Dawlish Discussion

I've already referred to this on the North West of Secmaton Lane thread but I thought this Bill and what is in it is so important in terms of how it may affect what type of housing is produced and where in Dawlish that I'd start a separate thread.

Measures include:

• New affordable Starter Homes – a new legal duty will be placed on councils to guarantee the provision of 200,000 Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites; these will be offered to first-time buyers at a 20% discount on market prices

• Local Plans – providing the government with targeted powers to ensure that all councils get Local Plans in place by 2017, so they can help provide the homes their communities need

• Pay to Stay – ensuring that those tenants on higher incomes who are living in social housing have a rent that reflects their ability to pay, while those who genuinely need support continue to receive it

• automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites – to bring forward more land to build new homes quicker, while protecting the green belt

• planning reforms to support small builders – placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land so 20,000 custom and self-built homes a year can be built by 2020

• measures to tackle rogue landlords – giving councils the power to blacklist, and in extreme cases ban those who don’t abide by the law, while helping decent landlords recover abandoned homes quicker

• Ensuring high value assets are managed effectively – ensuring the sale of high value council assets that can be used to support people into home ownership

Publication of the Bill comes just days after the government reached an historic deal with housing associations to extend the Right to Buy to 1.3 million housing association tenants from as early as next year.

As the editorial in this week's Inside Housing points out "the bill sets out that planners will not be able to insist on affordable rented homes, and on some sites they will only be able to give planning permission if the 20% below market price Starter Homes are included". 

So.......if all local authorities have to have Local Plans in place by 2017 and these Local Plans show a need for affordable rental properties, how will such homes be delivered given that the local authorities will not be able to insist on affordable rented housing via S106 agreements?  

Check out this recent TDC Housing consultation document – especially page 4 where it gives the definition of affordable housing and talks of ”a tenure split of 75% affordable rented homes and 25% intermediate homes" (intermediate housing will generally be provided as shared ownership).

http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=45365&p=0

Out of interest how are affordable houses handed over to housing associations?  Do they have to buy a block of them?  How are the associations chosen - is it a case of highest bidder wins?  There's also been a number of allegations (particularly about Cranbrook, not so sure about Dawlish) that housing associations from other parts of the country are buying up stock.  Anyone know if that's the case?

As I understand it the HA system works along these lines.

The Local Authority has a list of preferred providers to whom they prefer the developer to sell the % of homes having to be affordable. The % of homes that need to be affordable will be set out in the S106 agreement when the planning permission gets given for any particular development. 

Usually developers go along that route.

The developer will ask a number of the HAs on the LA list to put down proposals for what they will pay for those properties delivered under the terms of this Section 106 agreement.

Big developments like the ones scheduled for, and presently being built in, Dawlish are built in phases so sometimes the developer/HA deal is phase by phase sometimes it's over the whole development.

It is a commercial deal but the homes are sold by the developer to the HA below their market value.

Does that help?

Over the years many rumours have circulated about affordable housing being sold off to HAs in other parts of the country.

Is there any evidence of this happening at Cranbrook or here in Dawlish?   

List of TDC preferred providers re affordable housing.

er.......these 20% below market price Starter Homes.

When these properties come up for resale, will this 20% discount be locked in for future first time buyers or is this 20% discount only available for those first time buyers who buy these Starter Homes brand new from the developer?

To answer my own question.

“The bill proposes that buyers of starter homes can sell them at full market value after five years, giving a windfall to the lucky recipients but removing forever their benefit to first-time buyers of the future.”

From http://omnifeed.com/article/www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/25/housing-bill-building-planning-wont-work

and from the same article

"Starter homes can only come at the expense of other forms of affordable housing currently provided through planning gain, whereby developers have to provide a proportion in return for getting permission to build. These include shared ownership, a proved way of achieving what starter homes are supposed to do"

It is presently TDC's policy that the new housing developments in Dawlish scheduled to be built in the Gatehouse/Secmaton/Langdon areas of the town should provide 25% affordable housing (affordable = 1.rented up to 80% of market rates and 2.shared ownership of some kind).

TDC's policy is that ideally the split of the 25% affordable housing should be 75% rented, 25% shared ownership.

So, these new kids on the block that the government is also calling affordable housing aka starter homes, how will they fit into this affordable % requirement? Will they be in addition to the 25% (presently rental and shared ownership) or will they form part of the 25% thereby reducing the amount of rented and shared ownership properties that will be available?

Anyone fancy a bet?

Bear in mind this:  

• New affordable Starter Homes – a new legal duty will be placed on councils to guarantee the provision of Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites; these will be offered to first-time buyers at a 20% discount on market prices

More info here:

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7331

And an interesting article on these proposed affordable starter homes here:

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/debate/ih-50/non-starter/7012730.article?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

“The Government has recently adopted a target of delivering 200,000 new homes a year over the course of this parliament, with the clear ambition of reversing the decline in home ownership.  The consequence could be a reduction in affordable housing numbers for the lowest income households.”

 “70,000 new, low to middle income households a year will be unable to afford to live in market housing, whether rented or owned.”

 “concern is that new policy will result in a greater shift from sub-market rental products towards more expensive shared ownership and Starter Homes accessible only to those on middle incomes.” 

 “the supply of housing for the very poorest is likely to diminish.”

From: http://www.savills.com/_news/article/105347/196878-0/11/2015/350-000-new-households-to-be-excluded-from-market-housing-by-2020

So where do people live. I hate this bloody government!!!!

Strongly suggest to those looking for 'affordable' housing (affordable = sub market rental and shared ownership) on the new housing estates scheduled to be be built in Dawlish that you get your skates on. The future for affordable (in the way I have defined it above) does not look good. 

Here is the affordable provision on phase one of the Redrow Development. I do not know which housing association(s) is/are involved but Redrow and TDC's housing department will know.

 Type of affordable dwellings:

                a) how many flats? 8 x 1 bed apartments

                b) if two and three bedroom flats being built then how many of each type?

                c) how many houses? 24

                d) if two and three bedroom houses being built then how many of each type? 12 x 2 bed, 12 x 3 bed

                e) any bungalows? No

Of the affordable dwellings please can you indicate how many, and of what type, will be available for affordable rent (ie up to 80% of market rate) and how much available for intermediate housing (eg shared ownership). 70% affordable rental, 30% shared ownership

The Buntings development had a 20% discounted homes for sale up until yesterday, there were three in total.

This was agreed in the original s106 agreement back in 2012.

My partner and I attempted to purchase one, passed all eligibility checks and had a mortgage agreed in principle, however the lender when looking into the details stated that they were not prepared to lends as the s106 agreement restrictions on re-sale meant the property would be too hard for them to sell if we defaulted on our mortgage.  We went to a broker who said that the only lender was Halifax who wanted a 20% deposit. (£27,600!)

This therefore made the affordable house "unaffordable" as the mortgage lenders are not prepared to lend on these properties.

Right now it's staff they can no longer afford to employ

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Jobs-fear-staff-Exeter-based-housing-association/story-28233899-detail/story.html

how long before it is housing they can no longer afford to provide?

An extract from our MP's column in the latest edition of the Gazette.

".........I met up with officers from Teignbridge Council to talk through the implications of the Autumn Statement and the Housing and Planning Bill...................The biggest changes and challenges for the council come from the Housing and Planning Bill which lays down guidelines requiring councils to promote starter homes and take their provision into account in any planning decision. The local council will also have to get brownfield land back into use through local land development orders. There is also an obligation for councils to make available adequate land for self-build projects to meet demand".

Feel sure I am not the only one interested in seeing how the proposals in this Housing and Planning Bill will manifest themselves, not only in the Teignbridge Local Plan generally but particularly with regard to housing provision in Dawlish.    

Should anyone feel like telling the government what they think about the proposals in this Housing and Planning Bill then you might like to know that you have up to 11.45pm on 25th Jan 2016 by which to do so.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/national-planning-policy-consultation-on-proposed-changes

The Bill has now been amended and it now also proposes that future council tenants should no longer have life time tenancies but two or five year fixed term tenancies.

Read more here: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/09/council-tenants-lose-lifetime-right-to-live-in-property 

and here

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/council-tenants-will-no-longer-get-lifetime-security-of-tenure-under-government-plans-a6767781.html