Affordable Housing
Across the East Midlands households which have low earnings or depend on state benefits are unable to afford to buy or rent a house on the open market.
There remains an urgent need for more housing which people on low incomes can afford - not just newly forming households but the backlog of existing low income households living in temporary or overcrowded accommodation. This type of housing, previously known as council housing, is now referred to as "affordable housing" and comprises social rented housing and intermediate housing (e.g. shared equity for housing key workers).
Why is so little affordable housing being built?
The chronic lack of affordable houses nationally and regionally is due to three factors: a collapse in the building of new social housing, with particularly low levels since the 1980's; a fall in the total stock of social housing caused by the government's policy of' 'right to buy' in the 1980s which resulted in much of the existing stock of council houses being transferred to private owners (and subsequently sold at market prices); and demolitions.
CPRE agrees there is an urgent need for increased supply of affordable homes for people who cannot afford homes on the open market. There was a regional target to build nearly 7,000 affordable homes a year (or a total of 168,400 between 2001-26) but in June 2010 the Government revoked the Regional Plan.
However, even with targets, the region consistently failed to meet them by a wide margin. In 2007-08 the net number of new houses built in the East Midlands was 20,622. By contrast the number of new affordable houses was only 3,395, half of the target. This is an area where the Government can assist directly by increasing the funding allocated to the regions for affordable housing. However, the new government has recently announced cuts to affordable housing budgets.
There is a particular need for more rural affordable housing due to the gulf between average rural house prices and average rural incomes. There are good examples from around the region of Local Authorities that have used their planning powers to improve the supply and quality of affordable homes in rural areas. These can be found in the excellent publication EMRAF Rural Affordable Housing: A Good Practice Guide downloadable from the EMRAF website (registration required).
For CPRE Housing Myths - a short summary of common myths about housing including affordable housing - click here for the PDF or here for the Word document.
CPRE 2010
Affordable homes: so very few are being built
an extract from a recent presentation by David Edsall, CPRE Northamptonshire
Affordable Housing comes in two kinds:
a) that built by commercial developers for sale within the planning structure, and
b) social housing, provided mainly by Housing Associations outside the planning structure.
The problem with (a) is that house builders often refuse to build cheaper houses, even though the numbers as laid down are well below the predicted requirements. Whereas with (b), although Housing Associations often have funds, they have difficulty in getting planning permission if land has not been allocated.
Requirement for social housing should be viewed against the statutory duty of local authorities to provide accommodation for the homeless - whose numbers are increasing as a result of the current financial climate.
The backlog in supply goes back to the initial sale of council housing when the Government forbade local authorities from replacing the housing that had been sold off at subsidised rates.
The Government has accepted the Barker Report - build more houses as a solution to first-time buyers. This is also in line with the MKSM sub-regional strategy.
The Regional Spatial Strategy for East Midlands 2007-8 shows that the numbers of houses being built are well short of the predicted requirement. Lower quartile house prices increased by 40% in the four years to 2008, although they have since fallen back by around 10%.
Therefore affordability, derived from the ratio of prices to lower quartile earnings, has fallen dramatically.
Some of the associated issues are:
- The style of building for affordable housing has, traditionally, not been compatible with local properties.
Future building should ensure that the style and design of new homes is appropriate to existing properties - using local materials, a low carbon footprint and having an affinity to existing buildings in the village - Young people should be able to live in the villages where there were born.
They should be able to find local employment there, too. - Proposals by Housing Associations often meet with local resentment.
Affordable is often said to equal social housing.
Following a consultation period, the West Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit has drafted an Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document.
In summary, the living countryside requires affordable and social h ousing. Developments should be fully in line with the local planning system and must be sympathetic with the local built environment, in quality and style.
David Edsall
CPRE Northamptonshire
Reproduced from the Summer 2009 issue of Outlook, the newsletter of Northants branch
Fiona Cowan
11 September 2009