Shelter exposes council's poor housing record
By welland | Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 12:45
The poor record of Bath and North East Somerset Council in delivering much-needed affordable housing in the area is highlighted this week by housing charity Shelter in its Housing League Table.
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Dan Norris
.The Housing League Table compares how councils across the country are performing at enabling new affordable homes. It highlights how the level of affordable homes being delivered compares to the number needed and uses this measure to produce a ranking for each council.
B&NES ranks amongst the south west's worst councils, being outperformed by all its neighbouring unitary authorities.
The Shelter Housing League Table shows B&NES has managed to deliver just 13 per cent of local housing need. Neighbouring authorities figure better (South Gloucestershire 20 per cent; North Somerset 23 per cent, and Bristol 39 per cent). More information, including the full League Table can be found at www.housingleaguetable.org.uk
It has prompted North East Somerset's MP Dan Norris to renew his calls for Conservative councillors who currently run B&NES to scrap their commitment to extremely well-paid bosses whose continuing failure to deliver is further confirmed by the new figures
The league tables follow the 2008 publication of The Audit Commission's Corporate Assessment Report on B&NES. The Commission said the Council was "falling well short" in delivering already modest housing targets.
Mr Norris said: "Shelter confirms Conservative-run B&NES has delivered a shamefully poor 13 per cent of the affordable housing needed by local people. B&NES languishes as one of our country's poorest-performing councils - and the worst in this part of the world.
"People are asking why a Council that was so roundly condemned in autumn 2008 by the Audit Commission watchdog for its housing failures continues to fail to meet local people's housing need. This failure is undermining rural North East Somerset - forcing local youngsters to move away and damaging the survival prospects of rural shops, post offices and schools.
"The people I meet at my twice-weekly surgeries right across North East Somerset are wondering: What has B&NES Council been doing since the autumn of 2008?
"Any reasonable council would have responded to the Audit Commission by taking urgent action to give hope to the thousands of local people in need of an affordable place to live.
"Shelter's figures show the council has delivered only a seventh of the affordable housing needed
“This pitifully poor council acts too often like it’s doing local people a favour, having forgotten it should serve the communities that pay its wages.
"The Tories who run B&NES will be asking their £340,000 press office operation to find a way of interpreting this charity's data to show the council in a good light. Better to spend this money on delivering the homes so needed in North East Somerset, than on finding a new set of excuses for failure."
Comments
Bath & North East Somerset Council response:
Bath & North East Somerset recognises the need for more affordable housing. The Council is at an advanced stage of bringing in investment on key housing sites, like Bath Western Riverside, which will supply both affordable and open market homes. In addition to seeking and securing funding from partners the Council agreed to set aside £3m for affordable housing.
The Council’s approach to improving the availability of housing to those in need is much wider than house building. For example, we operate an innovative Homefinder scheme which aims to prevent homelessness by helping people find secure private rented homes and stops families being placed in Bed & Breakfast accommodation. We are also about to introduce a new strategy to bring empty properties back into use, amongst other initiatives. All of these efforts have resulted in Bath & North East Somerset having one of the lowest numbers of people in temporary accommodation in the region.
Bath & North East Somerset Council recognises that more affordable homes are required so that people have access to a decent home and the regeneration of the local economy can be supported. Without affordable homes, there is nowhere for the workers of new firms coming to area to go. The recent Core Strategy consultation gave an opportunity for people to give their view on how this issue can be most effectively addressed. The results of this consultation are being compiled by the Council.
The Core Strategy consultation asked for people's views on:
* Varying housing needs throughout the district;
* The proportion of all new housing which should be affordable;
* How much housing should be rented or part-owned;
* The size of development that these principles should apply to.
Editors note - CORRECTION
For accuracy it is important that we correct the Shelter Press release. The research which we commissioned, and they referred, specified a theoretical need of 847 units per year(1) of new affordable housing, not the figure quoted by Shelter. In addition this year we have so far delivered 130 units of accommodation and are expecting to do significantly better next year. This upward trajectory is very positive given the current and challenging economic environment, the high land values in the district and the planning challenges created by large areas of green belt land and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
(1) West of England Strategic Housing Market Assessment 2009
By council_spoke at 09:16 on 25/03/10
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