Coun Jane Scullion: Building homes not just houses

There just aren’t enough houses being built to meet demand. Photo: AdobeStockThere just aren’t enough houses being built to meet demand. Photo: AdobeStock
There just aren’t enough houses being built to meet demand. Photo: AdobeStock
​​I’m really pleased to hear the new Labour government’s announcements on housing. I particularly like the shift away from just talking about building the maximum number of ‘units’ (although we do need a lot more houses, that’s for sure) towards a focus on housing quality.

Coun Jane Scullion, Leader of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, writes:

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The emphasis on high standards of energy efficiency is so important – good for the climate as well as good for family budgets. Balancing growth with sustainability is the challenge we all face over the next few years.

The conversation is finally shifting, after 14 years of Conservative inaction, into how we, as a country, can tackle the long-standing issues of affordability, security, and housing quality.

Affordability is an issue, especially for young people living with parents or in rented accommodation.

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There just aren’t enough houses being built to meet demand and the current high interest rates, according to Generation Rent, mean that the average time to save for a deposit nationally for first time buyers is now nearly ten years. Labour intends to support them with a mortgage guarantee scheme. New developments will be required to have more affordable homes.

Housing security is also a real concern, especially in Halifax. The government will tackle this by abolishing ‘no fault’ Section 21 evictions. This is good news. My inbox has recently been full of desperate pleas from local families who have lived in their rented accommodation for many years but who are now being evicted under the current quickie legislation. Becoming homeless at short notice mean disruption to children’s schooling and travel to work arrangements, and people end up coming to the council for help. We do what we can but there just aren’t enough houses to go round.

Greater stability for renters has to be a priority.

Additional funding for councils for more planning officers is particularly welcome news (interestingly this will be funded by increasing stamp duty surcharge on non-UK residents), and I like too the commitment to build first on brownfield sites. Of course, none of this can happen overnight, but a steady, consistent and thoughtful approach to some of these difficult issues is so welcome after all the uncertainty of recent years.

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What would it mean, here in Calderdale, to begin building decent homes rather than simply throwing up the maximum number of houses? Well, we’ve already made a start. On July 24, the Council meeting agreed Calderdale’s Placemaking and Design Guide. This rather dull sounding policy document, part of the Local Plan for the future, is in fact key to building better homes and places. Our policy sets out how new housing needs to take into account how people live and how communities can thrive. We don’t want to see estates where nobody knows their neighbours, we want to see new housing help shape a sense of community, local pride and belonging. We want to see sustainable homes, with good travel connections to schools and communities, which feel safe and healthy. We will be working with the new government to make that vision a reality over the next ten years.