Memorandum by the Goole Action Group (AH
24)
THE POTENTIAL
BENEFITS OF
AND SCOPE
TO PROMOTE
GREATER HOMEOWNERSHIP
1. JC: Regaining the stature of being part
of the community and taking a pride, not only in the home, but
in the street. Being a neighbour and not just being next door.
ET: Owners are usually more committed and responsible
citizens when they have an investment in their property, and interest
in their neighbourhood.
2. HC: The prospect of buying a home is
preferable to renting because by renting more restrictions are
imposed on tenants.
ET: By diminishing dependence upon social housing,
it provides the freedom and opportunity to develop a life-style
that suits the individual/family and to consider a long-term future,
not simply living day to day.
THE EXTENT
TO WHICH
HOME PURCHASE
TACKLES SOCIAL
AND ECONOMIC
INEQUALITIES AND
REDUCES POVERTY
3. JC: By having a commitment, the work
ethic is encouraged, which by itself reduces economic inequalities
and poverty.
ET: Buying your own home encourages "settling
down", a sense of financial responsibility. However, many
people are under-valued, and if employment is low-paid, at minimum
wage levels, it is often insecure.
4. ET: Running a mortgage is a better investment
than paying rent. Capital appreciation of property belongs to
the home-owner, not a landlord.
5. JC: Once people are self-sufficient and
not living on handouts they regain their self-esteem.
ET: Home ownership provides social inclusiveness,
security, independence, self-confidence (status) and self-reliance.
ET: Ideally it demonstrates aspiration; social
improvement; contributes to example of personal and family values;
offers opportunity for community responsibility and leadership
roles; awareness of environmental standards leads to acting, not
accepting, litter or dog fouling; recognises the importance of
education and skills (need to get on in the world).
ET: But in practice, even home-owners may remain
apathetic and unaware, particularly where local authorities are
remote and invisible agencies that fail to support a community.
THE ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL
IMPACT OF
CURRENT HOUSE
PRICES
6. JC: House prices are directly affected
by the anti-social elements operating within the current society.
Just improving conditions and housing stock
does not have any positive effect on the local market.
As most social problems are caused by youths
having nothing to do, clubs should be set up to cater for their
needs. Be successful here and everything else will follow.
7. ET: There is no longer any quality of
life.
In my experience, widespread gross ignorance
of social mores also affects house prices.
Due to irresponsible attitudes, a growing anti-social
element creates mayhem for neighbourhoods. It alienates the rest
of society when those who act outside rules feel no compunction
to adhere to social codes. What have they got to lose by ruining
the place where we live?
Residents then take matters into their own hands—fixing
industrial lighting and keeping barking dogs in back yards, to
deter intruders.
My 45 years' occupation of a terraced street
in Goole (classed as "sustainable") serves as example.
In 1961 this three-storey Edwardian house was regarded as a middle-class
address. We were a young, working man and his wife-to-be. Our
two children grew up here successfully.
Since retirement in 1992 the neighbourhood has
gone steadily downhill, blighted by social problems arising from
problem tenants—individuals or families with anti-social
attitudes and criminal behaviour—drugs, burglary, back-yard
dealers, traffic night and day, cars screeching to a stop in the
middle of the street outside your windows in the small hours,
headlights and horns blaring and beeping. The police did not want
to know although I co-operated with them for nine months to stop
drug dealing. The landlord's agency did not want to hear nor act
upon my complaints. In November 2000 my bedroom window was shot-up
with an air-rifle.
Throughout, our MP Ian Cawsey (Lab) has been
supportive but he experienced difficulty in attempting to resolve
these issues, due to the apparent inability or lack of interest
on the part of East Riding council officers and ineffectiveness
of the police.
THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN HOUSE
PRICES AND
HOUSING SUPPLY
8. JC: This is a simple case of supply and
demand, if there is a sufficiently large demand the prices will
rise.
9. HC: The relationship between house prices
and housing supply in Goole is negative because there is a shortage
of affordable houses. Despite national trend, prices are high
in this area of Yorkshire. Elderly people are now unable to follow
the trend.
10. HC: No elderly person can possibly afford
another house, at the going selling rate today. Such persons should
get an automatic exchange for similar type of house and private
backway as the one that they are in, with no money involved, plus
an allowance to pay for removal and towards cost of curtains etc.
Failure to do this can make elderly people into paupers having
to go cap in hand for rent payments when any monies they receive
runs out.
11. ET: There is less scope for finding
a run-down property on which DIY can be undertaken and a profit
realised at a later date.
eg two bed terrace with back garden and front
forecourt ("sustainable" street), sold 2002 two years
after bereavement for £22k. (to a builder/developer?). Within
weeks, with kitchen and bathroom improved, on market at £46k,
and currently for sale at £76,950.
Although terraced houses in Goole are "low-priced"
by comparison with new-build developments on outskirts of town
(£160,000 plus), the rise in market prices means that properties
built around 1900-20 specifically for working people cannot be
afforded by the low-paid today.
12. JC: Demolishing older properties will
only exacerbate the problem, reducing the supply will create a
false market and put some properties beyond the reach of first
time buyers.
13. ET: eg—two bed terrace in Neighbourhood
Renewal area (a "fragile street") in a cramped and commercial
locale, current asking price £79,950.
14. ET: The small first-home in a terraced
street is a jumping-off point for later moves. If first homes
cannot be sold to first-time buyers, then upwardly mobile families
will not be in the market for higher priced developer's estates.
Developers will be unwilling to pay higher prices
to take first-time homes off prospective purchasers if their margins
for letting tenancies at a compensatory rental are reduced. One
local developer (Pullan) spelled this out at the inaugural meeting
of Goole Action Group.
15. ET: According to local planners, Goole
has sufficient affordable housing that new developments do not
need to provide more, but consider this question and answer given
on East Riding of Yorkshire Council's online Local Plan webpage:
06) Why is the Council making it more difficult
to build houses in the area? With the increasing house prices
it is making the East Riding unaffordable for many people.
Unfortunately, increasing house prices are a
real problem for many first-time house buyers. There is no single
reason for this. The Joint Structure Plan recognises that it would
be unsustainable to keep building on new land because it is a
finite resource. It also acknowledges that there are large areas
of Previously Developed Land that are suitable for reuse, and
that there is a surplus of certain types of housing in the region,
in particular, a large number of vacant houses in Hull. Because
of these factors, the JSP sets out targets for annual completions
of new houses, and states that over the next few years, as the
number of completions planned for each year in Hull goes up, the
number of planned completions in the East Riding should go down.
Whether the targets will have any effect is not so
straightforward; more houses have in fact been built in the East
Riding than were planned for in every one of the last seven years.
(emphasis added)
Research into the phenomenon of increasing house
prices has found that it is more complicated than just a simple
shortage of supply. Increases in expendable income, aspirations
and building quality are all factors that contribute to this complex
relationship.
OTHER FACTORS
INFLUENCING THE
AFFORDABILITY OF
HOUSING FOR
SALE INCLUDING
CONSTRUCTION METHODS
AND FISCAL
MEASURES
16. JC: construction methods can always
be improved but it is the materials used in construction and the
price of the land that governs the final cost of the house.
Other construction materials have been tried
timber frame etc, but the question to ask is why we used stone
or brick. This suits our climate. Wood rots, and maintenance costs
are high.
The options are high capital cost, long live
(four generations or more) low maintenance. Or cheap materials,
low capital cost, short life, high maintenance. The Victorians
chose the former, and we revel in their success today.
17. ET: It is cheaper to build new homes
than to regenerate older. spacious and solid properties of character.
Allowing local authorities to demolish Victorian homes is a scandalous
waste of resources and environmental vandalism, that risks additional
cost of ill-health and trauma caused to owners being compulsorily
moved in old-age and retirement, because "homelessness"
is enforced upon them after a working life afforded a home for
themselves and their families to enjoy the fruits of their labours.
18. ET: VAT at 17.5% on repairs means that
homes fall into disrepair. Many cash-poor would-be purchasers
are prepared to buy a run-down property and DIY but older and
long-term owner-occupiers find the cost of modernising, renovations
and regeneration to be ridiculously impossible and make-do with
aged facilities and unmodernised homes.
19. ET: In East Yorkshire, £2,000 grant
for exterior face-lifting in streets the council designates "fragile".
Other grants (maximum £5,000, currently under review) are
means-tested. Most retired people find themselves excluded from
assistance under these rules.
20. ET: A lack of local architectural/design
skills available for consultation on home improvement. Inappropriate
"modernisation" results in the decline of street architecture.
21. ET: An unwillingness to rely upon "cowboy"
builders after the phasing out of apprenticeships in construction.
Proposed new training arrangements (eg YouthBuild) will not replace
skilled experience and college-graded skills. If these arrangements
are a social exercise, it smacks of training offenders and real
intentions should be explicit. Otherwise, little confidence will
be placed on unknown characters undertaking "improvements"
to the street scene.
22. ET: The RICS says new pension laws will
"spark property spree" from cash-rich, upper-tax-payers
investing in buy-to-lets, at less cost and greater capital appreciation
than any first-time buyer could afford? How will such investment
affect affordable housing?
23. ET: The role of HBOS in government Pathfinders
does not sit well. HBOS offers mortgages with one hand and re-possesses
with the other. When house repossessions are rising, it makes
a mockery for HBOS to benefit from higher valuations of (un)affordable
properties, while advancing capital sums to local authorities
to accommodate first-time buyers without private resources/savings,
in "fragile" streets.
THE SCALE
OF THE
GOVERNMENT'S
PLANS TO
BOOST HOUSING
SUPPLY
24. JC: Economic stability determines supply
and demand due to disposable income. The people determine what
they require, and act accordingly. Trying any kind of social engineering
always fails.
25. ET: House prices are affected by locality.
New-build homes in leafy greenfields are as densely laid-out as
the 19th century terraced streets in town-centres.
Greenfield developments have led to a flight
from urban streets, and will continue to do so. It simply drives
down the desirability of living in an old-established neighbourhood.
Terraced streets offering well-built homes are being allowed to
physically and socially degenerate, due to environmental and social
factors in mixed communities. People aspire to new-build greenfield
developments for a better class of life, leaving occupants of
terraced homes to despair the intrusiveness of incomers who do
not share similar values. Only the well-paid will benefit from
greenfield living.
Supposed £60,000 new builds are still out
of reach of the low paid. £60,000 is not a true price if
built on government land—or brownfield developments compulsorily
purchased by/from local authorities (with taxpayers' money—many
of those elderly and retired being financially disabled from jumping
the gap by moving home—see HC: paras 9 and 10 above).
THE RELATIVE
IMPORTANCE OF
INCREASING THE
SUPPLY OF
PRIVATE HOUSING
AS OPPOSED
TO SUBSIDISED
HOUSING
26. JC: Depending on the method of subsidised
housing. If it is on a hand out based on means testing it will
fail. The old system of tax relief on mortgages is the best way
forward. This rewards people willing to make a commitment for
their own future.
27. ET: It is not the business of government,
central or local authority officials, to engineer housing markets,
neither in partnership with building societies nor local authority
acquisition of land and property for subsidised tenants.
28. ET: Single people should sort out their
own accommodation. Why is government responsible for single people
when East Riding of Yorkshire Council intends demolishing small
homes of elderly owner-occupiers, to acquire a re-development
site?
HOW THE
PLANNING SYSTEM
SHOULD RESPOND
TO THE
DEMAND FOR
HOUSING FOR
SALE
29. JC: More use should be made of brown
field sites. The use of green field sites should be restricted.
30. RW: The easiest and most reasonably
priced way of getting onto the property ladder in Goole is to
buy a house in these terraced streets. Traditionally thought of
as starter homes, if fewer had been bought by housing associations
that rarely sell their property, there would be a more balanced
property market. It would then be unnecessary to build new homes
at the expense of the historic environment if the East Riding
of Yorkshire Council agreed to sell the empty and boarded up homes
to first-time buyers (several people wish to do so), thus saving
millions of pounds earmarked for demolition.
31. RW: New builds would be overly expensive
and poorly constructed in comparison to our historic terraces.
Unlike the Shuffleton terraces, which were built to last, occupants
of modern houses elsewhere in Goole are unable to hang pictures
on the wall because large holes appear in the plaster boarding.
THE SCALE
OF HOUSING
DEVELOPMENT REQUIRED
TO INFLUENCE
HOUSE PRICES
AND THE
IMPACT OF
PROMOTING SUCH
A PROGRAMME
ON THE
NATURAL AND
HISTORICAL ENVIRONMENT
AND INFRASTRUCTURE
PROVISION
32. JC: Government should not try to influence
house prices. They will fail in the long term and feel the wrath
of the voting public.
33. JC: It is not just the housing it is
the whole infrastructure that has to be put in place and this
in itself puts an extra burden on an already overcrowded island.
34. ET: There is a lack of infrastructure
to support suburban housing developments—sites at Goole
are on low-lying land, accessed by narrow traffic-congested streets
without cycling paths, and further from post-offices, doctors,
schools, bus routes, shops and carparks than terraced homes nearer
the centre.
35. ET: This is not about designing a well-planned
extension of a town or city. It is piecemeal developers' heaven,
a sprawling mess without rhyme or reason. See what Norman Foster
the UK architect has to say on the obsession with development
and planning inquiries in "Taller, higher, bigger, Foster"
by Jonathan Glancey in The Guardian 24 November 2005. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/)
36. ET: What environmental and sustainable
arguments support constantly-extending developments in remaining
countryside? What type of socially-mixed community is built?
37. ET: Goole is max 10 feet asl. Pockets
considered for release are subjected to flooding, from poorly
drained ground-water, not the river Ouse overflowing. Fields named
in feudal times—eg. carrs, marsh and holmes—indicate
a watery landscape, and global warming warns against developing
on such foundations.
38. ET: It is environmentally unsound to
pull down dignified Victorian/Edwardian buildings. Why does government
feel it necessary to "clone" the whole of the country
according to its own standards? Where is regional and vernacular
architecture in this scenario?
39. RW: Goole renewal area forms part of
the town's historic environment. These original living quarters,
were built to the highest social and hygiene standards of the
time, and have survived well for the last 100 years. Until occupants
were bought out and emptied homes boarded up, almost all were
occupied. Now, these terraces are tainted by supposed "fragile"
and "non-sustainable" status, which has adversely affected
the housing market.
40. RW: Terraced streets and houses are
good places to live, are not necessarily urban slums many people
make them out to be. The very nature of terraced streets means
there can be a strong and close-knit community, although this
is only achievable if people want to live there. The need for
social housing is recognised, however housing associations whose
main aim is profit and not necessarily a social conscience at
heart, should not be allowed to buy up large sections of a single
street or area—they create an unbalanced community, and
in Goole's experience cause social problems that many people worry
are spiralling out of control.
41. RW: Goole people recently recorded oral
histories of residents past and present of Richard Cooper Street
and Phoenix Street, recalling the strong sense of community and
belonging, and want it brought back into their historic environment.
Plans to demolish those streets and the scale of proposed housing
re-development will adversely affect the present community.
42. RW: "Face-lift" grants available
under the Advance Goole urban renewal scheme are for properties
in selected "fragile" streets. Merely giving a "face-lift"
to a property is not sufficient to regenerate historic housing
stock or tackle problem areas in the long term. Currently, Goole's
heritage is not an issue on any authority's agenda, despite its
importance to the community living in these terraced streets.
The historic environment needs meaningful regeneration that incorporates
solutions to social problems in a holistic way, not demolition
and new-builds that chip away at the historic environment, and
ultimately creating an "us and them" attitude.
43. RW: Goole's terraced housing in the
renewal area should be thought of as part of the historic environment
and should be looked after, not considered expendable. Several
initiatives have created new economic and social centres at Goole.
New infrastructure has left the traditional heart of the town
in decline. Georgian and Victorian buildings stand empty because
long-term future of the historic environment has been considered
too late. Consultation that has been undertaken was overshadowed
by the lure of compensation, designed to buy people out of their
homes as cheaply as possible before compulsory purchase processes
begin. For the sake of the future, regeneration of Goole's historic
environment, our viable heritage assets, is essential proof that
the environment is cared for and valued, and that community will
feel that what it cares about and values, is meaningful.
THE REGIONAL
DISPARITIES IN
THE SUPPLY
AND DEMAND
FOR HOUSING
AND HOW
THEY MIGHT
BE TACKLED
44. JC: This again refers back to the economic
wellbeing of the community. There will always be a disparity.
London is popular, Liverpool isn't. Try moving parliament to a
deprived area. This may improve it, but only at the expense of
somewhere else.
Do not tinker with natural selection.
45. KF: There is evidence that declaring
a renewal area and identifying many streets as "fragile"
eg in Goole, has stagnated the housing market in that area and
artificially inflated prices outside the area. The availability
of affordable houses for first time buyers is greatly reduced
exacerbating the stagnation of the market. This could be avoided
by proper appraisal of the renewal area in the first place. As
the senior housing officer for ERYC appears confused whether "fragile"
applied to streets or the market, the council has in fact created
a "fragile" market. In Goole's case, documented evidence
supporting the "fragile" assessment is unavailable therefore
residents are having to experience this intolerable situation
for no valid reason.
Likewise, this situation applies to the streets
identified as "non-sustaining" therefore earmarked for
demolition whose residents, especially long-term owners, face
an even more uncertain future as to their re-housing situation.
NB
DEFINITIONS TAKEN
FROM NRA
Fragile
Often characterised by the presence of one or
two empty properties and a growing presence of the private rented
sector. The amount of disrepair and housing failing the decent
homes standard is above average for the study area. Reported crime
rates may also be above average for area.
Sustaining
Streets where demand is generally robust and
the number of properties in poor repair or failing the decent
homes standard is at or below the average for the area. These
streets generally have a fair or good reputation with residents.
Non-sustaining
. . . In these streets there is a need and an
opportunity for significant investment to tackle existing and
future problems.
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