Housing association: This is first time we’re not building homes in 40 years

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

The chair of Broadland Housing Association, Baroness Hollis of Heigham, has revealed that for the first time in 40 years her housing association is not building any new property.

Her remarks came in a debate on the housing benefit regulations yesterday in the House of Lords where peers sought information from Lord Freud on the detailed implementation of the bedroom tax and the CPI uprating of local housing allowance.

On the bedroom tax, the Labour peer told Lord Freud that her association has "no possibility at all" of balancing its stock to build the new single-bedroom properties that are needed.

The association manages around 4,500 homes throughout Norfolk and Suffolk.

Patricia Hollis said: “What advice will he give me, given that his colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government have ensured that, instead of having £42,000 on average for a grant for a new house, it is now down to £16,000? As we cannot build without a grant of a minimum of £26,000, we cannot build. For the first time in 40 years my housing association is not building any new property. Given that, we have no possibility at all of "balancing our stock" to build the new single-bedroom properties that are pivotal to this scheme. As a result, our tenants know that they are faced with only our existing stock and occasional re-lets."

She said that occasional re-lets when they come up are, for the most part, pursued by pensioners.

She said: “However, in future, pensioners who would like to leave a three-bedroom house and move into a one-bedroom flat or bungalow, will not be able to access any re-lets in our villages. This is because people currently in two-bedroom properties who are in the client group affected by the benefit cuts will now have to move to any available one-bedroom property against their will. I have yet to discover how that in any way adds to the sum of human happiness.”

Lord Freud said he expected around 400,000 underoccupiers to need the one-bedroom properties.

He said: “If we look at surveys that have been done, I am thinking particularly of the Housing Futures Network survey – around 25% of those people are likely to look for an actual move. In the previous financial year, there were about 100,000 new lettings of one-bedroom properties in the social rented sector in England and around 25,000 new dwellings completed.”

Baroness Hollis then reminded Lord Freud that in addition to the 400,000 underoccupiers needing one-bedroom properties, there were many more on the waiting list.

Lord Freud replied: "There is an implication in that: who takes priority for those new houses and then who do you take off the waiting list for the larger properties? There is then a kind of order of position that becomes somewhat more manageable. Do not forget some of the examples given, such as that there would be children in these rooms. The reality is that for the bulk of people affected by this, their children have left home. That is why they have too many bedrooms.”