COMMENT: Horsham housing battle ‘is not over yet’

Frances Haigh, a former leader of the Lib Dem Group at Horsham District Council, has raised concerns about Government policy’s effects on future development in the Horsham district:
Frances HaighFrances Haigh
Frances Haigh

This week, I received a copy of the brochure for the superb new development at Highwood Mill. This collaboration between Saxon Weald and Berkeley Homes provides an extra care facility which supports independent living for those people in later life, whether as private buyers or social tenants.

These facilities enable people to move somewhere manageable and safe. If it is anything like Leggyfield Court, I am sure it will be a great success and I look forward to visiting it.

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This week also saw a very worrying step in the housing market. As well- known, there is a housing shortage across the South East and many towns like Horsham are under extreme pressure to allocate sites for more and more homes.

However many of the steps which have been taken by the Government do little to increase the supply of housing. No amount of planning applications affects how many homes developers build, as businesses will only build when they are going to make a profit.

After the Second World War, there was a concerted effort to build council-owned homes to meet the need for housing. This recognised that many people, however hard-working, would never earn enough to be able to pay for a mortgage.

It also recognised that having a good standard of housing for everybody helped to reduce the public health problems brought about by poorly maintained homes and over-crowding.

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In addition, providing homes for rent can improve flexibility in the labour market, enabling people to move where there is work.

Successive governments have moved away from funding council homes, and have introduced schemes to sell off social housing. The supply of housing has been choked off for many years, leading to today’s shortages and excessive house prices.

As many as four in ten young adults still live with their parents as they have no way of affording their own property. They are known as the ‘clipped wing’ generation.

If they pay for rented accommodation, they cannot afford to save for a deposit. If they do try to move out, they could find themselves being offered a room in a cupboard under the stairs or in a shared house with a tree growing in the kitchen, or having to find over £200k just for a tiny flat in Linden House.

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If we are to solve the crisis, we should enable councils and housing associations to build to meet the gap between the supply of homes for those who can buy, and the need for homes for those who cannot earn enough and for our most vulnerable whose circumstances prevent them from working.

Yet the Tory Government policies appear to be aimed not just to reduce the supply of social housing, but to eliminate it altogether. A key step this week was to agree with housing associations that they should voluntarily sell off their social homes at a discount of up to £104k to tenants.

This discount is to be funded by councils selling off their higher value social homes. A council development of retirement flats in Islington, which like Highwood Mill would enable older residents to downsize, is likely to have to be sold to private investors, to pay for a discount to be given to someone elsewhere in the country.

In this way at least two homes are lost from social housing. The homes sold in Islington would probably be let out at a high rent. The homes bought at a discount, will probably end up owned by investors who will charge rents in excess of social rents so those renting may need to receive housing benefit to be able to afford them.

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The loss to councils is estimated to be £6bn in the next four years from sale of assets alone. The increase in housing benefit is unknown. This really is a “lose-lose” situation for all concerned; for housing associations, councils, tenants and future tenants alike.

Social housing pays for itself. There is no need for this ideological vandalism.

Why does London matter to Horsham? Our housing market is driven by the fact that Horsham is within the catchment for London. All the while that London cannot provide suitable housing, more and more people will move out of London, driving up the prices here, making Horsham less and less affordable.

This means that the social housing we have here will increase in value and be more likely to have to be sold off, reducing our stocks even further. Our young adults will have even less chance of finding their own homes close to their families, whether as buyers or tenants, and have to move further away, or stay for even longer with mum and dad.

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There is another reason why Horsham needs to pay attention to the Government’s housing policies. The long-awaited inspector’s examination report for the Horsham District Planning Framework has been delayed.

The initial examination was last November. It cannot possibly need more time to finish this report. But it is now due in another few weeks – at about the same time that the government’s Housing Bill is due to be published and within weeks of the decision about airport expansion.

Might it be that there are even more damaging ideas to crawl out of the woodwork that will need to be incorporated in the plan? Will the 35 per cent affordable homes be reduced or even replaced by starter homes that are still unaffordable? Will the total housing number change still more?

Housing campaigners should be on their guard, ready to lobby our MPs, because with a Government that believes only in profit and not in the common good, one thing we can be sure about is that the Horsham housing battle is not over yet.

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