Home ownership – is it the one size fits all solution?

Home ownership – is it the one size fits all solution?

This Government’s relentless pursuit of affordable home ownership options leads me to ask whether I am misunderstanding the issue.  I can’t help thinking the Government is being somewhat disingenuous in the presentation of the issue.  Their case being, people aspire to home ownership, therefore we should provide homes for people to buy.  The taxpayer will finance discounts in the form of Right to Buy subsidies and 20% discounts on so called ‘starter homes’.

After 10 years of work in the field, I have carried out in excess of 40 housing need surveys across Berkshire.  Experience tells me that, yes, people certainly do aspire to home ownership, it’s obvious, it’s in our psyche, and it is part of British culture. But wanting a house, and being able to afford to buy one are very different things.  Just like wanting to be ‘given’ a Council house and the likelihood of qualifying for one are very different things.

In January the Homes and Community Agency announced that funding applications for development grant to finance the building of affordable rent properties (80% of market rent) are now closed.  In other words the Government is no longer providing any subsidy to finance the development of rented tenure housing.  However new subsidies have been announced to allow for starter homes and the sale of existing council and Housing Association properties through Right to Buy will be financed through the sale of existing Council houses that become vacant being sold on the open market.

So the truth of the matter has very little to do with aspirations and everything to do with lack of money.  And that’s okay, the Government is broke and doesn’t want to publicly admit it.  The British economy must be seen as holding out against the current storm of economic uncertainty, and if they publicly say ‘cuts have to happen and the buck stops at housing’ that might raise political hackles at the very least.

So we will stop building houses to rent, we will provide discounted homes to people who can afford them and our existing stock of more affordable rented tenure homes will become a diminishing supply.

My concern is for those on average incomes and below (remember average income is only about £25,000 in England) who will never be able to afford to buy their own home, but will see their rents rise as rented properties become ever more scarce. 

Up-date on the Housing & Planning Bill 2015

The Bill went through the House of Commons relatively unscathed and has now had its second reading in the House of Lords where amendments have been proposed to help protect affordable homes on rural exception sites from Right to Buy and ensure some perpetuity and local connection for starter homes on future sites. 

The Bill is due to go to Committee Stage in the House of Lords on the 9^th of February, when the Bill will be reviewed line by line.  The proposed amendments do appear to be challenging some of the rural concerns that have been raised.

Consultation on proposals to change the National Planning Policy

The Consultation on proposals to amend the National Planning Policy Framework has been extended until the 22^nd of February 2016.  If any of the issues about starter homes and extensions to settlements for small development are of concern to you, you should respond to this consultation. 

I have responded on behalf of Rural Housing Enablers in England setting out our particular concerns regarding:

• Proposals to include ‘Starter Homes’ in the definition of affordable housing
• Proposals to allow development of ‘small’ sites immediately adjacent to settlement boundaries.  This clause undermines the very definition of rural exception sites, and provides significant scope for misapplication.
• Proposals to define ‘small’ sites as sites of less than 10 units.  We believe that a small site should be defined according to local scale and according to local authority defined thresholds.
• Use of brownfield sites for starter homes ‘exception sites’ we do not believe that the use of terminology is appropriate.  Starter homes, as currently defined, are not affordable and are not for local people or controlled in perpetuity.  These are all elements that are critical to exception sites.
• The use of ‘starter homes’ in rural areas should only be to meet an identifiable local need in.  We are concerned about the wider use to meet needs of incomers where there is unlikely to be any contribution to local infrastructure, and the homes can be sold on the open market in 5 years.
• Should local communities through the neighbourhood planning process have the opportunity to allocate sites for starter homes in the Green Belt?  Only where the requirement is evidenced based and not at the expense of other more affordable tenures that are rarely built in Green Belt areas due to high land values.

If you would like to read the Consultation document and respond you can do so at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488276/151207_Consultation_document.pdf

If you would like to discuss either the Housing & Planning Bill or the National Planning Policy Consultation with me, feel free to contact me on:  0118 961 2000  or by email at: arlene.kersley@ccberks.org.uk