Crawley Borough Council sets out long-term plan for housing investment and sustainability

Crawley Borough Council has published its 2026 to 2027 Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan, outlining a 30-year strategy to ensure the borough’s council housing provided through Crawley Homes remains safe, well-maintained, and financially sustainable.

The plan, which was formally reviewed and approved by Full Council on 22 October 2025, sets out how the council will manage its housing stock, including ambitious plans for the council’s anticipated building programme of over 540 new council homes in the borough, and meet decarbonisation targets while maintaining a minimum HRA balance of £5 million throughout.

Key priorities include:

• maintaining and improving the existing housing stock
• delivering new council housing at social and affordable rents to meet local needs
• supporting sustainability and decarbonisation goals with significant investment in creating warmer homes for council tenants until 2050
• ensuring long-term financial viability, including prudent borrowing to fund capital projects

The plan is underpinned by robust financial modelling and assumes rent increases of Consumer Price Index + 1 per cent from 2026 to 2036, in-line with government policy. It also factors in major works, decarbonisation costs, and the impact of Right to Buy sales.