Accrington Web - View Single Post

g jones · 25-07-2007, 21:28

Corrected the type and made it make more sense.

There are 2,000 empty houses out of 35,000. We have been building houses at a rate of several hundred a year because The Council wanted new build, wanted regeneration, people wanted aspirational homes. Ones built of red brick that come with a glossy lifestyle brochure.

At the same time we have not been bulldozing houses at anywhere near that rate over this period. In fact for many years we cleared no houses despite the fact we were building them. Given the census from 1991 to 2001 has shown little or no increase we have ended up with an oversupply. (In Burnley the population has fallen significantly enhancing the problem there)

Around 65% of the housing stock was terraced. Such a high proportion, plus people's desire for nice new red brick ones with gardens, plus people's desire to get out of the inner urban areas and locate on these peripheral new estates has resulted in significant numbers of empties in the inner urban areas that everyone is familiar with.

For the last 20 years, up to this day (and still ongoing), The Council are failing to understand this and failing to manage our housing stock. Neither are we taking a firm stance on developers as to their social responsibility for this oversupply. Quite the opposite, we believe in bending over for them frightened they won't build these new desirable houses here. My personal view is they are not desirable, there is shortage of red brick lifestyle houses so people lower their expectations and builders lower their build quality as a result.

The Government have given us £millions (not a penny from the Council) to remove the surplus housing stock - 2000 terraces. However it is not enough. Only 800 houses out of the 2000 are scheduled to be demolished but with the rampant resupply of new houses the problem will carry on and on.

Worse, the powers that be (at the Council - the ones we elected) proclaim that because house prices have risen in an area (Princes St in the case of Blackburn Rd clearance), the over supply is cured because demand has risen measured by rapidly increasing house prices being a barometer for increasing desirebailty. That's not to say though they are bought by people who personally are going to live in them. But where has the new demand come from???? And of course property speculation has caused rising prices. Both local (regeneration) and national (economic) has influenced house prices in that area. That's not a sustainable solution. People wanting to live there is.

The Council are failing totally to understand the circumstances around housing supply and markets, and therefore can't find proper solutions. In the meantime they are spending £millions looking for answers that aren't good enough. Part of the problem is dogma, Tories who see new build on the edge of as a philosophically desirable goal and who believe the markets will always be the answer. Not if there's not enough people for the houses you have built they won't.

25-07-2007, 21:28	#8
g jones Senior Member+ Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,125 Liked: 14 times Rep Power: 729	Re: tell me why ? Corrected the type and made it make more sense. There are 2,000 empty houses out of 35,000. We have been building houses at a rate of several hundred a year because The Council wanted new build, wanted regeneration, people wanted aspirational homes. Ones built of red brick that come with a glossy lifestyle brochure. At the same time we have not been bulldozing houses at anywhere near that rate over this period. In fact for many years we cleared no houses despite the fact we were building them. Given the census from 1991 to 2001 has shown little or no increase we have ended up with an oversupply. (In Burnley the population has fallen significantly enhancing the problem there) Around 65% of the housing stock was terraced. Such a high proportion, plus people's desire for nice new red brick ones with gardens, plus people's desire to get out of the inner urban areas and locate on these peripheral new estates has resulted in significant numbers of empties in the inner urban areas that everyone is familiar with. For the last 20 years, up to this day (and still ongoing), The Council are failing to understand this and failing to manage our housing stock. Neither are we taking a firm stance on developers as to their social responsibility for this oversupply. Quite the opposite, we believe in bending over for them frightened they won't build these new desirable houses here. My personal view is they are not desirable, there is shortage of red brick lifestyle houses so people lower their expectations and builders lower their build quality as a result. The Government have given us £millions (not a penny from the Council) to remove the surplus housing stock - 2000 terraces. However it is not enough. Only 800 houses out of the 2000 are scheduled to be demolished but with the rampant resupply of new houses the problem will carry on and on. Worse, the powers that be (at the Council - the ones we elected) proclaim that because house prices have risen in an area (Princes St in the case of Blackburn Rd clearance), the over supply is cured because demand has risen measured by rapidly increasing house prices being a barometer for increasing desirebailty. That's not to say though they are bought by people who personally are going to live in them. But where has the new demand come from???? And of course property speculation has caused rising prices. Both local (regeneration) and national (economic) has influenced house prices in that area. That's not a sustainable solution. People wanting to live there is. The Council are failing totally to understand the circumstances around housing supply and markets, and therefore can't find proper solutions. In the meantime they are spending £millions looking for answers that aren't good enough. Part of the problem is dogma, Tories who see new build on the edge of as a philosophically desirable goal and who believe the markets will always be the answer. Not if there's not enough people for the houses you have built they won't.