 million spent on the works the council is doing itself, and £1.375 million of £9.337 million on the works being delivered by partners.

Where the money sits

Council housing programme, 2026/27 Budget now Spent to 31 July
New build £8.410m £0.549m (7%)
Acquisitions £8.293m £0.995m (12%)
Refurbishment, by the council £5.340m £0.698m (13%)
Refurbishment, by partners £9.337m £1.375m (15%)
Total £31.380m £3.617m (12%)

The council forecasts it will end the year having spent £29.388 million of that £31.38 million, so it expects a further £1.992 million to fall short, most of it on new build.

What it means for you

  • If you are on the housing register, the homes closest to being finished are the nine at Lundy Close in Eastwood, on site now, and the 16 at Eagle Way, where construction is due to start shortly. Both are designed to exceed current building standards, with air source heat pumps and solar panels.
  • The 16 flats in Shoeburyness and the homes at the Prittlewell Cattery site are further away than the council’s five-year headline suggests. On the current plan, Cattery money is not being spent until 2029/30.
  • If you are a council tenant on the Balmoral Estate, the heating work is funded and on site, and is due to finish during 2027/28.
  • The council says it is putting plans in place to bring all remaining properties up to EPC C before the 2030 Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards.
  • Councillor Irene Ferguson, Cabinet Member for Housing and Preventing Homelessness, said: “Everyone deserves a safe, warm and affordable place to call home. With more than 1,200 families on our housing waiting list, we are taking action.”

For what the wider market is doing, see our July house price figures. The council’s separate £21.8 million Leigh Port contract is covered in Leigh Port rebuild.

Sources