AFFORDABLE HOUSING-IN THIS CONTEXT SOCIAL/RENTED (NOT OPEN MARKET) FOR LOCAL PEOPLE THAT WANT TO LIVE AND WORK HERE:
Please can we get away from a very 'small minority' view that - quote 'I would not like affordable housing next to me, as it would devalue my property'. (I will not embarrass the person or their partner by printing their name here). This comment was both upsetting and shocking.
We DO NEED affordable rented housing as the local average income does not enable those working locally to get on the housing ladder. The house prices in this area are artificially inflated by the incomes of those living outside of this area of Purbeck. If nothing is done to either bring house prices back to some normality, reflecting local incomes then the outcome will eventually be that Swanage and surrounding villages will become retirement/second home retreats.
It seems madness that there is a policy that enables affordable housing to be able to be built on our green fields (because there is such a need) but we are told that it is impossible to do anything about developing a second home council tax policy that disuades people from investing in this way. At the very least the council tax for second homes should be increased (not, as stands,a 10% discount) This extra funding could then be reinvested locally in Purbeck, to build affordable rented housing.
Please do not destroy our Green Fields before there is a second home council tax policy in place.
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37 comments:
Goodness me we have been around and around this. Did Johnathan Ross do any harm by buying bis Farm? Would a spiteful/vengeful extra tax have deterred him, I think probably as it would send out the wrong message.
1 Only Central Gov't can set a new Tax Policy.
2 The Great Home Ownership lie - before the Crunch 70% of this nations wealth was tied up in property, and 70% of people, or partners - 'owned' a house.
Rising House prices are good for those who actually 'own' the home. That's the Bank, the Building Societies, Insurance companies etc and the people who have no mortgage.
Central Gov't isn't keen on disrupting that. Labour were prepared to 'force' Councils to build loads of cheap homes. The Cons aren't. The Cons want to leave it up to the locals to decide. Knowing full well what the outcome of that is.
If you want Affordable homes then we HAVE to sacrifice some of our green space.
Most people respond, yeah, yeah, you're right. But not THERE.
Tax breaks to second home owners to encourage them to let out would be one answer.
Anyone whose family has lived here for years have presumably made a fortune on their property so look to your relatives not everyone else to bail you out.
An encouragement to new private landlords in the town would be good, perhaps no council tax if you let to a needy local family.
Let’s not imagine anyone on a Swanage basic income will be able to buy a house here anytime soon, like can anyone who works in Regent Street afford to live there?
If you are valued as an employee then look to your employer to offer accommodation.
Rent! Be a good tenant and seek a long term lease.
I think it is so unfair that some young people struggle so hard to get and pay a mortgage, whilst others seemingly pop out a few kids and get housed for sitting on their arses. There has to be some incentive in life to advance yourself.
There is plenty of affordable housing in Swanage all ready, but they is clogged up with people who no longer need to be subsidised/are too comfortable with the situation.
I think it is so unfair that some young people struggle so hard to get and pay a mortgage, whilst others seemingly pop out a few kids and get housed for sitting on their arses. There has to be some incentive in life to advance yourself.
Why the hell should they bother 13 years of labour has caused this superbreeding race 3 kids and a subsidised house.easy aint it!
Increasing home ownership to 70% is a policy that failed. We all know whose policy it was. It looked good at the time but the long term consequences are a disaster and nothing suggests the coalition is going to do anything about it.
House price bubbles happen when too much money goes into the mortgage market and chases them up. It is no different from any other inflation. The cause is too much money chasing too few houses.
Oh the cliches!
Swanage is going to lose a school because there aren't enough kiddies in town - FACT - BUT, there aren't enough houses cuz all these young people pop out 3 kids and sit around doing nothing!
"Swanage is going to lose a school because there aren't enough kiddies in town - FACT - BUT, there aren't enough houses cuz all these young people pop out 3 kids and sit around doing nothing!"
Well that means there will be enough "kiddies". Weird logic my friend....
You omitted
"Oh the cliches!"
I then stated a fact, and then used the cliche being used on this blog.
My logic's OK, my friend.
Anyone whose family has lived here for years have presumably made a fortune on their property so look to your relatives not everyone else to bail you out.
We didn't buy a house, we bought a home and we live in it. Its much more difficult for young people to rent/buy now, than when we were starting out. Young people are working and living around here, they are not all sitting 'on their bums' We personally don't need 'bailing out'
Huge challeges require brave solutions.
One long term solution would be for this government to allow parents to deed their property through a trust to their legal dependents for a seven year period during which the parents maintain legal ownership of it. Should at least one of the parents outlive this seven year period, the house will pass to the named dependents free of inheritance tax. Such a trust would probably have to be irrevocable (cannot be modified or wound up), as the benefits it provides are so great.
This works in some other countries and would enable the younger generation to benefit from the equity that has been built into home ownership - turning the root cause of the housing problem into a benefit. This in turn will boost the economy in general and the lost inheritance tax could be recovered in other ways through increased economic activity.
"Huge challeges require brave solutions."
I couldn't agree more!
Your idea, which is nothing new, is a good one for homeowners, this is a thread about AH (Affordable Housing), for those who pay too much rent, live in squalor, or with their Parents/family.
If we want AH then we are going to lose some fields - FACT. Unless you're prepared to accept that, then stop moaning, please.
" If we want AH then we are going to lose some fields - FACT ".
Wrong , very wrong. Can I quote something if I may , some info from another website that talks about the same thing ( AFFORDABLE HOUSING )
Empty rooms and flats in Swanage town centre. Look around the upper floors above the business manly banks in the town centre, quite a lot are empty and have been for many years. I estimate 25% to 30%.the total loss of living quarters. Some of the curtains are closed all the time to give the impression their occupied. [Their not] This is really bad, made worse, as homeless people could be living in them. This of course do’s not include the following derelict sites:-
Estimated conversion use.[ ]
1 The old Grammar School how many one bedroom flats could you get with conversion? [Up to 50 flats and 60 new houses] on land within the school boundary.
2 Pier head café and grounds to both building [8 houses or 16 flats with shops & café etc].
3 Westbury flats Rempstone road [18 flats]
4 Everest, The old Children’s hospital. [5 house or 8 flats].
5 Derelict land opposite Ocean bay. [16 houses or 32 flats].
6 The old bakers shop and flats. At Herston Cross [ 1 house or 3 flats].
Council tax loss must be in the thousands . On these sites alone. OUR LOSS
Council leader David Budd here is 187 new homes.
So do we really need to start getting rid of our fields?
I have a MAP! and on that map are lots of little red squares (and some really big ones too!). Th red squares represent potential development land... Its part of the "Planning Purbecks Future" series and its called "Core Strategy Satial Options Background Paper Volume 6: Settlement Extension Sites".
Go find it!
"So do we really need to start getting rid of our fields?"
If this council has the power of Stalin, then these privately owned property can be summarily appropriated to house the poor.
In reality, how do you propose these sites be made available for low income housing? If there was a market incentive to do so, don't you think the landlords would take part in it?
A pointed out above, this whole process has been to ask landowners where development can go.
So most of those are non starters, except the Grammar site - which means losing green space.
It also ignores a few sites. It's got Everest, but when the Hospital and Ambos move it becomes a big development. When St Marks moves to the middle school site there's another and there are still the car parks.
I totally agree with Dave Furmage that the empty flats above businesses in the town centre should be offered to local homeless people. According to PDC these flats are in a flood risk area so cannot be used for that purpose. Absolute madness.
I dont want social housing near me! who wants scrap vans over flowing wheelie bins, dogs barking and their excremeny evry where, noisy kids, arguing adults late night music, BBQ till 3am, so not for me............ohhh wait a minute I have that allready, ohh c££p.
PS in POoole lots of flats built, nice coucil says social housing must be built, so a % allocated builder not cant sell private ones, no money comming in cant build anymore some of the policies just dont work.
PDC has the power to take over empty housing, for example Westbury, but chooses not to use this power. I imagine they hope the owners will redevelop it into second homes soon.
I don't know about Westbury, but PDC does NOT have the power to 'take over' space within privately owned buildings, such as upper rooms over shops that appear to be unused. If that were the case, then many of us could be compelled to turn over our spare rooms to the council for social housing. This is not WWII; we are not housing evacuees; we are looking for a solution to keep our young folk in Swanage.
Let's get a grip, folks. Before we discuss where these flats or homes should be built or placed, has anyone worked out where the millions to pay for it will come - the destitute public sector, quasi-public housing associations, or a David Wells-type private property developer?
There, by the way, may be our answer in these challenging times! Turn Dave Wells loose in Swanage (with the council giving him relatively cart-blanche powers of authority) and he will magic up cheap properties for rent in places you could not imagine. He has done wonders for housing the unemployed and low-income in Bournemouth and Boscombe!! He will cram them into substandard flatlets over shops.
Is this what we want in Swanage, however?? Think of the attendant problems Bournemouth and Boscombe have to face. Dave Wells has to employ an anti-social officer to keep his tenants under control.
I think I may be speaking for some others when I state that we want to help our own find housing, but we don't want to attract other low-income, unemployed into Swanage by providing cheap housing. We certainly don't want to create these homes only to have them snapped up by second home owners, which solves nothing. You can attack those statements if you want, but I think they are more or less true.
Interesting. I was wondering how supporters of this government view the prospect of people from areas with high unemployment being encouraged to move here as our unemployment rate is lower. Get on your bike and go to Dorset?
I did not mean to suggest that PDC has the power to take over odd rooms in people's houses. They have a power that relates to empty homes only and holiday lets are excluded from the provision. We had a lengthy discussion of it on here some years ago. It was intended as a last resort when residential property had been left to decay.
Perhaps these so called empty flats above shops are in fact stockrooms?
Whether stockrooms or whatever, it is not very likely they qualify as independent flats or bedsits without major conversion. Not many shopkeepers want tenants traipsing through their shops to gain upstairs access at all hours of the day or night.
Not a good idea to rent out a house to tenants who, in the main, try to destroy the property in anger or create un-neighbourly havoc and distress.
That's why empty homes will remain so until a buyer emerges. You cannot trust the person, or people you are renting to these days. More trouble than it's worth.
Lets be ambitious. Fill all the empty spaces but build on the fields too. We have the space to provide housing for Purbeck young people, just needs the will to make it happen. This is a rich country (although it may not sound like it at present). Swanage is a great place for people to live and we should be welcoming as a population.
There has been a scheme for getting flats over shops into use for some years but the takeup is very low suggesting a lack of interest by the owners of such property. In any case there are not a great any empty flats over Swanage shops,
I dont want social housing near me! who wants scrap vans over flowing wheelie bins, dogs barking and their excremeny evry where, noisy kids, arguing adults late night music, BBQ till 3am, so not for me............ohhh wait a minute I have that allready, ohh c££p.
If this is a real situation you are experiencing then complain to the 'housing authority' ?? Raglan or Purbeck Housing. Last year there was a 'scrap amnesty' at Stepps - and some were encouraged to tidy up. (Raglan Housing Association).
Not sure what the outcome of this was. But affordable/social housing should not necessarily mean that it results in the above sweeping statement.
'There, by the way, may be our answer in these challenging times! Turn Dave Wells loose in Swanage (with the council giving him relatively cart-blanche powers of authority) and he will magic up cheap properties for rent in places you could not imagine. He has done wonders for housing the unemployed and low-income in Bournemouth and Boscombe!! He will cram them into substandard flatlets over shops.
Is this what we want in Swanage, however?? Think of the attendant problems Bournemouth and Boscombe have to face. Dave Wells has to employ an anti-social officer to keep his tenants under control.'
Ahhhggg..I rented in Boscombe in the 70/80's and was surprised to find out when we went to the cinema in Bournmouth everyone booed when Dave Wells Garage was advertised. A bit of a shock, 'cause,we knew nothing except he was our absent landlord at the time! We soon found out what he was about. Too many tales to tell here.
Oh a comment about your post though, we need affordable (rented) housing in Swanage etc. for the employed and average wage earners such as nurses, self employed tradespeople and ordinary 'folk', or for house prices to fall, so that a house becomes a home not an investment.
The affordable (social/rented) housing will, I assume, be in trust by Raglan, Purbeck Housing or Synergy so that it cannot be bought on the open market.
But we are told that this housing cannot be built without the unaffordable housing that can become second homes.
PDC have been saying that 2 bedroom (smallish) open market housing is needed too. If that is the case then why is PDC planning department allowing individual builders to continue to build eg. 2 large 3/4 bedroom houses on a plot that could accommodate 4 small terraced homes with small gardens, that could be afforded by young families. These larger more expensive houses continue to be built and given permission by PDC - so where is the sense ???
How does it work in Jersy
Is there some sort of waiting list for those outside wishing to buy, how does this work for the people who live there ??
How do they cope with affordable housing for their locals ?
Jersey - no tax and hard to get in.
Families in Jersey do all right, thank you very much. Not much chance any Dave Wells clients would get in for more than a day visit.
Jersey is a self contained happy little fiefdom, if you fit in.
This may help - unless you own a holiday home
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10913365
The Second Home owners that I know, don't have them as holiday homes, so mebbie not .....
Jersey is an independent country. It is not in the EU. It sets its own taxes. This is tolerated by the rest of the world because of the pressure which would be exerted by those able to advantage of its tax haven status if their privileges were threatened. It is the tax advantages of having a company nominally based there that matter rather than actually living there. Swanage, or indeed Purbeck as a whole is not a feudal remnant, despite appearances, so this cannot happen here.
If I sought a tax haven, I would chose the Cayman Islands. Much nicer climate and nice (lots of ex-pat) British people there.
I got a laugh from 'Swanage, or indeed Purbeck as a whole is not a feudal remnant' - it most certainly is, in attitude if not in law! I expect a Peter Sellers-like character to emerge as Mayor of Swanage one day...
They tend to be more mayor of Toytown than Pimlico.
I was thinking more of 'The Mouse that Roared' than 'Passport to Pimlico'!
Would that mean we get to invade Bournemouth?
And use the Square and Compass's cider as rocket fuel? Can we start suggesting nominations for the first Swanage astronaut? If a one way ticket were to be offered I can think of a number of candidates.
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