Memorandum by Armand Toms, County Councillor
for the Looe and St Martins Ward Cornwall County Council (AH 100)
My name is Armand Toms, a fishermen born in
Looe, Cornwall where I have lived for most of my life. Back in
2003 I firstly became frustrated with the way that local people
both young and old were treated with regard to local housing.
The fact that local Councillors and Politicians paid lip service
to the affordable/social housing situation drove me mad. I wanted
to help and became involved, so when a local by-election came
up I jumped at the chance, and was elected to the County Council
for the Looe ward on 10 July 2003.
Since this date I have spent many hours scouring
the Internet trying to find a solution. I started with the simple
idea that the only way to make housing affordable was to separate
the land from the house. From this small start an idea evolved
which I believe will be self financing (after the initial grant),
will definitely be affordable and will have not effect on the
open market value of housing. The following is a brief of my idea:
Every District, Town and Parish Council will
know the exact number and type of housing required to solve their
(only their) housing needs. Take St Martins Parish (next to Looe)
it is known that the local housing need shows that it would be
necessary to build 23 homes to meet its requirements. You will
know that every District, Town and Parish holds this information,
so how do we provide homes which are affordable meet the local
need and remain affordable? This is my way forward which has changed
little for the last two years.
Most, if not every District, County, local authority
and Public body have land holdings which should be the first focal
point. Each piece of land should be looked at and cross referenced
against the local housing need or sold to provide land in the
right location. I would prefer that the local District/County
council should be the lead organisation for the following.
With the land in the right location, plans should
be drawn up to provide high quality mixed size housing to give
a micro community. Building methods need to be in keeping with
the local area, although modern techniques such as prefabricated
(ie factory make) or timber frame buildings could be used. These
can be clad to be in keeping with local planning laws. When the
District/County councils have the sites and plans in place, the
government should be approached to provide a grant of between
20-30% of the cost. This money would be a one off grant and no
further money would be needed.
Once the grant was made available building should
start immediately. As each house is built it should be sold at
the cost of the build plus inflation, to those on the local housing
list who should have a strong local connection. Which would be
something like, lived and worked in the area for at least five
years. The land should never be sold to the house owner which
would be leased to them for between £1,000 to £1,500
per year depending on the size and type of property. The money
for the sale of the house and the lease of the land should be
returned to the pot and used for the next house or scheme. To
keep these properties affordable for the next generation the resale
value should be pegged to the rate of inflation and only to those
as they were on the local housing register and meet the same criteria
(covenants may be needed to do this). Providing these houses would
relieve the pressure on the requirement for social housing which
should be kept for those in the greatest need. To aid this type
of scheme no further sales of social housing should take place
and those wishing to buy should be allowed to move to one of the
above semi social houses.
The benefits of this idea is that it take the
pressure off local authorities to meet the full social housing
need. It is self financing after the initial grant which gives
low cost housing in all areas which will remain low and affordable
for the future. This type of semi social housing would have no
impact on the local housing market. Councils would not be liable
for maintenance and if properties come onto the market and can
not be sold as required above then councils would have to right
to buy and use as social housing.
The benefit of this idea is that it take the
pressure off local authorities to meet the full social housing
need. As these houses will be a asset to the owners as when the
mortgage is paid off the property will be an legacy to their dependants.
Our local district council has had a number
of requests from land owners to build housing for sons and daughters
or relatives. Some of these land owners would willingly give land
for affordable housing if they were permitted to build. This could
be a cheap source of land (free) which under current laws would
not be allowed as most if not all of the land is outside the development
line. Current law states that only affordable housing can be built
outside the development line.
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