Bracknell Forest Council could become a social landlord again, 18 years after its homes went to Silva. Cabinet decides 3 November; 1,017 households wait.
Bracknell Forest Council wants to become a social landlord again. It gave up its council homes in 2008, when the stock and the landlord job moved to Bracknell Forest Homes, now called Silva Homes.
On Tuesday 3 November the council’s Cabinet will be asked to apply to the Regulator of Social Housing to become a registered provider. The Cabinet report calls it “an initial step towards becoming once again a provider of social housing”.
The same report shows why. A deal to buy eight family homes for people on the council’s waiting list has collapsed.
What Cabinet is being asked to agree
The recommendations are:
- apply to the Regulator of Social Housing for registration
- note that buying or building any homes would need a separate report and a full business case, due early in 2027
- note a bid already made to Homes England’s Council Housebuilding Support Fund, for up to £500,000 over two years to prepare
- put £2.86 million back into the pot of developer money held for affordable housing
The report is clear that this does not commit the council to owning, buying, building or managing homes. What registration does give it is the right to bid for government grant for affordable homes, which it cannot do now.
The eight homes that fell through
In November 2025 Cabinet set aside £2.86 million to buy eight three and four bedroom affordable homes through a housing association. The council would have had the right to nominate households from its waiting list to them, for good.
That scheme “can no longer be progressed”, the report says, because the housing association “no longer” has the capacity to deliver it. The money goes back into the fund.
It is not a one-off. The report says a “lack of investment capacity” among housing associations is a national problem. When developers cannot find one to take the affordable homes their planning permission requires, they can pay the council instead. That used to be rare. The council now holds £6.63 million of that money with nothing committed to it, and around £8 million in all. Some of it has time limits, after which unspent money must be repaid to developers.
Who is waiting
The council’s housing register had 1,017 households on it in August 2026. Over the next three years the council expects 961 homes to become available to them: 684 relets of existing homes and 277 new rented homes.
That looks almost balanced. By size, it is not.
| Size | Households waiting, Aug 2026 | Homes expected in three years | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| One bedroom | 463 | 364 | 99 short |
| Two bedrooms | 261 | 382 | 121 more homes than households |
| Three bedrooms | 263 | 190 | 73 short |
| Four bedrooms | 30 | 25 | 5 short |
| Total | 1,017 | 961 | 56 short |
The report says the spare two bedroom homes cannot be counted against the other shortfalls, because households need a home of the size they have been assessed for.
It also runs an “illustrative” projection that applies this year’s growth in the list for three years. On that basis the register would reach 2,521 households and the shortfall 1,560 homes. The report says those figures “do not constitute a precise waiting-list forecast”.
Why now
The report cites the Social Housing Bill now before Parliament, and the government’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026 to 2036, which puts council homebuilding among its priorities. It also says the council leader has made it a priority to look at the council owning its own social housing.
If registered, the council would have to meet the regulator’s consumer standards and the rent standard. Those cover safety and quality, tenancies, complaints and tenant influence. The report lists the main risk as taking on landlord duties “without sufficient capacity, systems, governance or assurance”.
What it means for you
- If you are on the housing register, nothing changes yet. New homes still come through the council’s existing partners, the housing associations and developers.
- No homes are being bought or built on 3 November. That would need a business case, which the report expects early in 2027.
- You can watch the decision. Cabinet meets at 6:30pm on Tuesday 3 November. The agenda and papers are on the council’s website.
The same meeting will be asked to approve a £300,000 climate bond that residents could invest in. We have written that up separately.
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