One of the Salford Star's main issues over the last decade has been the lack of affordable housing in the city, and both developers and the Council stating that certain homes are 'affordable' when they are nothing of the sort.
This Thursday, Greater Manchester's Housing, Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be considering a draft Housing Strategy for the region, which has been led by Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett.
The Strategy contains all the usual innuendo about getting the best housing for those on low incomes, the elderly etc but when it comes to defining what affordable housing actually is, the report wanders down a zillion alleyways with a definitive definition of affordability and affordable housing only promised "shortly".
"There is no single agreed definition of affordability, no single agreed point at which housing is 'unaffordable', and an ever wider official definition of 'affordable housing'" the Strategy states, arguing that there are "several different elements that need to be considered..."
The current rule of thumb, it adds, is that "housing costs start to become unaffordable once they go beyond 30% of household income". However, people get around this by "adult children staying with or moving back to the parental home, or groups of individuals and couples sharing a single property and dividing an otherwise unaffordable rent into affordable chunks".
Another approach, is to compare house prices to incomes or earnings, the Strategy states, but this only relates to owner-occupation which, in Greater Manchester comprises only 61% of the market, and varies with interest rates...."It also ignores the real costs of house purchase" the report explains "for most potential buyers, the biggest financial hurdle is the need to save a deposit (hence the design of Help to Buy). The monthly cost of paying a mortgage is often less than first time buyers have previously paid in the private rented sector.
"That deposit hurdle is increasingly being cleared with the help of the 'Bank of Mum and Dad', for those lucky enough to have suitably wealthy/generous family connections" it explains "This illustrates another complicating factor in judging affordability - measuring only household income, without including savings or wealth (especially for those who already have some equity in an existing property) can lead to misleading conclusions."
Meanwhile, in the rental market, 'Affordable Rent' properties are a maximum 80% of market rent in an area, and aren't affordable at all, despite being included in 'affordable housing' numbers for both developers' planning contributions and housing association new builds.
"Another approach is to look at 'residual income'" the Strategy states "calculating a benchmark for the income needed by a typical household for the non-housing costs of a minimum standard of living, with the income remaining then considered available to meet housing costs....
"As shown here, determining affordability is a complex task and justifies further work and analysis to truly understand the affordability pressures in Greater Manchester" the Strategy understates, before understating further that "We know the cost of housing can be a challenge to different cohorts within the housing system across Greater Manchester...We need to embrace the complexity of the issue to help better inform decisions about the new homes needed which our residents can afford."
The Draft Housing Strategy, which the intro states is "pioneering", doesn't actually define 'affordability', just promises that "We will shortly be setting out our definition for affordability and affordable housing in Greater Manchester which will help us in our work to deliver homes and a housing market that is truly affordable to all our residents."...Which kind of begs the question: Why produce a Housing Strategy with no definition of affordable housing?
Meanwhile, the Strategy also points out that within all the mushrooming of development in the Greater Manchester, "It is essential that we recognise questions of community engagement, heritage and local identity, public realm and cultural space. Community empowerment is central to the aims of our city region's growth agenda..."
Hmmm. Salford City Council, led by the Strategy's guru Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, has just attempted to sell off a community forest garden to Urban Splash, before councillors called in the decision in line with local residents' anger...*
...Complaints included no community engagement, and a loss of public realm and cultural space. It might be useful if Mr Mayor read his own Strategy...
To read the Full Draft Housing Strategy - click here and scroll down to 'housing strategy'
See also A Tour Through Salford Council Spin On Affordable Housing - click here
* For a full background see previous Salford Star article – Community Forest Garden Sold For Apartments By Salford Council – click here
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