Dear Reader, I as a local councillor have campaigned for over ten years now with a number of submissions to enquiries into this subject and letters to the PM and MPs, but in all that time little notice has been taken. Well not one to give up I again tried recently by e mailing 641 of the MPs with an idea, only two replied one to say I was not in his area and the other told me firstly to get the local authority to build more houses and then the Minister will look into it. You may well wonder why they do not want to solve the problem that is costing the government £16.82 billion a year in the cost of supporting housing costs in both the private and social sector. Well the reason is that a lot of people are getting very very rich in this sector and by not meeting the needs for housing in the country the costs of houses go up and the costs of rents follow. Recently I had someone in my area tell me that they could not afford to take a Housing Association flat because they earned just over the benefits limit and the £500 per month was to much and would lead to her being in difficulties with money (i.e. poor). This is a similar theme across the area with the working residents not earning enough to have decent housing and all the other bills that come with it, i.e. rates and utilities. It has been said that Housing Associations made £3billion in profit last year and many of the chief executives earn more then the Prime Minister, not sure how that works but they now charge 80% of the local market rate. This in a place like Looe means that the local rents are expensive because the open market is very limited and very expensive because being a tourist area homes can be let out for high prices and make better returns for owners.
How do we solve this problem of providing homes for people without them being to expensive at local wage rates and reduce the amount of money going to private and social landlords and reducing the countries debt for this. Well for many years i have pushed the idea of a semi social house which is for local people only who are on the social housing register that are working in the area but can't afford open market house prices and private rents. Well i will try and explain;
Councils own a lot of land and this should be allocated to be used for semi social housing, the return for this they would receive an income of £20 rent per week per for each house built in this ground and if later sold to the tenant it would be at the local rate for housing land and without discount. This gives a return to the council for the land and gains the full future value of the land to rate payer in the local area, this income can be used for future provision or supporting the rates. Any lease should be 99 year for mortgage purposes
The services and utilities should be brought to site at cost proportioned across all the properties on the site by the size of property in relation to the costs of provision. The home should be modular in design and fabricated off site to reduce the costs and for speed of build. Looking at the costs locally it should be able to bring in homes and flats for between £60k and £90k thus affordable to many local families and at mortgage rates that are affordable to local people. These homes should be sold at cost-plus 5% to cover council costs and future projects.
These homes would be a solution to the affordability problems we face in Cornwall without the council having to fund the costs of the build. It would provide an income for the council from assets it already has and reduce the pressure of local social housing which will in its current form can not solve the housing shortage. My final two pieces to make this work and not effect the local housing market, the houses should be given a condition of sale that means it can only be sold to someone else on the local housing needs register and if they default on the mortgage the home must be sold back to the council.
I must again state that this is only an idea but with the country with its financial problems it has it is the only way to meet the need without penalising the tax payer to solve the problem.
How do we solve this problem of providing homes for people without them being to expensive at local wage rates and reduce the amount of money going to private and social landlords and reducing the countries debt for this. Well for many years i have pushed the idea of a semi social house which is for local people only who are on the social housing register that are working in the area but can't afford open market house prices and private rents. Well i will try and explain;
Councils own a lot of land and this should be allocated to be used for semi social housing, the return for this they would receive an income of £20 rent per week per for each house built in this ground and if later sold to the tenant it would be at the local rate for housing land and without discount. This gives a return to the council for the land and gains the full future value of the land to rate payer in the local area, this income can be used for future provision or supporting the rates. Any lease should be 99 year for mortgage purposes
The services and utilities should be brought to site at cost proportioned across all the properties on the site by the size of property in relation to the costs of provision. The home should be modular in design and fabricated off site to reduce the costs and for speed of build. Looking at the costs locally it should be able to bring in homes and flats for between £60k and £90k thus affordable to many local families and at mortgage rates that are affordable to local people. These homes should be sold at cost-plus 5% to cover council costs and future projects.
These homes would be a solution to the affordability problems we face in Cornwall without the council having to fund the costs of the build. It would provide an income for the council from assets it already has and reduce the pressure of local social housing which will in its current form can not solve the housing shortage. My final two pieces to make this work and not effect the local housing market, the houses should be given a condition of sale that means it can only be sold to someone else on the local housing needs register and if they default on the mortgage the home must be sold back to the council.
I must again state that this is only an idea but with the country with its financial problems it has it is the only way to meet the need without penalising the tax payer to solve the problem.
