‘There are Bolton people waiting who will never be eligible for a social house’
Cllr Nick Peel said that the Labour Government housing plans should be welcome
Their £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme aims to build around 300,000 new social and affordable homes in the country.
Already, affordable homes are being built in and around Bolton, including the flagship Moor Lane development, with affordable homes being planned for the Church Wharf development.
Cllr Peel said that this “crucially” includes at least 60 per cent for social rent – representing 180,000 homes.
He said that this represents “the biggest boost to social housing in a decade” and would be six times more than the number of social homes built in the 10 years up to 2024.
Cllr Peel said: “We need to welcome this – this along with other measures represents a social rent revolution.
“A revolution that is massively needed in this country, because this country has a serious and a worsening housing crisis.”
Church Wharf plans where some homes will be affordable (Image: Watson)
He said that at the last count there were 1.3 million households on the housing waiting list in England.
Cllr Peel said: “We know there are people in Bolton who are on that waiting list who will never – ever – in their lifetime, be eligible for a social house.”
He said this includes 164,000 children in temporary accommodation in the country, “which can be anything from a hotel to even converted shipping containers.”
He added that since the 1980s, the ratio of house prices to income had nearly doubled, “pricing younger generations out of homeownership.”
Cllr Nick Peel (Image: Newsquest)
Cllr Peel said: “Rising homelessness is now such a grotesque new normal that it rarely makes the headlines anymore.
“Of course, these bleak statistics don’t capture the misery of those who can afford rent – just so long as they don’t put the heating on.”
He referred to William Beveridge, who spoke about the problem of housing in 1942 while speaking about the issue at a meeting of the full council.
He said: “Social housing is the primary way to prevent people becoming homeless, suffering from health problems, and in doing so – reducing the burden on the state to support them.”
Moor Lane development (Image: Freshfield)
Cllr Mohammed Iqbal spoke in favour of the motion, saying that housing is one of the most common problems constituents come to him about.
He said: “People are having to wait years not months for an affordable home in our area.
“I imagine it’s the same around the borough.
“It becomes really disheartening when you are having to tell a young family with a limited income that they will need to try and look on the private sector for housing that suits their needs.”
Cllr Adele Warren said: “I do think we’ve fallen into a little bit of a trap in this country regarding affordable homes.
“A lot of the time they’re not actually affordable.
“It’s been proven time and time again that social housing is truly the affordable housing.
“At times it’s quite frustrating because you’ll see affordable homes with huge investment from the taxpayer.
“And then when they come to the market they’re not affordable.
“So I do support this – but obviously where they will go – is another debate entirely.
“I do think the segregation of the past is something we should move away from and mixed housing is much more important.”
Cllr Martyn Cox said that he agreed that the last Government had failed with housing.
He said: “I think they did fail actually, I think we should start with that, that the housing situation now is worse than its been for some time.”
Cllr Cox said that there’s three elements to the crisis – with the first one being “rarely talked about”.
He said: “It’s not very political – but it’s a fact and it’s impacting on housing – the size of households has been diminishing over years.
“What do I mean by that? The number of people living in each house – go back to the 1960s and the figures were a lot higher than they are now.”
Secondly, Cllr Cox said that population increases had also put pressure on the housing market.
He said: “It would be absurd, wouldn’t it, to increase our population by nearly ten million in the last few years and say this hasn’t had no effect whatsoever on housing.
“Clearly it has.”
For his third point, he said that the “housing market is broken” and interventions by previous governments have been “counterproductive”.
(Image: Cllr Martyn Cox) Cllr Cox said that many private rents have “shot up” because “many landlords are leaving the market”.
He said: “They’re leaving the market because of some of the things that our government did to make it uneconomic for them to maintain themselves in the market.
“Ultimately, the only way we’re going to create affordable homes is to make building houses cheaper.”
Cllr Cox said he believes the Government is making “numerous mistakes” but welcomed their attempts to reform planning.
He said: “Anybody that looks at planning policy in the UK and says we are doing this really well must be living in cloud cuckoo land.
“Any attempts the Government makes – whoever is the Government – to reform planning then I welcome it.
“I just think they’re doing it slightly the wrong way.”
Cllr Cox suggested that the Government should, rather “than sort of dictate” what is built, let local authorities keep stamp duty or tax income from housing instead.
He said: “Now people might think that’s radical – but that’s what most local authorities do on the continent – they get to keep some of the taxes that are raised in the housing market.
“To incentivise local authorities, rather than saying – from Whitehall – this is what you’re doing, and is going to cause widespread opposition.
“I don’t think that will work, I think we need something a bit more creative than that.
“I’ll say something now that I didn’t say very often at the time – I remember a number of measures that Gordon Brown took as chancellor.
“Gordon Brown understood that you stimulate a market by having incentives in it.
“I will support the motion because I believe their heart’s in the right place – but there’s lots of other measures you will need to do to stimulate this market.”
Cllr Sean Fielding said that he agreed with Cllr Warren, and said that the definition of affordable housing was “bogus”.
He said: “It’s not affordable in most parts of the country, if any.
“80 per cent of market value is not affordable and it must be thrown out.
“Although there’s been mea culpas from Cllr Warren and Cllr Cox tonight, and we accept that the Tory Government has failed over the last 14 years.
Church Wharf demolition for new homes (Image: Bolton Council)
“We can’t let them get away with just saying that now that they’re out of office – because they did fail on this.”
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Cllr Fielding said that he was not speaking as cabinet member for housing, but as a local councillor.
He said: “I field lots and lots of queries about housing issues and applications for council homes where people are trying to enlist my support.
“People pick up the phone or email me and say can you help me get a tree pruned, can you help me get a pothole filled in and can you help me get this fly-tipping removed.
“The answer is normally yes – we can sort stuff like that out.
“But when people get in touch with me and say, ‘my daughter’s been living at home, she’s got her own child here, she’s in her mid-thirties and she needs her own house can you help her get one?’
“More often than not – in fact, on every occasion – the answer’s been no, I’m really sorry.”
Cllr Fielding said that the reason why is because of “14 years of failure of the Conservative Government that preceded the one that we’ve currently got”.
He criticised the expansion of Right to Buy and said that 165,000 social homes had been lost in the ten years up to 2022.
Cllr Fielding said this made it “easier for social landlords to sell off homes that should remain in the social-rented sector for those who really need it”.
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Cllr Emily Mort said that the motion sends out a “vision for hope” and “for real change” with the size of the investment.
She said: “I’m currently supporting a family in my own ward – 12 people living in a four-bedroom house – three generations under one roof.
Moor Lane Development (Image: Freshfield)
“A young single mum and her two young children are confined to one bedroom in her parents’ home.
“She can’t afford private rent and there’s simply nowhere else for her to go, and that is the human cost of underinvestment in housing.”
The council voted to pass the motion.
The Moor Lane development in the town centre provides affordable housing options in the heart of Bolton, but the project also aims to boost the local economy in a sustainable way for future generations.
Source – INDIA TV
