New plan for affordable housing gets under way in the New Forest

11:00am Sunday 18th November 2012 in News

NEW Forest District Council has devised a new way to meet demand for affordable housing in the district.

A new tenancy strategy will offer new residents a fixed term agreement ensuring the council can make the best use of affordable housing stock by tackling under-occupation.

Policies will continue to provide stability for elderly and vulnerable people and existing tenants will retain their current lifetime security of tenure.

Portfolio holder for housing Cllr Jill Cleary said: “I am pleased that we are able to introduce two positive solutions to the demand for social housing in our area.

“By offering fixed-term tenancies we will be able to review whether tenancies are still needed by the occupant and increase the turnover of affordable housing to ensure we make the best use of limited housing stock for those that most need it.

“The new allocations scheme will also reduce the number of people on the waiting list who have no prospect of being re-housed, put greater focus on housing local people and help to tackle anti-social behaviour and reduce welfare dependency.”

Comments(17)

elite50 says...
12:16pm Sun 18 Nov 12

I assume that this means a family with 4 kids aged from 5 to 12 years old will be given a lease of 13 years then be expected to find other accomodation.
Thats a pretty good deal, it gives evey-one a go.

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Deepandkeen says...
12:50pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Excellent break up communities, people then worry if they'll be turned out, shove them into the despicable private rental sector or get them to borrow stupid amounts for badly built houses - wonderful improvement - forward and progressive thinking....such intelligence and perspicacity..... I think the wrong people are in our prisons....

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Deepandkeen says...
12:56pm Sun 18 Nov 12

It was these excellent thinkers that led to their most wonderful housing bubble, mortgsge fuelled banking crisis which will and has cost 100's of billions, housing benefits which runs at 25 billion a year and goes into pockets of landowners and buy to letters.......of course I understand ..it would have been too easy to have invested in housing each year over the last 30 years ...that would have been well um....stupid....err idiotic and then how could someone at the NFDC have come uo with this marvellous proposal? I understand now.

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Deepandkeen says...
1:04pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Yes that is right....no I am for and believe in same sex marriage es well..... Yes... I agree David Cameron is lucky to have had such an excellent education....Yes I agree anyone icluding single people, low earners ...anyone who does not own their property and have a huge mortgage is second-class....Yes I agree the police do a marvellous job....Tes speed cameras are fair and cut speed making our roads safer ....Yes...I agree terrorism is a daily threat I keep my eyes peeled every day when I take my boy to St. Michaels and I am constantly alert to paedophiles they are everwhere...also I am a non-smoker. also I eat my 5 a day and when it was 3 a day I did that too...yes .....yes....yes

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aerolover says...
1:20pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Thatcher killed affordable housing by selling off council houses and not replacing them.
The money they got should have gone straight back into new council houses.

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djd says...
2:35pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Doesn't it mean that the Council will be able to keep tabs on their housing stock and if someone is under occupying a property it would enable them to offer that tenant a smaller property and free up the larger property for a family that needs it.
Fixed term tenancies should not be feared. Current tenants will retain their lifetime security of tenure.
Why should one person live in a three bedroomed house when they no longer need that amount of accommodation and a family that doesneed it is unable to use that accommodation?

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Village Idiot says...
2:44pm Sun 18 Nov 12

I may be the Village idiot but, what is 'affordable' in reality? Is it based on the ability to afford? If so who in he**s name can afford £230k for the average house in Ringwood? 3 times salary doesn't work anymore, unless of course you happen to be an 'out of towner' with your big fancy cars and salaries to match driving the locals out of the housing market. If you want the money, go live where you earn it and leave us country bumpkins to live the life we want!

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Mr pedestal says...
3:15pm Sun 18 Nov 12

They need to look at the people who are living in council accomodation and earning a nice wage. Then they can give those without somewhere to live and that means temporarily. Many who live in council owned properties have had years to save for a deposit on a mortgauge but instead spend what money they have on stuff they don't need. A maximum of 10 years rent would suffice.

If people want cheaper housing then perhaps we need to stop Estate agents coming up with pie in the sky figures. The government have also had ample opportunity to cap house prices but have failef miserably.

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BmthNewshound says...
4:13pm Sun 18 Nov 12

If existing tenants are going to retain their lifetime security of tenure then this policy will take decades to have any impact on waiting lists.
.
I see absolutely no reason why it can't be applied to exisiting tenants. It makes no sense for a 3 bedroom family home to have just a single person living in it whose rent is being subsidisied by tax payers who are also having to fund housing benefit paid to private landlords for people on the social housing waiting list. Apart from anything else its incredibly selfish to be denying a family a home by refusing to move to a smaller property more suited to a single person or couple.
.
With such a shortage of low cost housing being offered social housing should be seen as a priveledge rather than right.
.

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Talkingheadera says...
4:28pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Deepandkeen wrote:
Yes that is right....no I am for and believe in same sex marriage es well..... Yes... I agree David Cameron is lucky to have had such an excellent education....Yes I agree anyone icluding single people, low earners ...anyone who does not own their property and have a huge mortgage is second-class....Yes I agree the police do a marvellous job....Tes speed cameras are fair and cut speed making our roads safer ....Yes...I agree terrorism is a daily threat I keep my eyes peeled every day when I take my boy to St. Michaels and I am constantly alert to paedophiles they are everwhere...also I am a non-smoker. also I eat my 5 a day and when it was 3 a day I did that too...yes .....yes....yes
Idiot.
Knock the landlord yet again.
Not everybody wants to own their own property.

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West Howe Sean says...
5:52pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Affordable housing would be a three bedroom terraced house in a poor part of town for three times average salary.

That's a three bed terraced house for £75,000.

When we eventually arrive at that level, and we will. The speculators will pile in and the merry-go-round starts all over again.

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portia6 says...
6:07pm Sun 18 Nov 12

When is a council house not a council
house? a. When its been sold b.Let
c. Knocked down.answer C.

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portia6 says...
6:19pm Sun 18 Nov 12

aerolover wrote:
Thatcher killed affordable housing by selling off council houses and not replacing them.
The money they got should have gone straight back into new council houses.
In an ideal world everyone would own
their own home but house prices are
so high here its tragic. Family break-
down causes a lot of problems as
so many children are left without a
mother or father.

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Deepandkeen says...
7:48pm Sun 18 Nov 12

Talkingheadera wrote:
Deepandkeen wrote:
Yes that is right....no I am for and believe in same sex marriage es well..... Yes... I agree David Cameron is lucky to have had such an excellent education....Yes I agree anyone icluding single people, low earners ...anyone who does not own their property and have a huge mortgage is second-class....Yes I agree the police do a marvellous job....Tes speed cameras are fair and cut speed making our roads safer ....Yes...I agree terrorism is a daily threat I keep my eyes peeled every day when I take my boy to St. Michaels and I am constantly alert to paedophiles they are everwhere...also I am a non-smoker. also I eat my 5 a day and when it was 3 a day I did that too...yes .....yes....yes
Idiot.
Knock the landlord yet again.
Not everybody wants to own their own property.
that is what I meant idiot - don;t you understand sarcasm?

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Deepandkeen says...
7:59pm Sun 18 Nov 12

We the state intervene everywhere - from the cradle to the grave - 70% of the economy is dependent on the state - but when it comes to intervention ie having a state sector buiding programme to keep prices down / quality up / provide for those who cannot or choose not to buy at this point in their lives it is looked at as 'affordable' 'social' housing - charity - subsidy - wrong - unfair - now why? If there were cheaper housing then maybe wages could reduce, business more competitive, more mobility - the problem is we have the wrong people in prison and too many people have have a vested interest in keeping shitholes at exorbitant prices -- the good old housing ladder - so LAND is the coomodity and landowners - the real landowners leach off the majority - not the hardworking inhabitants of 'social housing'. Now in Europe they understand that therefore we have a lobby determined that these ideas do not come here......lets keep the plebs in their place

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billd766 says...
12:45am Mon 19 Nov 12

aerolover wrote:
Thatcher killed affordable housing by selling off council houses and not replacing them.
The money they got should have gone straight back into new council houses.
If I accept your opinion that Margeret Thatcher was to blame for getting the local councils to sell council houses to sitting tenants will you accept my opinion that the councils who sold the houses are to blame for not building more?
Will you also accept my opinion the New Labour under Tony B'liar and Gordon (give it all away) Broon are equally irresponsible for not making a law mandating that for every 10 new houses built 3 or 4 MUST be council houses?
After all New Labour are the "party of the people".

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newsabout says...
9:46am Mon 19 Nov 12

"By offering fixed-term tenancies we will be able to review whether tenancies are still needed by the occupant...."
Note the word 'review' ...language can be used to hid or squew the truth.
So when it is said that the Council will 'review' tenancies, does that really mean 'evict' ?
I'm not saying they should or should not evict what I am saying is that to allow residents to be truly informed, the Council should lay the options on the line; residents (the electorate) need to know what Council's policy's truly are ...not what they pretend them to be.
An investigative newspaper would have asked that question rather then simply printing a press release from the Council as though there was nothing to enquire about.

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