The Conservative Group on the Isle of Wight Council has published a housing paper with a 5-point plan to deliver affordable homes locally.
The paper comes a matter of days after it was reported to January’s Full Council meeting that in the past year, only 5 properties have been bought by the Council to re-house Islanders currently in temporary accommodation. The 2022 update to the Housing Needs Assessment says that 372 social homes a year are required.
Housing Needs comes under the cabinet responsibility of the Deputy Leader of the Council and is described as a ‘key priority’ by the ruling Alliance Group.
The Council’s Affordable Housing paper says:
“The council considers the most pressing affordable housing need for the Island is for the genuinely affordable homes to rent.”
The Conservatives are calling for the Council to use its own housing company set up in 2019 to deliver affordable homes. The Council allocated itself £40million of low rate Government borrowing over 3 years after a Conservative Budget amendment was passed back in February of last year. To date, none of the money has been borrowed or spent.
Councillor Joe Robertson, Leader of the Conservative Group, has said:
“After nearly two years of promising to deliver affordable homes, the Council’s own housing company remains dormant with a single director, no staff and no business plan. If the Alliance cannot produce a viable business plan then it should come clean and say so. However with millions of Council money being spent on housing families in temporary accommodation like bed and breakfasts, and low rate borrowing available from the Government, I have no doubt that a viable plan can be developed if the appetite and political will is there.”
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Councillor Warren Drew, Policy Spokesman for the Conservative Group and Deputy Chair of Planning Committee adds:
“The acquisition of five flats in a year is plainly inadequate, even as a starting point. It represents just 0.004% of the housing waiting list which is growing at a considerably faster rate annually. Well meaning words will not put a roof over the heads of those in need.
“The Alliance Group need to end the excuses and start delivering. Portsmouth City Council’s wholly owned development company, established in the midst of the pandemic, has already started delivering affordable homes for local families. Meanwhile, on the Island, our development company sits languishing.”
The Conservative paper also proposes better utilisation of Council-owned land, working with the private sector and applying for Government grants such as the Brownfield Release Fund 2 announced on 18th January 2023. The Conservatives are proposing a break-up of the Council’s Regeneration department which they see as a structural block to delivering homes – currently one of the department’s responsibilities.
Cllr Robertson adds:
“It has become clear to me that there needs to be a fundamental restructure within the Council in order to deliver anywhere near the number of homes its own Housing Needs Assessment says it should. One of the primary objectives of the Regeneration department is to generate revenue – plainly the delivery of affordable housing does not sit comfortably within that.
“If a private developer is willing to work with the Council to deliver affordable homes on Council owned land, and another developer offers to buy the land at market value in order to build large unaffordable homes on the open market, it seems inevitable to me that a department with an aim to maximise income will be inclined towards choosing the latter with Islanders in need missing out.”
The Conservatives say that they are willing to work cross-party to deliver affordable homes and have already had direct conversations with the Council Leader, Chief Executive and Director of Regeneration.
Perhaps if those selfish people who can’t afford to have children without having everything they need ‘state paid for’ which of course is in reality, us, the full time workers paying taxes, then there wouldn’t be this never ending ‘need’ to provide homes costing hundreds of thousands of pound to those who, in all likely-hood will never work full time and claim and produce ever more state dependant clones to ensure the next generation has even more green fields destroyed to fund the feckless.
Leslie, the problem has arisen as the Government increased benefits to persuade the working classes to produce more offspring to provide workers for the myriad of menial tasks such as factory, food production and care work.
However as you realise the issue being is that these offspring once at puberty themselves often choose instead of working to take the easier option of having a child themselves and living from the income that produces.
Many do work a few short hours per week to then be able to claim Universal Credit which is replacing the old system of tax credits.
But as they work few hours, they pay nothing in, but have their wage made up via U/C so themselves become a drain on society.
HMG need to address this
Don’t you read the news? Your taxes are going to those who have millions not to people who can’t afford to eat.
Surely compulsory purchase of many of the derelict empty but structurally strong buildings would be more beneficial and conversion to affordable rentals via Housing Association a better idea. Cannot believe they have parked the 4M and only achieved less than 0.004% homes. The mentality of paying hotels etc to accommodate families for homeless people is money down the drain in the long term. Someone in the Council needs to justify their position of employment and no doubt a good salary as so far there has been limited output.
And how long has it taken to realise they need to restructure the affordable housing plan ????
2019 offered £40 Million !!!!
2023 ooh maybe we should do something about this ?????
And meanwhile what is the director of affordable housing doing ?????
Well I expect he is still getting a nice wage , and there you have it how to waste our money when instead oh using g hotels temp accommodation, they could have used this money to look after islanders !!!!!
Must be coming up for election time…. Big opportunity to get rid of this shower of ….
Still voting Tory mate.
I’m sorry you’re poor
Party in a brewery comes to mind .How about buying all the derelict property’s and land and building affordable housing ,and I do mean affordable
An easier method.
Step 1: Live in a tent
/thread
If we need 372 social housing homes to be built every year, meaning there’s a waiting list in the thousands, how is it that the Council can bring people over from the mainland or abroad and house them here immediately?
Perhaps the Council should be upfront about who we’re trying to house with all the new homes we apparently require because, at the moment, it seems like Islanders are at the back of the queue.
From my experience of just a couple of local schools, I can say definitely that there are numerous newly arrived families who have already been housed and these must be at the expense of local people and this, I’m sure, is the same all over the Island.
House our own people first, then see what we can do for all the others.
“From my experience of just a couple of local schools”
And that experience is?
“I can say definitely that there are numerous newly arrived families who have already been housed”
You can say this as fact Catherine Johnson, or are you just clutching your pearls making nonsense up?
Those families who I know that have moved over, are actually paying the higher end of rental properties, which many locals could not afford, and others have bought homes.
Being on the housing list doesn’t necessarily mean that people are homeless. Housing is allocated on the basis of need, not just economics, so it’s perectly possible that the dreaded foreigners our tame gammons feel so strongly about were actually in greater need.
Let’s wait and see how many of Cllr Robertson’s friends and neighbours kick up hells’ a-dyin’ when there is a proposal to put affordable housing in their villages.
It’s going to take a big lorry to “deliver” an affordable home. They’ll have a job getting on a ferry.
As with ignorant caged Rabbits, once the pair have been given a hutch they will very soon out-breed there surroundings.
However with Rabbits, the female can in times of hardship absorb the fetus, but our growing numbers of poor instead absorb us tax payers wealth and expect us to pay for a costly home for everything they produce as a ‘right’.
Time to end this culture of destruction before we are indeed a third world environment.
What is affordable housing? None of the Housing Associations’ houses is within this definition. They are private landlords all but in name, charging hundreds of pounds a month, and if you can’t pay the rate they want, don’t worry; the Council will make up the shortfall. Instead of buying warehouses on the mainland, costing millions of taxpayers’ money, the council should have opted to build “Council Houses.” You remember where young families could start their lives in an “Affordable House.”
The working people got it all wrong
sit on ya ass scrounge plead poverty ,,,,, you’ll get it all handed to you on a plate on and of course couple of kids couple different parents will add to your benefits big time
why would you want to get out of a heated home and go to work for your living
I see the council recently sold 4 lots with HRD. Disused schools & the like. There were even grants on offer for the demolition of the buildings. These sites will all get developed over coming years & earn millions for developers.
why oh why did they not employee local builders, purchase materials from local merchants & build homes for local people. Seems an easy solution to me.
Shame they couldn’t actually come up with this clever idea when they were in the hot seat. A bit slow off the mark really.