Memorandum by Margaret Craske (AH 15)
Thank you for the opportunity to communicate
so quickly and easily. I am cabinet member for housing and health
in North Norfolk District Council.
Our main problem is that private housing is
snapped up by older people to retire in this quiet and beautiful
area. Our local young people cannot afford to stay and live here
due to many second and holiday homes. We need to set our own key
worker definition and to be able to increase the weighting to
those in low paid employment. We do this for exception schemes
but cannot build enough properties just by that. We have built
over 100 new subsidised homes each year for the last two years
but have demand for a 1,000!!! Private builders do not build large
enough schemes to provide many affordable ones. We do not want
to build huge numbers in beautiful conservation countryside which
is the reason for our tourist industry but there are insufficient
staff to work, for low wages, to keep hotels and B&B, restaurants
and pubs well served. The care industry is not going to keep up
with the demands of our elderly rural population especially as
the health and social service budgets are cut while people are
helped to stay in their own homes instead of residential and sheltered
accommodation.
We won "Beacon" status for preventing
homelessness and avoiding B&B use for the homeless. We have
leased private houses to put them in but have huge need for cheaper
rented accommodation for young families to move on into. They
then want to take part in schemes to buy a share in a home—at
the moment if two are working (essential to have enough resource
to pay) they do not qualify for the few available houses.
The use of the concept of sustainability in
a rural area like ours must include keeping a balance of ages
and skills not just distance to shops, schools and work. We want
to sustain villages by building six to 10 houses on demand with
co-operation of parish councils and RSLs. We need to be able to
form Trusts which can borrow or cross subsidise by selling a percentage
to fund the others.
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