industry news
The far-reaching extent of the housing crisis was laid bare in a BBC documentary in October in which a Barking and Dagenham councillor told local people they would have to wait 50 years for a council home. Maureen Worby, the councillor in charge of social care at Barking and Dagenham, told a meeting of local people they would have to wait a decade for a council home, but then added: “Do you know what – it’s not a 10-year wait, it’s a 50-year wait.” The BBC documentary also included footage
of the council’s leader Darren Rodwell saying he is unable to afford a house in a borough where the average property now costs £270,000. Tenants have bought almost 20,000 homes
from the east London council since they were given the Right to Buy under the Housing Act 1980. This has halved the council’s housing stock.
“The perfect storm”
In ‘No Place to Call Home’ a BBC film crew followed housing officials and the people they are trying to help in the Borough. Among those featured are a teacher forced to sleep in her car after losing her job, a family with a young son who have spent three years sleeping on friends’ sofas and a young woman who does not qualify for help despite having tried to kill herself.
East London council has 50-year waiting list for houses Barking and Dagenham is one of the 10
most-deprived boroughs in England, but at the same time local property prices have risen by almost 40 per cent since 2008 and the council has 50 times more people on its housing waiting list than properties available. John East, the council’s director of housing,
said: “In terms of trying to find suitable accommodation for homelessness, we have the perfect storm.” The borough’s homeless population has grown 350 per cent in four years with almost half of them in work, up from 10
per cent. The documentary showed the impact these changes have both on those without housing and on council staff, who are having to tell more people that the council cannot help them. “We’re a housing options service, without any
options,” said one frontline member of staff featured in the film. “It’s a bit like the Grand National,” she said. “If you fall at one of the hurdles, you’re not going to finish the race.”
Mixed picture on private sector rent rises Private sector rents rose 2.3 per cent on average last year, but a mixed picture
emerged across the country with inflation-busting increases in some locations and no growth in others. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that rents rose by: • 2.4 per cent in England • 0.1 per cent in Wales • Remained unchanged in Scotland
In England rents rose fastest in the South East (up 3.4 per cent) and the East of
England (up 3.3 per cent) while the lowest annual increases were recorded in the North East (up 0.9 per cent) and the North West (up 1.1 per cent). The overall growth of 2.3 per cent easily outstripped inflation but would have been higher except for a cooling off in the London market. The ONS concluded that inflation in the rental market is “likely to have been caused by demand in the market outpacing supply”.
14 | HMM November 2016 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
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