The determination to boost the quality and the quantity of places to live was a major priority for much of the last century, but the nature of the debate changed somewhat towards the end as the focus moved on to the question of ownership.
Pertinent questions remain about the problems in driving towards higher levels of ownership; risks include ownership at the expense of maintenance of properties, and the market is poor at providing social mix and specialist provision.
However surveys assessing the spread of wealth throughout the country, at a time when house prices have risen dramatically, show the poor, generally as tenants, falling behind the rest of society – indeed it’s an argument used when people point to a growing divide between the very rich and the very poor in Britain.
The City Council is charged by Government to ensure that all homes, no matter what their tenure, are decent.
Given the City Council’s extensive ownership of properties, there has always been a strong focus on our role as housing agents, not least cos of the shortage of funds and the problems caused by mass unemployment and low pay in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. (Despite having North Sea oil revenues, the Tories left a £19bn repairs backlog in social housing.)
It’s not just The City Council’s stock, but that of Registered Social Landlord’s and Private Sector stock that the Council is in a general way accountable for. The requirement to make private sector stock decent is a recent target and applies only to those occupied by vulnerable households, and for which some gov’t financial support is available.
The housing policy is expressed in the Housing Strategy, revised annually, and was agreed at full Council on 5th September.
The Nottingham policy on housing has been distinctive, both in the extensive ownership of properties and in that, with the exception of deck-access complexes of the ‘60s, there has not been a need to clear whole neighbourhoods in a way that has been seen in other cities. This was in no small part due to a determination to invest in keeping neighbourhoods decent and using landlord powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.
There has been a stronger focus in more recent years on housing management of the Council’s stock – collecting rents, making repairs and turning around empty properties.
Now there is a clear aspiration to access an extra £165m to bring properties up to a decent standard, by 2010. It’s required a change to the management to assure Gov’t that the extra money they provide will be spent on improved property and management.
Hence the creation of Nottingham City Homes, an arms length management organisation, which is striving to acquire 2 star status in independent inspections.
The Housing Strategy document is an acquired read, being 52 pages long, before listing performance and achievements and further actions in a compendium of plans, as long again (50 pages). It provides a foundation whereby a range of organisations, including the Government Office of the East Midlands, can work in partnership to ensure better housing in Nottingham. It also enables scrutiny of use of public resources.
It contains basic information such as –
- population in the city is projected to rise by 11,000 to 278,000 by 2001; 38% are under 25, 14% over 65, which will fall slightly; the loss of families to the city means there are 1,000 less children under 15 each year;
- there are just over 116 thousand properties in Nottingham; over half of the new properties being provided between 2001 and 2021 will be for single person households below pensionable age;
- 38% of those consist of 4 rooms or less, making them not particularly suitable for families; 29% of properties have 6 rooms or more, compared to a national average of 40%;
- half of the properties are owner occupied, 24% are council owned, 9% are run by registered social landlords, 13% are privately rented and 4% are vacant (1 in 25);
- a significant amount of housing that was available for families has been taken for student accommodation – the private rented sector accounts for 43.5% of Dunkirk & Lenton against a city average of 13%;
- the money sought for bringing council housing up to the decent standard by 2010 is £318m; there is an estimated £241m of disrepair in the private sector.
Analysis is available for each electoral ward. Mapperley ward’s 6825 properties differ from the city in general by having more detached properties and significantly more flats; only 11% council owned but 21% privately rented.
The Housing Strategy has three very clear priorities, reflecting Nottingham’s needs. These are
1. Decent Homes,
2. Decent Neighbourhoods and
3. Social Inclusion.
The strategy is significant this year for making a significant effort to ensure all aspects of policy are both considered and addressed in the action plan.
Other areas of interest include –
students – the city benefits from so many bright, young people living in the city (34,000 of which 30,500 require accommodation and 24,000 have term time addresses in Nottingham – 12,500 in private rented accommodation); but the high numbers in converted family housing has distorted the provision of primary education; and the relatively low long-term commitment to their neighbourhoods of students and their private landlords has an impact on the street scene (that, and the ghost town feel between terms); students tend to be at higher risk of burglary and are also victims of landlords who are relatively unaccountable with regard to repairs and mtce. and property owners who default on their mortgage can require the tenant to leave the property; with the recent growth in the provision of dedicated student housing, efforts are being made (with the student unions) to drive up the service offered to students as tenants and the mtce. of the properties.
homelessness – an end to the use of B&B hotels for homeless families with children since January 2003; 93% of decisions made in gov’t target of 33 days; average stay in temporary accommodation reduced;
domestic violence - 10,920 women may be living with domestic violence in the City of Nottingham; (pro-rata, this would mean just under 600 in Mapperley ward, the equivalent of 1 in every 10 women registered to vote); during 2003/4 the Women’s Aid Advice Centre received: 1658 requests for refuge, 1977 requests for support/advice, 1416 women (1423 children) were offered refuge; from Oct 2003 – September 2004 Housing Direct accepted 176 homeless applications from those fleeing domestic violence (a 73% increase on the previous period);
Teenage conceptions - Nottingham’s position has worsened from 8th highest in 2003 to currently having the 4th highest rate for teenage conceptions in the country (77.9 per 1000 15 -17year old females); in 2002 there were 739 (teenage) conceptions, 68% of which resulted in live births (503).
Energy – the Council is working towards a 30% improvement in energy efficiency over 15 years by 2011; 17.8% improvement has been achieved over the past 8 years (a top quartile performance); the Egan principles will be promoted in construction;
A major focus of the strategy is the drive for decent homes standards; more challenging is to bring the impact of all the programmes of public investment, including projects like Building Schools for the Future, to sustain decent neighbourhoods and in some cases even to transform them.
Overall, the Housing Strategy is set to be declared as ‘fit for purpose’, only the 4th Housing Authority in the East Midlands to acquire this. The Decent Homes element shows great ambition; the Decent Neighbourhoods shows great desire but also that there is some policy development to do; the Social Inclusion element shows both good achievements and some significant challenges.
The Housing Strategy adopted at full Council is an important stage.
[Last updated – 2005-09-05]
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