Housing; Your thoughts and concerns....

Artists impression of the entrance to the new Sweyn Close

HOUSING

Throughout the election I have been highlighting some of the key areas of all our lives that Norfolk County Council are responsible for or have an impact upon. I want to get your feedback on these subjects and outline my thoughts and considerations in an online canvassing / debating process. I will share my own thoughts and considerations and I will highlight the relevant sections from the Norfolk wide Labour manifesto. I started with Education, and will move on to discuss housing:

For those that have a home, the issue of housing is likely to be of little concern. But as soon as you may need a home you quickly realise how desperate the situation is.

Up until recently there were over 5,000 people on the housing waiting list in the Breckland area – with approximately 500 properties becoming vacant each year you have some idea of how long it might take until you may be eligible for a property and that is not including the numerous people that will likely be added to the list over that time as a higher priority. The number of people registering as homeless in the District has increased dramatically over the past few years as a result of the economic climate and in addition to this, demand for local Food banks has increased significantly.

The simple truth is we have not been investing in the social / affordable housing stock for years and we are now suffering as a result.

Two key examples;

Right to buy income; Each time a ‘Council house’ is sold in Breckland a portion of that money goes to Breckland Council. In the last 10 years approximately £3.5million has been received in income from right to buy receipts. During that same time just £2million has been spent on new homes by Breckland with the remaining £1.5million disappearing into the general Breckland pot – no wonder our stock of homes has been disappearing and failing to meet our needs as a district. I called on Breckland to ring-fence all right to buy receipts for new housing, but this was rejected.

See letter to Thetford and Brandon Times dates 26.09.12 below:

Council homes sale; Breckland received over £50million in 1993 following the sale of all ‘Council homes’ to Flagship Housing. It is the interest from that money, in part, that has been used to keep Council tax lower than it would otherwise be and money that has been used to purchase assets – Barnham Broom golf club for example. Again, I challenged the Council through the recent budget to have a greater commitment to housing - I was reassured that they agreed that it was a priority and I have a feeling that there will be moves afoot soon at Breckland level for perhaps Breckland to start building housing itself - a welcomed step, but we have a massive backlog that needs addressing.

An important point to make however is that it should not be assumed that all new housing needs to be on greenfield sites - there are many brownfield sites across Thetford in need of regeneration. I have been involved for the last 7 years in the Barnham Cross Regeneration Steering Group that has seen redundant garage blocks converted into social housing, and the appalling properties at Sweyn Close cleared to make way for a much improved development - (although I do have some concerns about the final outcome!), it is certainly a significant improvement. This approach could be replicated elsewhere - regenerating eyesores and providing much needed homes.

Housing is not a Norfolk County Council matter, it is the responsibility of the District Council, however, Norfolk CC can still have a very important part to play in assisting with the creation of new homes. Myself and Brenda Canham lobbied the Norfolk Labour Party to make housing a key manifesto commitment and we were pleased with this addition;

"Norfolk Labour will set up set up a subsidiary company to build small groups of houses throughout Norfolk. This will mitigate the effects of homelessness, rural decline, second homes and rising house prices that have seen local people being priced out of the communities that they were born and brought up in. The company will develop sites which the County Council already own to generate further profits to cross-subsidise the provision of homes in areas where private developers would not be interested".

This follows an effort by George Nobbs (Norfolk Labour Leader) earlier this year on the issue which we very much welcome:

ANY THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS??? PLEASE LET ME KNOW