Agenda item

Janet O’Brien, Head of New Housing gave a presentation on the demand for rural affordable housing in the South West of Wiltshire. Some of the points covered were:

·         Housing Needs

·         Past Delivery

·         Delivery Methods and the Process

·         Government Policy Changes

·         Challenges

·         Opportunities

In June 2010 there were 580 households in the South West on the Housing Register, only 282 of those were in need. The majority of those households in need would only require small accommodation such as a one or two bedroom property. In 2009 there were 13 new affordable housed delivered in the South West.

In the future it would be more difficult to provide affordable housing due to the changes imposed by the Coalition Government.

Some questions and comments were then taken from the floor, some of these were:

·         With only 13 affordable houses available last year for the 280 families in need in the South West, had the Council considered building prefab houses which would be much cheaper to build. Answer: The Council intended to look at providing homes for people which would last 90 – 100 years, so had not considered prefab.

·         Were the houses in the rural locations allocated to local people, or people in Salisbury who may be in greater need. Answer: On the exceptional sites, the houses were offered to people within the parish of that property first. If there was no one in need in that parish, the property would then be offered to people in the surrounding parishes, then to the wider community. Usually properties go to people with a local connection to an area.

·         Would the Council consider a scheme which would engage local people who were in need; in training to assist in the labouring on housing sites in return for a share in a property. Answer: Some work on a scheme similar to this had been done in the past, but it had been found that it was very difficult to get schemes like this off the ground. However some sites do use local labourers and apprentices.

·         What was the first step for Parishes who wished to establish a Local Needs Survey. Answer: Community First, Wiltshire Council and the Housing Association had decided to recruit a Rural Needs Officer. This officer would visit parishes who had registered an interested in Local Needs Surveys to discuss the way forward.

·         The Wilton Land Command site has 33 acres of land up for sale for development; it was thought that their intention was to sell the site to the highest bidder. What hope would Wilton have for affordable housing on sites like that. Answer: The Council was working with developers, MOD and the Defence Estate in explaining the benefits of affordable housing.

·         How flexible is the agreement for rural villages that may only require 3 or 4 houses. Answer: The current policy does not allow any flexibility on the percentage of affordable houses on a new site.

·         In East Knoyle there are ten bungalows for sheltered accommodation, nine of those were given to people from across the country rather than local people. Could there be any restrictions on who gets these types of properties. Answer: There was a problem with sheltered accommodation currently. It was much more difficult to get people into properties such as these, but the Council was currently undergoing a review on sheltered housing.

The Chairman asked those present if anyone would be interested in forming a working group to look at the needs for rural housing in the community areas. Those interested should contact Richard Munro, Community Area Manager.