Examination of Witness (Questions 320-325)
MR PETER
KEGG
24 OCTOBER 2006
Q320 Anne Main: What happens to the
displaced people that would normally occupy those low-rate units?
Mr Kegg: They are transient, so
there would be a turnover.
Q321 Anne Main: But you would be
shifting the problem elsewhere, because they might be transient
but their place is usually filled by another set of transient
people coming in, are they not. They are not transient and then,
obviously, you have got a load of unoccupied houses, or are you
saying you have?
Mr Kegg: Yes. I cannot answer
that question fully, but I think what happens is that, if you
have got accommodation available, people will fill it. If it is
not there, they will not come. What landlords will do in Bournemouth
is advertise in Liverpool saying, "Would you like to live
rent-free in Bournemouth?"
Q322 Anne Main: Surely that would
drive the unit cost up. If you have got fewer units than people
who want to come, surely it will be more expensive to live there?
Mr Kegg: No, but I think there
is a market place in HMO properties, and so if you actually had
fewer of them there would be less people coming in that needed
support.
Q323 Chair: Are most of the people
in HMOs in coastal towns not originally from those coastal towns?
Mr Kegg: Yes.
Q324 Chair: So they could as easily
be somewhere else?
Mr Kegg: There is quite a lot
of movement of single people in particular, because the HMO people
are mainly single people, there is quite a lot of movement from
around the country, but very little is known about the scale of
that movement or the reasons for that movement.
Q325 Chair: Have those people moved
to the coastal towns because of the housing or because there are
jobs available in coastal towns?
Mr Kegg: I think it is complex.
I think the availability of transport, the attractiveness of an
area. Why live in Liverpool on benefit when you could live in
Bournemouth? There is also the prospect of jobs in the tourism
trade. So, there are quite a lot of factors.
Chair: Thank you very much indeed. We
will have to adjourn the Committee for 10 minutes.
Committee suspended from 4.50 p.m. to
5.00 p.m. for a division in the House
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