Housing

Community-led housing is a small but important area of activity. Across the country, groups of residents are working hard to address local housing problems collectively. Often the problems being solved are in areas where the challenges are not tempting enough for ‘bigger players’. Groups like Giroscope in Hull take on and renovate empty properties – often in areas of little or no commercial interest – providing training for local people as well as affordable homes. Buckland Newton Community Property Trust (situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in West Dorset) saw high house prices threatening the long-term survival of the village community, and built affordable homes for local people, obtaining long-term community assets in the process.

In most cases if you rob Peter to pay Paul, then Paul is going to be content. However, under the government’s proposal to extend right to buy (RTB) both councils (who will be forced to sell of their best stock) and housing associations (who will be compensated by councils for homes sold at a discount to tenants) will be left reeling. While the debate over the pros and cons of extending RTB has focused on the wisdom of the policy in terms of the impact on supply of affordable housing, less has been made of what it will mean for the relationship between housing associations and local government. A relationship which is already starting to show signs of strain due to the effects of continued fiscal austerity.