How to spend housing cash

The 12-week consultation runs from February 5 until April 27.

The board is inviting the public to comment on how to balance spending between different types of housing investment and its distribution across the region.

The revised housing strategy will allocate funding to support the building of affordable housing and improvements in public and private sector housing.

In addition, views are being sought on the potential to target funds at the purchase of brownfield sites for affordable homes and allocate money to help establish a Regional Infrastructure Fund.

Key questions raised in the consultation include:

*What criteria should the Housing Board use in selecting which areas of the region should receive investment?

*Where does the balance lie between investing in affordable homes in urban and rural areas?

*To what extent should the Housing Board invest in improving privately owned homes?

*To what extent should the Housing Board invest in building larger family-sized affordable homes?

*How might funds be allocated to support essential workers in the region?

Regional housing board chairman Cllr Elizabeth Cartwright said: "The board is most anxious to gain the maximum feedback to this consultation. We want to ensure that we are considering all the important issues for affordable housing in the review of this Strategy."

Housing board member and board member of the South East England Development Agency, Cllr Keith House, said: "People's quality of life is strongly influenced by the homes they live in. Building new homes, improving existing homes and making sure that homes and jobs are located together are major challenges. The regional housing board needs views from people and organisations across the region to get the housing strategy right."

Further information is available on the assembly's www.southeast-ra.gov.uk website.