MORE RURAL SOCIAL HOMES CALL

 

MORE RURAL SOCIAL HOMES CALL

Wait list length is just plain wrong says Defend Council Housing

UniteLANDWORKER Winter 2023/24

Housing campaigners Defend Council Housing (DCH) wishes to speak to rural households stuck on the ever-growing rural social housing waiting lists that has now reached 197,894/ The testimonies gathered would be fed into an All-Party Parliamentary Group enquiry into the need for council housing.

Lord Best, who led the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for many years, has written extensively and chaired many commissions on housing. “As the National Housing Federation (NHF) has revealed the national position for rural housing has worsened quite dramatically in recent years………….trends (include) pricing out locals… (and) a fall in availability of private rented accommodation. In Devon the County notes a 50% decline and in North Devon alone a 67% fall in just 2-3 years.”

The NHF figures show that 46,318 additional households were added to the national social housing waiting list in rural areas between 2019-2022. And with just 5,953 new social rent houses constructed rurally over the same period then the crisis is growing at a rate 10 times that of towns and cities.

Best sees the answers lying in national and local government action. “We need to enable councils to stop the loss of longer-term lettings to Airbnb-style lets through a planning consent requirement and we need to embark on a major programme of social housing, not least for rural communities where so much council housing has been sold under Right to Buy.”

Best chairs the Devon Housing Commission that has already had 170 submissions, mainly from rural and coastal communities, from those facing severe housing difficulties.

A similar national enquiry is now being organised by Best’s parliamentary colleagues that comprise the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Housing and Social Mobility whose purpose is ‘to champion social housing providers that support communities to secure sustainable livelihoods’ by ‘examining evidence led insights.’

DCH is providing secretariat (administrative) support to the APPG that is co-chaired by MPs Peter Aldous (Tory) and Liz Twist. (Labour)

DCH is keen to collate the experiences of rural households stuck on long waiting lists for social housing and would welcome the assistance of Unite members in rural communities to make this possible. The group has already set up meetings in urban areas including Rochdale but wants to reach out into countryside communities.

According to Eileen Short, “we are seeing the return to the slum, overcrowded, insecure living conditions of the 19th century that drove the mass council housing movement in the first place.

“Whether you are in housing need yourself or deeply concerned for future generations, help build a movement to address the housing crisis.

“This initiative could help reveal the facts about the present state of housing and detail how to mend the housing crisis. Please make contact if you can assist,” she added.

 

In conjunction with Homes for All, DCH has put forward a 5 Point Plan which aims to provide concrete proposals to help solve the housing crisis.

1. Government investment in a mass council housing building programme, including requisitioning of empty homes and abolition of ‘right to buy’
2. Rent controls and secure tenancies in the private rental sector. Robust regulation of housing associations
3. New funding to repair and refurbish existing council housing – do not demolish
4. Adequate funding for fire safety, and for retrofitting and thermal insulation
5. Planning for the people and the planet, and not for developers’ profits

To contact Defend Council Housing ring 07342 098440 and at info@defendcouncilhousing.org

See also Homes for All website at www.axethehousingact.org.uk