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Gloom for 4000 on York homes waiting list

The York Council has admitted, in response to a Freedom of Information request, that there is no guarantee that any new social housing will be provided in the City over the next 3 years.

The Council has failed to follow up on the initiative by the former Liberal Democrat led Council which started work on new Council homes in the Lilbourn Drive area in 2010. The last of the 19 units there has now been completed, but the Council is refusing to build any more.

Labour Councillors claim that this is because the homes would have to be let at a rent set at 80% of the private sector rate (known as “affordable rents”) and that this would be “too high”.

Rather ironic really, with many of the families on the waiting list currently having no option but to rent on the open market while at least one local Labour Councillor is profiting from her booming “buy to let” property portfolio.

So the only hope, for the 4000 on the housing waiting list, are the 59 or so units that Housing Associations are due to build plus any that private developers contribute as S106 contributions.

There is some optimism on the latter as developments like Derwenthorpe are now underway.

The question asked under FOI was;

“How many homes for affordable rent (not including social rent), which have received all necessary approvals, and with financing in place, will be started in each of the next three years in the geographical area under your remit? This includes those being built directly or by housing associations.

The Councils response was;

“there are no schemes with approvals and finance in place that will commence with certainty over the next three years.

Housing associations have received an allocation for 59 homes in York under the 2011-15 National Affordable Homes Programme that will have ‘Affordable Rents’ but the sites have still to have approvals in place”.

On planning gain (s106) sites, the council’s policy remains that these are delivered with no public subsidy and that rents are set at target social rents and not the new ‘Affordable Rents

That was the year that was – 2020

July

By the 1st July the COVID infection rate in The City had dropped to 3.32 /100k head of population. It had peaked at 96.8 on 5th May. Case numbers were to remain low until September.

During the first wave of infections, 171 York residents had succumbed to the virus. Many had been care home occupants.

The government announced a £5 million budget for drainage and repair works on Tadcaster Road. Resurfacing of the road had just been completed……. Laptops were loaned to needy children allowing them to study at home……. The Council offered “two hours of free parking” in an attempt to get the City centre economy moving again. The concession didn’t apply to the main shopper car parks…… Playgrounds and libraries reopened in early July. …………..The Council had spent £354,326 on marketing and communications during the pandemic…….. Changes to footstreet hours were approved at a behind closed doors meeting – prompting further criticism about secrecy…………. It was revealed that the “Yorspace” housing commune had failed to complete the purchase of a plot allocated to them at Lowfields. By contrast adjacent sites reserved for “self builders” were being snapped up….The annual review of Councillor lodged issues was published… York was touted as a new home for the House of Lords…… A controversial plan to have a “North Yorkshire” elected Mayor was announced. This prompted months of agonising about changes to Council boundaries… The Acomb Front Street market reopened… There were continuing delays on building projects including the huge British Sugar site on Boroughbridge Road.… It was revealed that the York Council had spent £4.5 million the previous year in buying up commercial property in the City. The Councils net debts climbed to £289 million during the same period. An overspend of £1.8 million on the James House project was revealed …..The Council as forced to take emergency action to modify access arrangements on Fossgate…. Revised plans for the front of the railway station were announced.

August

By 1st August the COVID infection rate in the City had fallen to 0.29. It was to be the lowest figure that the City would since the start of the pandemic.

A 3 bed semi at the Councils Lowfields development was priced at an eye watering £295,000…. York City centre was busy with visitors. Car parks like Castle and Marygate were full. By contrast the car park at the station was virtually empty….. Planning permission was granted for a proposal to build houses on the Bootham Crescent football ground. The opening date for the replacement stadium at Monks Cross had passed with a lot of work still outstanding. It was unclear when football matches would recommence…….. The York Central development secured £77.1 million in public funding…. One consequence of the pandemic had been a 51% increase in unemployment levels… a Public Right of Way was established across Acomb Moor. It was promptly blocked off by a farmer… The York Museums Trust needed a £1.95 million bail out. following its extended COVID closure….. The Council confirmed that it would spend £1.65 million buying 150 acres of land to establish a new forest near Knapton. Questions were raised about using high quality agricultural land for this purpose….. It was revealed that a large amount of space at West Offices had been rented out by the Council. That retained for its own use had been little used during the pandemic with many officials working from home… It was proving to be difficult to get utility companies to remove graffiti from their cabinets… The promised replacement children games area in Kingsway West had not materialised. The old “MUGA” had been taken over as a builders compound. It was later revealed that talks to use a site at the Thanet Road Sports Area has stalled….. There were still too many long term empty Council houses in York. 1597 people were registered on the housing waiting list….

September

The Coronavirus infection rate in the City had risen to 2.86 by 1st September. The “second wave” was to continue rise during the month before peaking in October. Additional restrictions were introduced by the government on 22nd September. Mainly affected pubs and face covering requirements

Visitor numbers to the City had increased during August although they still fell short of the numbers seen in previous years….. Schools reopened…. The taxi shuttle service link from the disable parking spaces at Monk Bar car park into the City centre had not proved to be popular…..The Groves road closures went live on 2nd September. Reaction was mixed with some suggesting that an emergency vehicle route should have been sustained. ….. E-scooter hire arrived in York…. 29 Castlegate a former youth service building had remained empty for 4 years. There was no sign of the Council putting it on the market…

October

The Coronavirus infection rate sat at 129.62 on 1st October. It would continue to rise before peaking at 444.9 on 16th October. The rise coincided with the arrival of a large contingent of students in the City. The infection rate in Heslington was to reach 1720 on 15th October before falling away. Heslington and Tang Hall currently have the lowest case numbers in the City.

Work on refurbishing the Lincoln Court independent living units on Ascot Way was completed…… Consultation started on plans to upgrade the A1237 northern by pass... The condition of the cycle track network continued to decline…. £1.25 million was to be spent on public electric vehicle charging points in York…. Wrangles over York’s Local Plan continued (endlessly) . ….. A Council report revealed that the numbers cycling and using public transport to get around the City had both fallen…. The Peacocks store in Front Street Acomb was set to close. It joined many other retail and hospitality outlets forced out of businesses by the pandemic…. The details location of the new “Knapton Forest” was revealed, The Council remained tight lipped about a further area of woodland that it hoped to plant “near to the inner ring road”…… COVID restrictions in York were increased to Tier 2 level on 17th October. Infection rates had already started to reduce……. The ruling coalition majority was reduced by one as Green Councillor Dave Taylor quit the Green Party. He had been criticised for comments made about the late Jack Charlton…….. There was an increase in the number of thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles in York… The Council announced that its new head of paid service (replacing the Chief Executive) would be Ian Floyd ……

November

Coronavirus infection rates had dropped from a high of 444.9 (recorded on 16th Oct) to 205.1 by 1st November. A national lockdown was to be introduced on 5th November when the rate stood at 191.8. It was to fall steadily during the lockdown period which ended on 2nd December. Eventually the rate bottomed out at 57.93 on 8th December. Since then it has risen sharply

By the beginning of November City streets were already looking empty…. A local contact tracing service was launched… Rain slowed some road resurfacing projects …. There was more criticism of social housing management standards in the City…. The York Museums Trust announced a 30% cut in staffing levels….. Work on the new Centre of Excellence for the Disabled was completed. Poor work on facilities in the surrounding area was criticised…… £658k of government funding for transport schemes was announced. A very mixed bag which included new cycle lanes on Acomb Road in Holgate and improvements for cyclists on the A1237 Ouse Bridge….. York Central was granted planning permission. Concerns about the accesses from Leeman Road and Wilton Rise were not addressed…. The Council reviewed its property portfolio. It decided to a[give a developer 12 weeks to complete the purchase of Oakhaven which had been empty for 4 years…. The Police announced their first “on line” digital event….A Council planning committee declined to approve plans for new flats and a multi story car park at the Castle/Piccadilly site …….. Fly tipping was a continuing problem in and near York…. A deal to lease space at the new Community Stadium for restaurant use fell though. It added £1.375 million to the taxpayers bill…More bad news for taxpayers as the costs of the Guildhall renovation project soared to £21.7 million…

December

The infection rate stood at 76.44 on 1st December. York entered Tier 2 restrictions the day after. Local MPs had pressed for a Tier 1 designation bowing to pressure from the hospitality sector. The subsequent rise in infection levels suggest that a Tier 3 designation would have been a safer option. York started the month with the lowest number of Coronavirus cases. It was to end the month with the highest infection rate in the region (406.4).

A homeless report said that the number of “rough sleepers” in the City was now very small…. A £3 billion price tag was placed on the Councils ambition to see the City become “carbon neutral” by 2030. …. The Make it York tourism organisation was heading for a £1 million loss. It would – like Welcome to Yorkshire – be bailed out by the Council … By 5th December streets in the York Centre were busier…. A new winter support grant was set up to help needy families… New lateral flow COVID tests were available which provided very quick results. Students took the tests before returning home for the holidays… The Council launched an “on line” consultation on its budget choices. The choices were carefully limited to avoid any awkward results…… a new report highlighted growing problems with unemployment in the City. Young people living in the Westfield area were particularly hard hit…. a new COVID vaccination centre opened on Moor Lane near Tesco…. Completion of the Community Stadium complex was finally confirmed. Originally scheduled to be built in 2012, it was some 8 years later that it actually became available for use. Within days, the leisure and sports facilities there were to be closed again following the introduction of Tier 3 restrictions….. The year was to end with the first of the Coronavirus vaccine injections taking place in the City. Although a new more virulent strain of the virus had emerged, this was partly offset by news that a new vaccine was now available.

Only 2 rough sleepers in York

The report into homelessness in York – which slightly mysteriously disappeared from a recent meeting agenda – has finally been published.

The report covers the last financial year. It reveals that the number of rough sleepers had reduced from 9 to 7 when the annual census was completed last November. However, the new COVID measures meant that that number had reduced further  to 2 by the end of March.

Housing performance and demands stats

The number of households leaving in temporary accommodation also reduced from 66 to 62 while none had been accommodated in Bed and Breakfast accommodation for over 6 weeks.  The numbers presenting to the Council as homeless increased from 61 to 99.

There were 1597 households on the housing waiting list at the end of the year. The numbers have remained static for several years.

A copy of the full report can be read by clicking here

It markedly fails to mention the number of empty Council properties in the City or what is being done to reduce void times.  286 homes became available for re-letting last year compared to 284 the previous year.

The number of new build affordable houses also increased (see table)

Homelessness is likely to increase in the City as unemployment increases in the wake of the health crisis. This may be exacerbated as the rent freeze also comes to an end.

Homeless problems – still too many long term empty Council houses in York

The was some surprise a few days ago when a scheduled report on homeless problems in the City was pulled.

The Council failed to explain why the report was abandoned and it remains unclear what the report contained.

It may be that the Council is embarrassed by the seeming increase in the number of empty homes that it owns.

Two on Foxwood Lane have been empty for over 6 months (i.e. from before the pandemic caused delays) . Both properties are bungalows which are always popular with “downsizers”, so finding new tenants shouldn’t have been a problem.

On the basis of the last published stats, there were 22 homeless households with dependent children in living in temporary accommodation in York.

According to the Councils own figures, the average number of days to re-let empty properties has risen from 27 days to 37 days during the last couple of years.

There are 1597 people registered on the York housing waiting list.

Scepticism over York Council house prices at Lowfields

Average house prices in Dijon Avenue – next to the new “Lowfields Green development – are around £191,000. A 3 bedroomed semi is estimated to be worth between £188,000 and £208,000 according to the Zoopla web site. Prices are similar in nearby Lowfields Drive.

The announcement that the new “Clover” three bed, 94 sq. mtr, semi would cost £295,000 raised many eyebrows. With average salaries of £26,000 a year in York, that means a working couple would be able to borrow a maximum of £234,000 with repayments set at £1109 per month. They would also need a deposit of £60,000.

So we can safely say that the houses aren’t aimed at first time buyers.

Shape homes are offering a “shared ownership” option on some smaller properties. Two 2-bedroomed semi-detached houses (The Burdock) are for sale for between 25%-75% of the whole sale price of £225,000 (for example, a 30% share would cost £67,500). The Council have already completed deals elsewhere in the City for about 30 shared ownership homes. In most of those cases the prospective occupant identified a propriety that was available on the open market and asked the Council to buy half. The occupiers then pay part mortgage and part rent.

Finally seven “social rent” properties will be available.  Two are 2-bedroomed semi-detached houses and there are five 2-bedroomed semi-detached bungalows. Rent levels for the properties have not been revealed, although they will be much less than the £800 pm commercial rents being asked for similar properties in the area. Applicants will need to be on the housing waiting list although it is possible that preference will be given to Council tenants seeking to downsize from larger properties (freeing them, in turn, for family occupation).

Old Bowling Green semi

By way of comparison, a new 3 bed semi on the prestigious Old Bowling Green site on Front Street is listed for sale at £310,000  It has 90 sq. metres of floorspace and is arguably better located than the houses at “Lowfields Green”. Building work on the site will also conclude shortly.

Quite how the £295,000 price for the Lowfields semi has been arrived at was not made clear in the business case figures published by the Council.

It can only serve to stoke house price inflation at a time when many are feeling the pressures arising from the health crisis.

Some cross subsidy of the rented units was expected across the whole site.But that doesn’t explain the £50,000 premium apparently now being sought.

The Council may also point to high standards of thermal efficiency, but it would take over 100 years to repay the extra “up-front” costs through energy bill savings.

Troubled York Council land sale – more details

More details of the York Council’s controversial decision to sell land to the Yorspace community housing group are emerging. In response to a Freedom of Information request the Council has provided a copy of the independent valuation that it obtained for the land at Lowfields.

Yorspace Lowfield development

The valuation states that the site may be sold to a community housing group for £300,000 which “represents a 20% discount on market value”. However, the valuation report is based on the construction of 10 semi-detached homes on the land.

The Yorspace proposal envisages a 19 unit, high density, development.

So the scale of the taxpayer subsidy remains obscure. The only way to test the financial assumptions would be to market the site, comparing offers for social housing with a commercial alternative.

While Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 does allow Local Authorities to sell, in certain circumstances, land at below market value and without seeking competitive bids, that discretion is not unfettered.

The Council constitution requires a reason for such a sale to be minuted. There is no such reason given in the record of the officer decision taken on 18th January 2019

Construction of roads at Lowfields is almost complete.

The record of the meeting says, “The Mutual Home Ownership Society housing model they use is designed as such that they will be economically accessible to lower income families and the affordability of the homes is maintained in perpetuity”.

The council has not, so far, chosen to include, in the terms of the proposed sale, a requirement that occupiers MUST be lower income families and/or that they should currently be registered on the home choice/housing waiting list..

As the development has NOT been classified as “affordable housing” in the Local Plan, the Council must legally provide a specific reason for giving preferential treatment to a particular group.

Valuation report published

The reason might be, for example, to create local jobs, to provide accessible leisure facilities, to provide homes for those on the waiting list or whatever.

However, an auditable rationale is a legal requirement.

The sale to Yorspace has not been completed yet but is expected next month. A further report to a council committee on the scheme is expected on 26th September.

Meanwhile it has emerged that no progress has been made in selling any “self-build“ plots at Lowfield

The Council says that marketing material for the plots is being prepared by the Community and Self-Build Officer, in conjunction with Custom Build Homes, who are the sale agent for the plots.

Self build homes are likely to be worth more than the construction cost.

 “A promotional event was held last year, and it is planned that another event will be held at the start of the marketing launch”.

 Plots will be promoted through the council, the Custom Build Homes website and Rightmove. Plots will go on sale this Autumn.

The buyers must have started construction work within 12 months of purchase and have completed all works within 2 years”.

York Council shifts only 10 shared ownership homes in 3 years

The York Council’s much hyped “shared ownership” programme has provided homes for only 10 families during the last 3 years.

Council marketing campaign

The figures are revealed in a response to a Freedom of Information request.

All the 10 homes were purchased on the open market. The scheme encourages residents to identify a property for sale before asking the Council to purchase it for them. The family then buys part of the property on a mortgage while renting the rest.  

The Council has decided to set the rent well below commercial levels, effectively providing the occupier with a taxpayer subsidy.

The only recorded discussion of the strategy, which will see a large proportion of the 600 new homes being built by the Council over the next few years allocated to shared ownership, came at a private meeting. click for details

The York Council admits that priority for shared ownership homes cannot be given to those on the housing waiting list. Nor can it restrict availability to existing York residents. It blames “Homes England” for these restrictions. These seem perverse restrictions given that the housing list is, and has been for many years, the accepted way of determining housing need and priority in the City.

The Council said that, “A key ambition (of shared ownership) is to support key workers by marketing housing for them. Key workers include teachers, health and social care workers, the police, the fire service and others working in the public sector”. It can only do so through a direct marketing campaign. It is unclear how many of the homes have gone to “key workers”

Slow going on “affordable” housing in York?

 Other social landlords have provided 30 shared ownership properties over the last 3 years. Of these, 29 have been “new build”.

By contrast, only 45 additional homes have been added to the Council housing stock since 2016.

Only 4 of these were purchased on the open market.

The open market purchase of homes, to supplement the rental stock, has been the flagship policy of the Liberal Democrats for over a decade. It only became a practical option 4 years ago when restrictions on the use of income from Council house sales were relaxed.

There are over 1700 applicants on the housing waiting list in York

Meanwhile the Council has taken on extra staff to manage its new build housing programme. They have so far failed to report how many shared ownership deals have been completed by the new team during the current financial year.

We think it is time for the Council to have a candid public debate about the demand for shared ownership and other forms of housing tenure in the City.

York council election manifestos compared

4. Housing and Health

There has been a small reduction in the Council housing stock in recent years. This is the resulted from the central government policy which saw discounts increased for “Right to Buy”.

In response the Council has started to build new Council houses and has announced ambitious – by recent standards – plans to build over 600 additional homes. It has also started to buy homes on the open market to add to the rented housing pool.

On homelessness, hyperbole rules in the manifestos. All, of course, will end it. While the numbers on the housing waiting list has been stable, the numbers of rough sleepers has fluctuated. Labour support the Manchester/Finland model (where keys to a home are given to rough sleepers without any behaviour, substance abuse or mental health treatment conditions (That’ll go down well with the neighbours)

meanwhile the coalition is building on sub-urban playing fields and has made little attempt to find replacement open spaces, sports facilities or parks. Partly as a result of this, the City has an obesity problem. Life expectancy in some poorer wards is now relatively low.

Hopefully the new Council will realise that the is more to creating a home than simply bricks and mortar.

NB: Only 1 of the 202 Council candidates – who have declared where they live – is a Council tenant.

York Council sold land to “Yorspace” without affordable homes conditions

A response to a Freedom of Information request has revealed that the Council DID NOT require, that the land it sold at Lowfields to the “Yorspace” commune, must be used to provide affordable housing.

The land was sold for £300,000 – approximately 50% below its open market value.

A smaller plot of land at the other end of the Lowfields school site is currently being marketed for offers over £400,000.

The discounted sale  decision was taken in private by a Council official.

The Council claims that they had an independent valuation made on the site. They don’t say on what basis they discounted the value.

They did, however, depend on  Section 123 of the Local Government Act 1972 to dispose of the land at below market value. It was assumed – but not transparently recorded in the decision notice – that this was to facilitate the provision of more affordable housing.

This assumption was brought into question when a Council Housing Officer said, in response to Yorspace’s planning application to build 19 units on the 0.785 acre site, that the new homes could not be counted as “affordable”

The FOI response goes on to say, “This valuation was for a plot of land for community build housing with utility connections and a road to the edge of the site. Therefore, the price to be paid by Yorspace includes an allowance for infrastructure works. Yorspace will be paying for the construction of the car parking bays which are within their proposed red line ownership boundary”.

 “Any areas of road and parking will belong to Yorspace and it will be   their responsibility to maintain this. However, the public footpath in this area is likely to become adopted highway and therefore maintained by the council”.

Clearly there are “smoke and mirrors”  aspects to this transaction which will require the attention of the Auditors.

Another option for the Council would have been to develop the site itself to provide 19 more Council homes. The homes could then have been let direct to those on the housing waiting list. The Council has more freedom now to borrow to fund new Council homes.

NB. Despite some new builds, “Right to Buy” applications have seen the Council housing stock in York reduce from 7728 in 2016 to 7617 two years later.

Yorspace” development set to get planning permission

…but concerns remain about parking, security, affordability and funding

Council officials are recommending that 19 homes, to be built by the “Yorspace” cooperative on part of the Lowfield site, should be given planning permission.

Yorspace plans

A report to a meeting taking place on 20th March reveals that objections to the plan were received from local residents and the Save Lowfields Playing Field Action Group  who were concerned about the height of the buildings, security, inadequate car parking, boundary fences and the lack of affordable housing in the proposal.  Some residents have questioned the actions of the Council in selling the plot of land, which is located near little Tudor Road, for 1/3 of its market value.

The latter objection has been reinforced since it was revealed that there will be no “affordable” units provided on the site. Rents will be at commercial levels. The rent on a one bedroomed flat will be around £520 pcm rising to over £880 pcm for a 4 bedroomed house. These are comparable to the rents charged by private landlords in the area.

It will be for the Councils auditors to say whether the sale is a legitimate one but, given the numbers on the local housing waiting list, it is difficult to see why the Council did not either develop the land itself (as it is doing elsewhere on Lowfields) or ask a Housing Association to take the project  on.

In either case rents would have been around half the commercial level.

One issue that has not been resolved is the proposal to restrict the number of off-street parking spaces to 12. This is less than one per property. Many 4 bedroomed homes now have 2 or 3 vehicle owners living in the property. The concern is that “overspill” car parking will put further pressure on spaces in Tudor Road, Kingsthorpe and the rest of the new Lowfields development.

The developers hope the availability of good bus services in the area will reduce car usage. However, the number 4 service only travels one way down Tudor Road.

Any parent will know the pressure that teenagers, upon reaching driving age, can exert as they seek to get their first personal transport. So the cooperatives “issue resolution processes” are likely to be fully tested if they seek to restrict car ownership at their properties.

The planning committee meeting is taking place on Wednesday 20th March at 5:00pm at West Offices. Residents may make representations by registering to speak at the meeting &/or by Email to Christopher.elliott@york.gov.uk