Stroud's Housing Need Inquiry

The Council's Scrutiny committees have been looking at housing needs in the District in relation to affordable housing. A provisional strategy was presented to Cabinet last night - various comments were made - as it is at a provisonal stage it is too early to see what might or might not be accepted.

Photo: view across to Whiteshill

My own comments re this report are enclosed below - I am concerned that we will not move fast enough towards higher targets of affordable housing. We are looking to move from 25% to 30% while others in Gloucestershire are already at 40% and 50%.

CPRE and others note that the Government appears to believe that the need for affordable housing can be met through a massive increase in private sector housing. This is not the view of Barker or myself: considerably more funding for social housing is needed - but that of course is an issue beyond the remit of this report....

I am also concerned that there appears to be reluctance from some about having much higher environmental standards for affordable housing - I hope that doesn't translate into poor policies further down the line. We must wait and see.

To read the paper download item 12 here.

Comments re Housing Need Inquiry'

Firstly many thanks for this thorough report. The recommendations are to be very welcomed. Here are a couple of quick comments as requested:

1. Re: Thresholds

The uncertainty around levels of public subsidy to bring forward affordable homes, is of concern: as noted in the report the 30% threshold is out of line with other local Councils -and out of line withwhat is needed locally. The review of this figure within a year is welcomed and it will hopefully be possible to increase it as suggested.

2. Re homelessness and the shortage of affordable rented accomodation

In the last section of the report there is a request for views on these issues. I would like to strongly recommend that they are looked at as a matter of some urgency.

Numbers ofaffordable rented accommodation (both social and privatesectors) becoming available are going down. This is of considerable concern when we also see the figuresfor homelessnessrising.

I know that most will agree that the problems faced by those living in temporary and/or poor accomodation cannot be underestimated. Indeed there is much research to show the devastating lifelong consequences that families and children can face from bad housing and homelessness.

Stroud can be proud of it's current work in difficult conditions - I know the Council is already looking at efficiency improvements in this area and also have a visit planned by regional champions, Plymouth, who will help draw up an action plan.

However I think this whole area could benefit from a full inquiry by one or other of the Scrutiny committees. I am sure there are improvements that can be made. I understand oneCouncil, for example, has considerably improvedtheir situation by being an agent for the private-rented sector.

3. Re Environmental standards of new homes

While I welcome further work in this area as suggested, it is quite clear that we need to be building houses that will last well into the future - even some large oil companies are saying we may only have 20 years left of using oil as a main source of energy - not to incorporate the highest standards would not make economic or environmental sense. Indeed it is building problems for the future. Any higher costs in build will quickly be paid off in energy savings.