Growing pains

In the next 20 years the number of households in the East Midlands will grow by 30 per cent, a faster rate than anywhere else in the country but last year fewer than 11,000 homes were built. The East Midlands county of Derbyshire is facing an uphill struggle to meet this demand. Michelle McKenna reports.

Derbyshire is situated in the North West part of the East Midlands. A vast county it covers an area of 255,071 hectares and is home to more than 8.4 million people.

But despite its size it is largely rural and 75 per cent of its population reside in just 25 per cent of the county’s area. The Peak District National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty, accounts for more than a third of Derbyshire’s total land.

Some of the area’s local authorities have retained their housing stock while others have transferred their properties to housing associations. Chesterfield Borough Council manages 10,000 properties, High Peak Borough Council has 4,200 homes and South Derbyshire District Council has 3,050 homes.

There are three ALMO s operating within the region, Rykneld Homes, High Peak Community Housing and Derby Homes.

Rykneld Homes manages North East Derbyshire Council’s homes and the two are currently carrying out a long-term review of council housing in the district. The review will consider how the council can secure a long-term future for its housing stock over the next 30 years and is focusing on properties built using non-traditional construction methods.

Council housing in the city of Derby is managed by Derby Homes which is in the process of installing solar photovoltaic panels to 750 properties while High Peak Community Housing was set up in M arch 2004 by High Peak Borough Council and manages a total of 4,100 properties.

Derbyshire Dales District Council transferred its stock to Dales Housing Ltd in March 2002, and Erewash Borough Council transferred its housing stock to Three Valleys Housing (TVH) in the same year.

Other housing associations operating in the region include Derwent Living, Riverside, Guinness Northern Counties, Sanctuary Group, Longhurst and Havelok and Home Group.

According to the National Housing Federation’s recent Home Truths report house prices in the East Midlands have risen faster than the national average over the last 10 years and three times faster than earnings.

The Federation’s figures show that the average house price in Derbyshire was £158,537 in 2009 while the average income was £19,323. It also revealed that the average house in the Derbyshire Dales costs £238,392 meaning that a gross annual income of £61,301 is needed to secure a mortgage while the average salary is just £21,705.

House prices in High Peak and South Derbyshire are also higher than the county average at £178,901 and £166,809 respectively.

And while plenty of new-build schemes are being developed the East Midlands region is only building half of the homes it needs each year.

“The pressure on house prices to rise will remain intense until we start producing the levels of new homes we need to meet the region’s housing requirements effectively,” said the NHF. “House prices increased by eight per cent in the East Midlands in the year to July 2010, despite the harsh economic
climate.

“With house prices averaging eight times regional incomes, high mortgage deposits and an expensive private rented sector, more people are turning to the social and affordable housing sector for help. But there simply aren’t enough homes to go round.

“Housing associations have kept building through the recession, producing another 3,000 affordable homes in 2009/10. More than one in four new homes were affordable homes, but it is not enough. Continued strong government investment is vital to enable associations to do more.

“Having cut the housing budget by 63 per cent, ministers should work with housing associations to safeguard the provision of new social housing.” South Derbyshire District Council is one local authority that understands all too well about the impact of Government cuts. Its Housing and Communities
Services Committee has recently considered proposals to slash its target for affordable housing by nearly two-thirds.

The sixth fastest-growing local authority area in England, it has a population of around 91,000. Approximately 9.5 per cent of South Derbyshire’s housing is rented accommodation provided by social landlords and the district council remains the largest social landlord in South Derbyshire.

The Housing Strategy for the period 2009 – 2014 sets a target of delivering an average of 150 new affordable homes per year but the targets were drafted in 2008 “in a different economic climate,” says the council.

The Housing Strategy Progress Report for 2010-2011 said: “The construction of new homes is still stalling due to the continual slow economic growth. In addition, a substantial reduction in public subsidy funding available for the delivery of affordable homes in future years will also impact on the future supply of new affordable homes. Hence, whilst affordable housing planning permissions have been secured through planning gain (currently 1,125) these are likely to be builtout over a much longer period than originally planned, resulting in the Council not meeting its’ affordable housing targets set out in the Housing Strategy.”

The report was brought before the Housing and Communities Services Committee on 24 N ovember where councillors voted in favour of reduction targets.

A spokesman for the council said: “When it was drafted in 2008 in a different economic climate, South Derbyshire District Council’s Housing Strategy set an ambitious target of delivering an average of 150 new affordable homes each year for the period 2009-2014.

“To achieve this goal the strategy proposed to increase supply incrementally each year from 75 in 2009-10 to 250 by 2013-14.

“In 2009-10 104 new affordable homes were provided against a target of 75. For 2010-11 there were 98 new affordable homes against a target of 75.

“The target in the strategy for 2011-12 was 50 with 200 and 250 in subsequent years. T hese targets were based upon what had already been secured through processes such as planning gain and it anticipated completions which were expected back in 2008.

“However, due to the slowdown in the economy, completions have not been achieved at the level originally anticipated. T his slowdown has impacted on the Housing Strategy target to deliver an average of 150 completions each year over the five-year period from 2009 to 2014. The revised target is now an average of 84 affordable homes each year.”

The revised targets are 70 homes for 2011-2012 and 75 for 2012-2013 and 2013 to 2014.

The economic climate is no doubt making affordable housing provision more challenging for Derbyshire’s social landlords but the situation is even more pronounced in rural communities.

Erewash is the largest of Derbyshire’s districts but it is mainly rural and as such faces similar difficulties to most rural regions in terms of affordability. According to Erewash Borough Council only about 10 per cent of newly forming households living in its rural areas would be able to buy a property.

The council still retains its enabling role and appointed Midlands Rural Housing to carry out a Housing Needs Survey in the area’s rural villages last year. It was decided that Waterloo Housing Group and East Midlands Housing Association would work with the council to develop the affordable housing that
is so desperately needed.

But even in cases when affordable properties are desperately needed to help young people to set up home in the village, there is often strong opposition from villagers.

Once such example is West Hallam, where a need of 18 units of accommodation was identified.

East Midlands Housing Association suggested several possible development sites, including green belt land. But the response from the locals was far from positive.

A drop in event, attended by 497 people, was held to gauge public opinionto the proposals. W hile there were mixed reactions, on the whole local people were against the building of new homes and a residents group was formed to oppose the proposals.

In response to the question “Do you think affordable homes should be provided in West Hallam for local people who need them?” a 57 per cent ofrespondents said “no” and 81 per cent said that they wouldn’t support the development of affordable homes for local people on “green belt” land. Numerous suggestions for alternative sites were put forward by residents and plans were put on hold while EMHA worked with the planning and housing staff at Erewash BC to investigate the alternatives.

To add insult to injury the bid made for grant funding for a scheme in West Hallam was not successful.

Proposals to build 22 large new homes on the outskirts of Matlock are proving equally controversial and are expected to be rejected when brought before Derbyshire Dales District Council this month.