Wednesday 13 July 2016
Thursday 7 July 2016
Berkshire Groups Benefit from Neighbourhood Planning Champions
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| Arlene Kersley from CCB and Geoff Botting from Woodcote NP |
The event was oversubscribed and in the end had 27 people from all over Berkshire attend.
Two Locality Neighbourhood Planning Champions shared their knowledge and expertise, Dr Geoff Botting the Chair of the Woodcote Neighbourhood Plan which was made in March 2014, and Arlene from CCB who is a member of the Hurley and the Walthams Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group in RBWM which was submitted for examination earlier in June.
The session was very well received and it is hoped that a number of different groups might have come away with the inspiration to initiate Neighbourhood Plans in their own parishes.
Delegates said after the event:
"(the session) gave me the information I needed and encouragement to carry on"
"Bite sized chunks presented by experienced presenters, a good balance of presentation and discussion, was very useful to have an interactive approach and share issues with the other participants."
If there is sufficient demand, Arlene will run a further session later in the year, so do complete the CCB training survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CCBTrainingNeeds if you would like to express an interest in Neighbourhood Planning training.
It's Rural Housing Week 11th - 15th July
Well where is the fanfare? Where are the homes? Where is the passion, the drive, the determination to have truly affordable homes for local people? Gone with the funding, gone with local capacity, gone with Government policy that actively seeks to undermine the poor in our society. Just for the record I am a dyed in the wool middle of the road activist. I am completely bi-partisan and consider myself to be on the the conservative (small 'c') side of liberal. In other words I often, to my shame, sit on the fence.
But this Blog is about affordable housing, specifically rural affordable homes for local people in Berkshire villages. So on the eve of celebrating 'Rural Housing Week' you may well be asking what are we celebrating? The last rural exception scheme to be developed in Berkshire was the very lovely scheme in Woolhampton which opened its doors back in early 2015. At this moment in time there are no other developments in the pipeline.
In Berkshire communities are so concerned about development site allocations that they have forgotten that real people need homes, and they need homes that they can afford, and sometimes they need to be near family members who can help them in their old age, or help them raise their children, or maybe they need homes near their work, because if people can't afford to live near their work they certainly are unlikely to be able to afford to commute very far.
Despite this Government's insistence that 'affordable' means homes to buy. The reality on the ground is that many people on average or below salaries (that means 50% of the population) cannot afford local rents or cannot find local properties to rent. If you have a family, then size matters, and prices are of course higher for family size homes.
Inside Housing recently reported on the release of HCA statistics showing a drop of 19% in affordable housing starts in 2015/16 compared to the previous year. Reflected in these figures is a raise in starts for shared ownership homes and a drop in starts of affordable rents (80% of open market rents). Sadly development of homes for a 'social' rent are at an all time low, and given that these tenures are no longer supported with government grant are likely to be relegated to history.
We will shortly be getting the new Starter Homes regulations. It is expected that Local Authorities will have to make provision for 20% of all development sites to be this new tenure, which provides homes for sale to first time buyers with an 20% discount on open market value. This is a nice thing for potential first time buyers, but the 20% will come at the expense of other affordable housing thresholds on development sites, so we can expect fewer affordable homes being developed in the future.
To add to shortages in tenure types, the 1st of April 2016 also saw changes in Local Housing Allowance (Housing Benefit) to the under 35's. (Considered to be 'younger' people) Housing Benefit. Please remember most people who receive Housing Benefit work, but struggle to pay their rent. However if you are childless and under 35 you ae now only eligible for 'shared accommodation rate'. In other words, at 35 and under you are expected to live in a room in a shared house. Otherwise known as a House in Multiple Occupancy of HMO. There are not many of these in rural villages, and to be frank I am not sure they are very desirable.
In my surveys, the greatest need is always for rented accommodation, although many people aspire to home ownership, they often have unrealistic ideas of the income and savings required to access a home of your own. Sadly the age of demand is increasing, but there are many so called 'younger' people who are desperate for a home of their own.
These are hard times and there can be no doubt that people must be realistic about their housing aspirations, but likewise we as a community must be prepared to provide realistic options to meet those needs.
Am I celebrating Rural Housing Week? Sorry no, but I am still here and I am happy to help any community that wants information about how they can help local people into housing. Contact me at CCB on 0118 9612000, or by email: arlene.kersley@ccberks.org.uk
We want to hear your training needs please!
At CCB we provide many different community based and focused training events and workshops, most of which are free. The type of training we provide usually happens in village halls or community buildings and we try to tailor it to the needs of the local community.
During the past academic year alone we have provided training ranging from social media to neighbourhood planning from providing emergency accommodation in the event of a disaster to how to recruit and retain volunteers. We could not provide this training without our fantastic partners and our funders - West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning and Bracknell Forest Adult Community Learning.
Now we would like to hear from communities, individuals, groups to make sure that we are suitably addressing your needs. What kind of training would you like to see happening in your village, parish or community? As we think about pulling together the next academic year's training plan now is the time to inform us. Please take a couple of minutes (that's literally all it will take) to inform us of your training needs by completing our online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CCBTrainingNeeds
Our last training event of the current academic year is taking place on Tuesday 12th July at Shaw House - Love Food Hate Waste, to read more about it and book your FREE place please click here: http://ccberkshire.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/free-love-food-hate-waste-workshop.html
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