White Swan refurbishment starts

White Swan Hotel York

Work to help regenerate a prominent unused building in the city centre has begun, as contractors have started to strip out The White Swan Hotel.

A £450,000 grant from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) Empty Homes 2 programme is helping to create new accommodation including 18 affordable homes plus new ground floor retail units in the city’s central shopping area.

Sainsbury’s has submitted several planning applications to cover the remodelling of the ground floor of the building. They include details of the planned signage, security blinds and an ATM click

Recent research carried out by the North East Civic Trust has identified the potential for hundreds of new homes in unused spaces above shops and offices in central York.

Tees Valley Housing and local affordable housing experts CoHo Ltd are moving forward to identify specific opportunities for new housing in the city centre over the next 18 months, and is asking local landlords and agents to come forward to discuss and realise new schemes.

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Housing growth in York – who will occupy?

Most additional homes constructed in York over the next 25 years will be occupied by inward migrants.

Births, deaths and house building click to enlarge

The latest birth rate figures confirm that less than 10,000 homes are required over the next 25 years to meet the expected natural increase in the City’s population.

Labour however plans to build 22,000 (over the next 15 years) most of which will go to people not currently living in the City.

Yesterday developers announced a plan to build 1500 homes at Huntington on a green field location

The Council’s leadership have shot themselves in the foot claiming that with births exceeding deaths in the City new homes will be occupied by existing York residents.

That is clearly not the case.

Who would occupy 22,000 additional homes click to enlarge

Indeed average housing building rates, over the last 10 years, have more than equalled the natural growth in the City’s population.

The increase in population over the last decade has mainly been caused by higher life expectancy, although the population did get a boost as a result of the (unrepeatable) growth in Higher Education provision in the City.

The census returns indicate an average annual increase in the City’s population of 1691 during the last decade.

There is a housing problem in the City but it stems from high rent levels in the private sector. Even after taking into account housing benefit (rent rebates), renting a home in York is relatively expensive.

Potential owner occupiers can still buy 2 bedroomed homes from £120,000.

That should lead the Council to give the top priority to providing more Council and Housing Association rented homes in The City.

NB. The Council have now accepted that their quoted housing waiting list numbers have been wildly exaggerated for the last 2 years.

House completion numbers

Large number of objections to Our Lady’s school development plans

Derelict school site next to Hob Moor

Revised layout drawings have been lodged with the Council for the 56 home development proposed for the school site on Windsor Garth.

A large number of objections to the development have been lodged including these from by the Friends of Hob Moor and the local Residents Association

The main objections expressed relate to the density of the development which would adversely impact on local public services.

Several residents have expressed concerns about drainage from the site which could damage the Hob Moor nature reserve.

Layout plan Nov 2013. Click to access

The absence of any play facilities has been mentioned by many. (According to the Council children will be expected to walk to the facilities on Chesney’s Field – but that is on the other side of a busy road).

Layout plan Sept 2013 click to access

It has emerged that the developers want to remove the – perfectly serviceable – metal railings which surround the site and replace them with a wooden fence. Metal railings are much more durable and effective than wooden fences.

It looks like it will be a few more weeks before this application reaches the planning committee.

Medical breakthrough will encourage retrospective births in York

Twitter exchange click to enlarge

Cllr Tracey Laing has told residents that she can’t afford to buy a home in York.

With several 2 bedroomed properties available at around £120,000, one wonders just how much more a £24,000 a year “Cabinet” member needs to earn to get on the housing ladder?

Or indeed how “cheap” a house has to be before it becomes “affordable”.

But the biggest eyebrow raiser will be the comment that 22,000 extra homes are required over the next 15 years because of “increased birth rates”.

No evidence was presented by the Council, before the Local Plan consultation started, to justify such a claim. They should publish a trajectory showing how many of the new homes will be occupied by “local people”.

There was a hike in birth rates 3 years ago but it is falling again. York has a lower birth rate than the rest of the region anyway.

For the 22,000 homes to be occupied by the children of existing York residents, an amazing advance in medical science would be required.

Increased procreation will need to be backdated to 1995.

The Council argued that it needed nearly 5000 homes to meet waiting list demands.

Birth rates click to enlarge

A few weeks ago it downgraded that requirement to 2200, taking 2400 people off the housing list at one fell swoop.

It also claimed that the homes would house workers in new industries which would grow in the City.

Clearly that level of economic growth isn’t going to be sustained, but – if it was – then vast majority of the houses would be occupied by inward migrants.

The representations made by York residents haven’t yet been considered by the Council. We understand that they intend to “redact” responses to obscure the identities of the authors.

Irrespective, that is, of whether the authors wish to remain anonymous.

It is already clear that some Labour hard liners are going to ignore electors, paving the way for a major showdown at the Public Inquiry next year and at the 2015 local elections.

Council house rent arrears in York

Council house rent arrears in York click for source document

The increasingly ubiquitous Cllr Burton has taken to the York Press today to tell us that rent arrears have increased since the abolition of the spare room subsidy (bedroom tax).

Sadly for him that simply isn’t true.

The actual figures can be found on the Councils web site (click graphic).

They show that, with the improvement on the economy, fewer tenants are now in arrears than was the case 3 years ago.

In total 1017 tenants were affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy.

The government awarded the York Council £88,730.96 to offset any hardship that may have been caused by the change to benefit arrangements.

The total amount of discretionary housing payment spent on ‘removal of the spare room subsidy’ cases this financial year is £42,344.74.

154 tenants received payments.

NB. The Labour Council recently arbitrarily removed 2400 people from the housing waiting list.

Labour’s housing waiting list scam – Freedom of information request submitted

click to access

A Freedom of Information request has been submitted aimed at getting to the bottom of the recent drop in the number of people on the social housing waiting list in York.

The number on the list fell from over 4600 families at the beginning of September, to only 2200 in October. No new social housing developments were completed for occupation during that period.

It turned out that a behind closed doors decision had been taken to kick more than half of the applicants off the list.

We now understand that most of these were deemed to be people who did not have a real housing need and who had not applied for any of the homes advertised during the previous 12 months.

Of the others, 140 were already homeowners and 187 had no local connection while 13 had no local connection and were also homeowners

57 applicants had their application banding changed from Gold to Silver.
The Council has to respond within 28 days to the FOI request.
The request seeks details of how the decision was taken, when and by whom.

It asks the Council what consultation was undertaken.

It seeks more information about the categories of people who have been thrown off the register.

Labour fiddle York housing waiting list figures

Cabinet member orders that 2400 residents be taken off list

Earlier in the week a report, which is being presented to the York Council “Cabinet”, claimed that the numbers on the Housing waiting list had more than halved in 6 months.

: click for source document

The report showed that only 2420 are now registered on the list – down from 4692 at the end of March.

4692 was the figure quoted by Labour to justify their plans to build 22,000 additional homes over the next 15 years, mainly on green belt land next to the City.

No explanation was given for this phenomenal reduction which was simply labelled as a “decrease”.

It was all the more surprising as, since Labour took control of the Council the supply of new “affordable” homes, has tailed off.

It now turns out that the change has been achieved simply by taking people off the list who Labour Councillors feel are not in housing need.

These include all those in the so called “bronze” category.

This is another decision that has been taken without any consultation and behind closed doors. It has not been widely publicised since it was introduced about 4 weeks ago.

No doubt Labour hoped, nearer the next Council elections, to announce that they had “solved” York’s housing problems.

Electors are not so easily fooled.

It is time that the Council ordered a public scrutiny review of the way in which the North Yorkshire housing waiting list has been massaged.

Some of the revised criteria that are now being applied will win general support (listed below).

Many however will find this new example of secrecy a sinister development.

The key changes are listed below.

Ensuring local people have priority by restricting the register to people who have a local connection
Supporting balanced and sustainable communities by preventing people with a history of serious Anti-Social Behaviour issues from qualifying for social housing
Excluding homeowners who have no recognised housing need either for economic or social reasons
Introducing a financial threshold for people who have a combined household income and/or capital and assets of £60,000 plus and who may be able to meet their own housing needs. It is recognised some people, in particular the elderly, may need to move into specialist accommodation and alternative housing advice will be given to them
Allocating properties to meet applicants’ assessed bedroom need
To make the process fair, penalties to exclude persons from the register have been introduced. These include persons, who provide false information, deliberately withhold information or who have deliberately worsened their housing circumstances

Draft private housing strategy open for comment

City of York Council’s is consulting on its plans for privately rented accommodation in the City.

The private sector housing strategy will be shared amongst landlords, stakeholders, tenants and partners. With 85 per cent of all homes in York either privately owned or rented, this plan will impact on a significant proportion of the community.

White Swan

Earlier this year and in anticipation of the strategy, the council has supported property owners to return or convert buildings back into domestic use – notably the White Swan – as well as helping home owners and landlords and tenants cut fuel bills and maximise energy efficiency.

However the Council Leadership has recently repeated its opposition to converting retail accommodation into residential.

The council has been developing a new landlord accreditation scheme called YorProperty to help raise standards of rented accommodation, which will be a focus of the Landlord’s Fair on 17 October (part of Housing Week) when the draft will also be presented to those attending.

Views of the strategy are now needed. Feedback will be used to shape the final strategy due for publication in the New Year. Complete the short questionnaire at www.york.gov.uk/housingweek The closing date for feedback is 22 November 2014.
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Council tenants unhappy with York Council as performance slips

Tenant satisfaction with the way that the Council runs its housing operation has fallen over the last year.

A report, produced by the newly-formed “Tenant Scrutiny Panel”, looks at how the council has performed in the previous 12 months.

click to enlarge

On most measures the Councils performance has declined.

• The number of tenants satisfied with repairs and maintenance fell from 85% to 82% while satisfaction with “the general condition of their home” fell from 83% to 81%.

• Only 55% of tenant adaptations were completed on time compared to 85% the previous year.

• Tenants satisfied with the standard of their new homes fell from 66% to 60%.

• There was an improvement in the time taken to relet empty properties although at 25 days this was worse than is achieved by several other Councils.

• Tenants satisfied with ”involvement in management & decisions” fell from 53% to 51%

• Tenants satisfied with” the outcome of their complaint” was only 34% compared to a target of 70%

• It took longer to remove graffiti.

• Nine out of 10 tenants responding to the Tenant Satisfaction Survey were satisfied with their neighbourhood as a place to live.

The results mirror the growing dissatisfaction levels revealed by the Councils more general “big survey” the results of which were revealed last month.

To view the full report click here

Cllr Stephen Fenton, Cllr Ashley Mason & Cllr Paula Widdowson

Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Liberal Democrats