Housing crisis highlighted in South Lakeland (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Housing crisis highlighted in South Lakeland
12:40pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in News
JUST 57 affordable new homes are being built in South Lakeland every year, despite 3,000 families languishing on housing waiting lists.
The figure was revealed by the National Housing Federation, which came to Kendal on Friday to launch Northern Rural Housing Week.
It says high property prices, and a lack of affordable housing, threatens the future of communities and risks closing pubs, village shops, post offices and schools.
The week aims to highlight the plight of families who, the federation says, are being ‘forced out of the countryside’.
Housing associations, councillors and other interested parties gathered at Kendal to discuss the issue, while celebrating a £1.2m development which has created affordable homes in Milnthorpe.
Monica Burns, Cumbria lead manager for the National Housing Federation, said: “Rural communities in South Lakeland are under threat due to a lack of affordable housing.
“Families who have lived in the countryside for generations are being priced out. They need new affordable housing, or they will have no choice but to move away to urban areas.”
The Harmony Hill Close development, in Milnthorpe, was completed in February 2010 by Two Castles Housing Association and South Lakeland District Council.
It is located on a former council depot, and all ten rented homes were snapped up immediately by families with connections to the parish.
Suzy Brown, from Kendal, and daughters Tiana, eight, and Taya, four, moved into the complex from a mouldy, damp flat in which they shared the same bedroom.
After spending years on the housing waiting list, Ms Brown, 33, said: “I was thrilled to be able to remain close to my friends. We’ve lived happily here for two years now and I still can’t believe we live in such a fantastic, spacious home. The girls love their new home, especially because they’ve got their own rooms, as well as their very own garden to play in.”
Social landlords hosted events across north-ern England this week to demonstrate the need for more rural homes.
At the Kendal event, MP Tim Farron said there were 1,000 private homes lying empty locally and South Lakeland District Council was working with homeowners to bring these into use.
Using an Empty Dwelling Management Order, believed to be the first in Cumbria, the authority handed the keys of a house, in Mintsfeet Road, to Kendal man Peter Kitching, and his family, last year. Both the council and Lake District National Park Authority have earmarked land they believe suitable for housing in a bid to help developers provide more affordable homes.
Comments(12)
Gingery
says...
7:26pm Wed 1 Feb 12
nickjohn
says...
11:33pm Wed 1 Feb 12
My understanding is that affordable housing is for sale at a discounted rate and applicants have to be qualified by SLDC and must have a job etc etc and social housing is property up for rent from the likes of Two Castles...
gadgetgadget
says...
9:08am Thu 2 Feb 12
3000 on the waiting lists - 6000 new houses in total, only 35% of which will be affordable and only a suitable proportion of those will be for social housing ... perhaps people can now see how the figures don't stack up.
He's also still confusing homelessness with affordability and not social housing.
No wonder it's now been politicised - it's a fatally flawed plan which panders only to the construction industry NOT to those in real need.
johayek
says...
11:55am Thu 2 Feb 12
nickjohn
says...
8:00pm Thu 2 Feb 12
gadgetgadget wrote:Hi gadgetgadget,
Laughable letter from Coun P Thornton in today's WG - "a suitable proportion" of the affordable housing in the LDF will be for social housing.
3000 on the waiting lists - 6000 new houses in total, only 35% of which will be affordable and only a suitable proportion of those will be for social housing ... perhaps people can now see how the figures don't stack up.
He's also still confusing homelessness with affordability and not social housing.
No wonder it's now been politicised - it's a fatally flawed plan which panders only to the construction industry NOT to those in real need.
It was my understanding that affordable housing and social housing were 2 separate things and when a developer allows for a proportion of affordable housing that's exactly what they do.. they do not allow for social housing, unless of course it is funded by others e.g. Impact Housing, Two Castles etc etc.
I think Thornton has completely misunderstood / misled people by saying that a proportion of the affordable housing will be social, unless of course SLDC have some plan to fund the social element...
Desdan
says...
8:11pm Thu 2 Feb 12
Desdan
says...
8:11pm Thu 2 Feb 12
nickjohn
says...
9:35pm Thu 2 Feb 12
Desdan wrote:The problem with the "Foyer" is that it is social housing intended to assist those between 18 and 25 (I may be wrong on the exact age limits) who have no where to live for whatever reason.. IMO placing a number of young, jobless individuals in one place with no guidance or support was always asking for problems..
Lets be honest, social housing is for one parent families with very or no income to be given a house at the tax payers expense. Affordable housing is for people to be able to buy part of the house and pay rent on the other half. These are usually people with an income. The Liberals propose to build social housing and put as many people in these houses with no income.Look at the so called affordable housing at the 'FOYER' in Kendal it's full of what can only be described as the 'Scum' of Kendal. As contraversal as this comment may be, it's true.
I believe the people running the office space / cafe want out due to all the trouble they encounter and the police are there daily - from the Police perspective its handy as they are all in one place and saves on travelling to pick them up....
Once again it is "society" who is bending over backwards to help these "poor unfortunates" by giving them a roof over their heads and money in their pocket each week.. Not sure what happens to them when they are 25, guess we give them a nice council house.....
I have a daughter, she and her partner, along with a 3 year old, would love to be given a flat or even be eligible for the "affordable" housing but they failed the SLDC "credibility test" so ended up in a private rental paying more each month in rent than they would be paying on a mortgage... I guess if she had another 2 kids to 2 different fathers, jacked her part time job as a carer and ditched the partner then she would be top of the list... what a strange twisted message we send to the youth of today.....
Ladyxxmacbeth
says...
2:21pm Sat 4 Feb 12
In answer to your daughter's problem, anyone can join the waiting list to get social housing....anyone as long as they do not have rent arrears, criminal convictions for anti social behaviour and are UK residents. Maybe your daughter should speak to them again because surely if she doesn't fill the criteria maybe she isn't as angelic as you make out!
Also Impact housing does not just cater for as someone put it for the "scum" in Kendal, it is for disabled and elderly residents too.
nickjohn
says...
7:56pm Sat 4 Feb 12
Ladyxxmacbeth wrote:Hi LadyXXmacbeth,
Nick John you are totally wrong. Councils prefer to give houses to couples with children that have a secure job. I hate all this beat up the single parent families in this country talk. Being a single parent is the hardest job in the world, made harder by snotty nosed (!) holes like yourself.
In answer to your daughter's problem, anyone can join the waiting list to get social housing....anyone as long as they do not have rent arrears, criminal convictions for anti social behaviour and are UK residents. Maybe your daughter should speak to them again because surely if she doesn't fill the criteria maybe she isn't as angelic as you make out!
Also Impact housing does not just cater for as someone put it for the "scum" in Kendal, it is for disabled and elderly residents too.
Wow what a rant, firstly please can you detail where I am beating up single parents, at no time have I mentioned single parents, my discussion is about the 18 to 25 year old's living in the "Foyer" who I was led to believe, from all the hype when the spot was being built, were single people not families.....
Also I think you need to take a look at some, note the word some, of the people offered social housing, they are by no means models of society and, contrary to your comments, do have rent arrears - believe it or not some people in social housing have actually been made bankrupt - As for not having criminal convictions I think you need to wake up and smell the roses and just listen to yourself.. Of course people with criminal convictions are given social housing if they weren't who else would house them, the private sector??
As for my daughter when she applied for social housing she was told that as she had a partner, had a private rental and had a job she was at the bottom of the list. She was told, by the council, that if she was a single parent (preferably with 2 children) and went to live in the hostel off Windermere Road she would be housed within six months.
She also applied to buy an affordable property but again did not fulfil their criteria due to not enough savings for a deposit - to be eligible for affordable housing she needs savings for a deposit but if she has savings for a deposit it makes her ineligible for social housing - so is stuck in private rental.....
As I said before what a strange twisted message we send to the youth of today.....
tictoc1
says...
10:28am Tue 7 Feb 12
worldsgonemad says...
2:39pm Wed 1 Feb 12
I do wonder where they get the figures for to decide what is an 'affordable' home. As house prices in the area are high what 'they' deem affordable is actually out of the price range for many people.