Salford is on the brink of a social housing crisis. The Council already revealed recently that people on its 14,000 housing waiting list "have little chance of ever being re-housed" as it introduced a new housing allocations policy under which half of them will be kicked off the register (see previous Salford Star article – click here).
Yesterday, at a full meeting of Salford Council, Gena Merrett, Assistant Mayor for Housing and the Environment, set out the "deliberate paradigm shift" by the Tory Government, aimed at reducing social housing and pushing people into home ownership which will "jeopardise the future of our housing associations".
The Tories recently unveiled plans to cut social rents by 1%, which Merrett argued was a "welfare cut" because most (70%) social housing tenants are in receipt of housing benefit. While the majority of tenants won't see a difference, the Government saves on its welfare bill, while housing associations in Salford reckon it's going to lose them between £24million and £28million over the next four years.
Not only will it have an effect on services and repairs, Merrett said, but it will also impact the production of new social rent homes. Housing associations are intending to halve development plans over that period and build more houses for shared equity or shared ownership, as they won't be able to afford to provide social rented housing.
The Government is also encouraging Right to Buy within the social housing sector, plus a `pay to stay' policy for social housing tenants who earn over a certain income and will find it cheaper to buy their houses rather than pay the increased rent. Social housing that is sold off won't be replaced, because of that £24million to £28million loss in revenue from the 1% rent cut.
"With a very large population growth and a shortage of affordable housing it's going to have a significant impact on our capacity...to enable us to house people in social rented housing" she concluded "This will drive more people into the already overpriced private rented sector and it's going to further compound the issues of housing affordability and child poverty in the city."
The Government's welfare cuts are already having an affect on tenants, with City West Housing Trust, Salford's biggest provider of social housing, reporting an increase of £224,000 in arrears of rent and service charges over the last year.
Meanwhile, City West's draft accounts for the year 2014-15 show six executive officers earning over £100,000 (excluding pension contributions), including the highest paid executive, who earned £168,259, a pay increase of £15,288 on the previous year.
Salford councillors sitting on the board of City West also received increases... Councillor Robin Garrido saw his remuneration rise from £3,409 in 2013-14 to £6,201 in 2014-15; Councillors Adrian Brocklehurst and Michael Wheeler saw theirs rise from £3,409 to £4,112, and Councillor Joe Kean saw a rise from £3,409 to £4,492. Tenants sitting on the board also got large remuneration increases.
The City West Trust recorded a surplus of £14.673million in 2014-15, up almost £1.5million from a £13.236 surplus in 2013-14. The City West Group also had an operating profit of £20.3million, up by £3.6million on the previous year, and an overall surplus after tax for the year of £15.4million, up by over £4million from the previous year. And during 2014-15 City West made charitable donations of just £7,465.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
