The controversial issue of new houses.....

[lizzylemon]

....has hit our village and I'm all for it and now feeling very frustrated because our parish council has vetoed a proposed building application of 47 new social houses.

I know this is a really difficult thing for people to deal with but we need new houses to be built, we really do (not just us but most of East Anglia / Southern UK actually but I'm keeping local today).

For instance, I'm on the housing list and I'm aloud a 2 bedroom dwelling as there's only me & the dort (makes sense eh).

I'm aloud to bid in 2 districts, I live in 1 and I have immediate family in the other.

I've been registered long enough to bid in 3 rounds. These are the satistics so far.

Round 1: Only 1 house available to bid one, it's in the 'open to all' catagory - 187 people bid on it. It was subsequently withdrawn anyway.

Round 2: 1 house available, ec district only - 47 people bid on it.

Round 3: Bidding has been open for less than 2 hours but - house 1, 9 bids (sheltered housing so I wont get cos I don't need it but I'm just going for anything now), house 2 53 bids (was the house originally withdrawn so a bit dodgy) and house 3 89 bids so far.

Bidding on all houses is open for another 6 days.

So when the others in my village say no to this social housing they are forcing me to either accept a privately rented house paid by housing benefits trapping me into unemployment cos there's no way I could afford to pay the cost of private renting in this area if I'm lucky enough to get a job.

Or keeping me where I currently live, which for personal reasons I dont want say on here, but is extremely stressful to me.

[Florence Fennel]

It must be very frustrating for you Lizzy, I do sympathise. Hope your situation improves for you soon and you can then enjoy your independence.

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

Sounds as if your parish council are a bunch of NIMBY's Can the HA or Council (or whoever put in the planning application) appeal? Everyone knows that the south-east is very densely populated but people need (infact it should be a right) a home which is secure. If Mr Frosty and I want to shout at the TV we watch "Escape to the Country" - why does a couple need 3 reception rooms, 5 bedrooms and 40 flamin' bathrooms plus enough acreage so as to be classed as a farm? Up here the housing situation is just as crazy. Someone is building 3 houses slap bang on the A82 (just at the Corran ferry road) - they will cost an arm and a leg. Oh and you will be woken at the crack of dawn by the Corran ferry going going BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. This noise will be repeated every 15 mins or so until night time. And then there's the A82 - the west coast trunk road - busy, busy, busy. Lochaber Housing Association are building 30 flats in Fort William, which are being built approx 1 1/2 metres from the edge of the River Nevis. Just don't trip at your back door cause you are in for a big fall.

[SarzWix]

It's the same round here Lizzy. No-one can afford to live in the area they were born and brought up in because we qualify as commuter-belt for both Leeds and Manchester. Luckily, some brownfield sites have recently come available and as old mill and a woodturners premises have both been built on with some social housing allocated in both. My friend who has been on the housing list for 5 years has finally got one!

People in the Dales National Park aren't so lucky though - they've all been priced out of the market by people buying second homes/investment properties for holiday let etc. and the YDNP authority have an appalling record for turning down developments. Yes, we all want the area to stay beautiful, but a developer isn't going to be able to sell houses cheap to locals if they're only allowed to make one dwelling out of a barn here and there.

It's a tough one, the places desperate for local housing are often the places that also need tourists to survive so it's a big tangled conundrum

[di]

I feel your pain Lizzy...I'd have loved the opportunity to bring the family up in the same village that I grew up in but as people are moving out of the social housing the council are selling the properties...and not cheaply either
The one thing that makes me feel a little better about it is that we'd need a second car...even though we probably wouldn't be able to afford the petrol to use it...and there's far more activities for the kiddies on our doorstep living in the town.(although I'd prefer the outdoor/nature activities)

That said there's also a serious lack of social housing in Ipswich also,which means we are forced into private rent which is almost twice the amount friends in council properties pay.

[rustylady]

There's a lack of social housing everywhere, particularly in the Eastern Counties. It does annoy me when local councillors veto planning applications for no obvious reason.

[lindyloo]

i,too , really sympathize with you !! i know quite a few people who are in the private rent trap, and some, i fear, will never be able to get out of it. in this area, once you go into private rented, you go to the bottom of the housing list, as you are adequately housed. and because we are in a posh area, average wages are never going to be enough to cover the rent and allow enough to live on. even the housing asc. rents are very high, and would take 9/10's of the weekly wage, at minumum wage !!! and ditto to buy a house; it is beyond the locals' to buy at the inflated prices around here. most annoyingly, there are loads of second homes, which are empty for 5 days of the week, and quite a few owners who dont want thier weekend views spoilt by some much need housing being built. imo, its all wrong; very unfair. ( it always amazes me that some people who have a lot, always want more, or begrudge others getting on, whilst people who are genuinely struggling to make ends meet and get on, can be so generous of spirit and cheerful) so good luck with your getting a house.

[Two_Sheds]

I lived in social housing once, for 6 months (I left because the upstairs guy used to bounce footballs on my ceiling all day & night & the other guy upstairs was a violent nutter; the woman in the flat next to me used to knock on my door complaining about the noise: all 'care in the community' people except me, I was just ill).

The rest of the time (20 years) I've been in private rented, and they've all been horrible places: damp, smelly, noisy, basically the cheapest of the cheap where nobody would choose to live. That's what you get when you can't afford to buy your own place.

I only ever qualified for social housing while I was being treated for cancer, being a single poor person doesn't get you anywhere. If I had kids I would at least get on the list.

I am so lucky now: OH's wage means I can finally afford to be warm in the winter, to have baths, and to have a garden. If we split up, I'd be at the bottom again.

The council houses round here (there's loads of them) have all been sold it seems: there are 2, 3 or sometimes 4 vehicles outside most of them. People bought them up cheap in the 90s, now there's not enough to go round.

[Florence Fennel]

I bought my council house 5 years ago, but I had rented it for 25 years before that. I thought that buying council houses meant that they could afford to build more, but it doesn't look like that's the case.

[Comfreyfan]

The plans were to build a new small town just outside Exeter to provide more desperately needed local housing - unfortunately it's all on hold now because of the current situation. Over the last couple of years several building schemes have been stopped locally because no one could afford the private builds so there were no new social housing builds either.

[lizzylemon]

It's a truly terrible situation Nation Wide as we know but the thing I find most frustrating about this is the people who votoed the new applications ALREADY live in social housing built and managed by the SAME company who want to build these new ones.

The social housing association want to extend the little street they've already built into a slightly larger estate, and being very generous with it too. They've offered to help expand the local surgery and build a playground for that side of the village.

I'm hoping mad because if other people had been so short sighted originally, this THEY wouldn't be living in their nice new houses on their pretty little cul de sac right this very minute.

It always seems to be 'I'm alright Jack but f*ck any one else round here and it makes me furious.

So instead of venting on here, yesterday I spent a good half an hour or more on the phone to the Big Boss of the Association and having a very productive chat. I'm going to get actively involved with the thing and try to help find a compromise.

Ha! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Jack

[smallblueplanet]

I'm not getting into an arguement with you - as you say new house building is a controversial issue. However I'm sure there must be more reason than 'I'm alright Jack' for the planning app to be refused?

Personally I think new house building should be concentrated on 'brown field' sites, but then I live in a nice area of the countryside that I chose for the very reason that it isn't surrounded by an estate.

[lizzylemon]

We have some 'Brownfield' sites around the village that had been put forward as potential development sites, but as Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused industrial/commercial facilities available for re-use they are astronomically expensive to buy and then prepare for 'domestic' use.

So while it's a nice idea, the land is normally contaminated to b*ggery, anyone living on it would suffer from allergies, skin conditions etc etc and as it's prime business land, its even more expensive than normal land which just pushes the finished prices up further than they are already.

But then I firmly believe that everyone is entitled to a nice view, not live on overly contiminated land, in a carbon free sustainable community at a reasonable price. Private or Social Housing. everyone deserves a good standard of living and we have the technology at our hands to provide this to everyone.

People just have to accept it's time people are more important than their view from the kitchen window.

[smallblueplanet]

...

People just have to accept it's time people are more important than their view from the kitchen window.

People are indeed important and my viewpoint is as valid as yours.

As for land being 'contaminated', well I believe it can be cleaned up. As I said I bought my house on a mortgage for the view from my kitchen window. Why should any Housing Association/builder have the right to spoil that view forever?

[lizzylemon]

....my viewpoint is as valid as yours.

Most definitely it's what make people like planners and architects and other professionals strive to find a balance so that the majority of people will be satisfied. And also I enjoy a good debate, it's balancing for the soul as well

Why should any Housing Association/builder have the right to spoil that view forever?

Well the flip side to your question is should a view stop people from having homes and do you have neighbours who might also have the felt the same at some point

But that's the sticking point for lots of people and I really do understand, honestly I do.

But I'm being pedantic for the sake of it now. Sorry.

My arguement is not with you, it's with the local people who live in social housing here stopping others from having that same security in life because they've forgotten what it feels like to homeless, vunerable etc etc.