General Discussion
So what do they expect in a part of the country with vey few jobs and the lowest wages by comparrison to other parts. Should we all devalue our propeties to make them affordable. Try looking at property prices in and around London
And I'll repeat the message here about Thatcher's legacy: https://www.facebook.com/ShelterUK/photos/pb.10677003998.-2207520000.1430420290./10153000347583999/?type=1&theater
Why are all those houses proposed near Sainsburys 4/5 bedrooms? Why aren't there 1/2 bedroom houses at a price that locals can afford? The conservatives are quite happy to blindly build more and more houses and don't give a stuff if they are affordable or not.
It's not about devaluing your pad Fred, it's about building suitable houses for locals at affordable prices.
Thatcher hasn't been Prime Minister for 25 year, and we've had 13 years of a Labour government since then. I wonder for how many more decades will those on the left will be blaming Thatcher for this country's ills?
It's all about supply and demand.
Who makes a profit on affordable housing?
That's why Council Houses are needed. Volunteer run HAs could fill the gap but not standard HAs where massive amounts of rent income are paid to those running them.
Unfortunately, both are called 'not for profit' organisations - and some of the 'big boys' are even registered charities; such as Teign Housing!
Moreover, these big players are 'preferred providers' and are offered first pick for available land sold by your local authority!
Getting a bit fed up of this affordable house rubbish. The facts are quite simple here and the rules havent changed for decades. If you have no job, no money, no savings, and your parents cant help, then no property is affordable to you. Its time people got used to the idea that the times of handouts to all and sundry are over, and its upto the individual to adapt to a life-style they can afford.
For info: affordable rents = up to 80% of market rents (so,just as market rents vary around the country so, too, will affordable rents).
Social rents = apprx. 60% or less of market rents.
The less social and affordable rented accommodation there is the more the private sector market takes over and the higher the rents are. Therefore if rents are higher so does the amount needing to be claimed in Housing Benefit
As I understand it, affordable rented and social rented accommodation is for those who have a housing need and cannot afford to rent or buy in the private sector. So, my question is: if social and affordable rented accommodation gets sold off then where will those who cannot afford market rents/afford to buy, get housed?
And here's some info about how to buy 'affordable' property.http://www.helptobuysw.org.uk/Data/ASPPages/1/30.aspx
BTW the affordable rent scheme was introduced by the Conservative led coalition government back in 2011/12. The housing minister at that time was one Grant Shapps MP. He is now the Conservative Party Chairman.
Affordable housing isn't rubbish Fred. If smaller housing isn't made there'll be nowhere to buy or rent for young people. Building just large houses is an incredibly short sighted idea.
I realy dislike the "I'm all right Jack" attitude, but there's a lot of that in Dawlish.
Perhaps if we have a way where any family who currently lives and works in Dawlish and who needs the sort of housing Flo is on about for their own family members could register their need we could gauge the demend better. Last time some organisation tried, out of the current population of arounf 13,000 the local need registered was 3. This kind a blows the need for affordable housing argument out of the window. What Dawlish most needs is new businesses that create jobs, plus an influx of business owners with money. Thats why we need to build luxury 4 & 5 bedroom detached properties.
How about a survey from the Dawlish population about how many people actually need Social Housing so they can stop renting privately at high rents and move to somewhere where the rents are more affordable for them on their wages, without being reliant on HB
Most rents are more than the average mortgage costs. Also all thesenew houses what about the infrastructure. Harder and harder to get a doctors appointment. What about schools. More traffic in the town, it's not all good. It seems landlords are doing OK. Considering the low wages in Dawlish, rents are high.
@Thomas
Your correct about mortgage costs, but I think the term affordable housing directly relates to folk relient on bennifit hand outs to pay their rent. Therefore excluding them from the mainstream mortgage market.
As for infrastructure the profit makers i.e Teignbridge Council and the developers dont care about that. The same as they dont care about destroying our green fields, land we urgently need to keep for food production once the unsustainable business model used by the supermarkets fails. Take a look at the once lovely run into Newton Abbot at Kingsteignton green fields now covered in cheap and nasty, crappy built, cloned wood huts. It looks like a third world refugee camp.
I believe the term affordable rented housing relates to those who may need HB to help them pay their rent but also to those who could pay their rents in full but not at the market rate ie they need rents at up to 80% (affordable rents) of market rate or even lower (say around 60% of market rate). So, if those rents and that type of accommodation isn't available then they have no option but to go into the higher cost private rented sector and claim HB.
So how to ease that problem?
Then there are those who wish to buy but with the cost of buying vis-a-vis the average salary being able to do so is extremely difficult if not impossible. Hence there are schemes to make buying more er..........affordable. I've given a link about that in my post above.
If people are reliant on HB to help pay their rents (whether in the social, affordable, or private rented sector) then perhaps it is because they are so low paid? Rents are too high? Or both?
From: Inside Housing, 1st May 2015 page 14
"Myth: Everyone receiving Housing Benefit is unemployed.
Busted?
Despite some of the headlines, the reality for housing benefit recipients is actually very different. An increasing number of working people are having to claim housing benefit to keep up with the rent. According to the 2013/14 English Housing Survey, almost twice the proportion of working households received housing benefit in 2013/14 than in 2008/9.
In 2008/9, 19% of social renters in work received housing benefit, increasing to 32% in 2013/14. For working households in the private rented sector, the proportion increased from 7% to 14% over the same period. "