Calderdale's empty homes plan could provide a lifeline in the housing crisis
The council is aiming to bring 1,500 empty homes back onto the market
Hello and welcome to the first weekend edition of the Calderdale Lead!
Thanks to everyone who has subscribed since we sent out our very first newsletter on Wednesday - we hope you enjoyed the weekly culture guide and might even be tempted to get out to some of the events listed this weekend (I’ll certainly be checking out Semay Wu at Nan Moor’s this afternoon!).
This week’s long read comes courtesy of Kevin Gopal, former editor of The Big Issue North, who has been looking at the housing crisis across the North for our national edition in the Brick by Brick campaign.
You can find out more about that at the end of today’s newsletter.
Before we get to that, here’s an end-of-the-week round-up for Calderdale…
⛄ Calderdale Council’s Christmas markets are back, with festive events taking place across the borough.
The Council owns and operates markets in Brighouse, Elland, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden, with independent traders providing fresh and local food, unique goods, fashion items and much more, all year round.
The festive markets kick off in various destinations across the borough next Saturday (November 30). Click here for more details.
🍸 Plans have been submitted to Calderdale Council for a new cocktail bar in Hebden Bridge.
The new venue, if granted planning permission, will be called Culpepers Cocktails and will be situated at 16A Bridge Gate in the town centre.
The Halifax Courier’s Sarah Fitton has more here.
And finally…
❄ Calderdale Council’s decision to grit fewer roads to save money has been criticised in the wake of this week’s cold snap.
The authority has reduced the treatment of some roads in the borough as part of plans to cut £300,000 from its winter services budget.
Residents in some parts of Hebden Bridge fear they’ll be cut off and isolated as a result of the cuts.
For more on this, including the council’s response, click here.
Now to our long-read courtesy of Kevin…
The supply of homes is low, conditions are poor, and rents are growing. Angela Rayner has promised the “biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.”
But with nearly 1.3 million households on social waiting lists in the country, 150,000 children in temporary accommodation and rents up 8.6 per cent in the last year, will the necessary funding emerge to match her rhetoric – and how did we get here in the first place?
Since the Thatcher government forced local authorities to sell off council housing at big discounts, forbade them from using the receipts to build more, and pressured them into transferring remaining stock to arm’s length management organisations, social housing has been largely in the hands of housing associations.
Tracing their origins to late 19th century small-scale charity providers, they were promoted through the 1960s and 1970s as alternatives to those council departments said to be beset by bureaucracy and distant from tenants. They were brought into national government funding streams in 1974.
By 1988, when much of the better-quality housing stock had been sold off and mass unemployment meant fewer people could afford to exert their right to buy on the remaining ones, housing associations were “reconfigured as the primary conduit for new council house building”, says Richard Goulding, a housing expert at Sheffield University Management School.
Further funding cuts meant housing associations were forced to top up with commercial loans, which led to consolidation in the sector. Their values changed, says Goulding, and the bigger ones became more distant from their tenants, reconstructing themselves as developers. The 2010 coalition government almost eliminated funding for new social housing, the Tenants’ Services Authority was abolished, and regulation on hazards was cut.
“A lot of chickens came home to roost,” says Goulding. “Standards have gone down. The amount of money going into maintenance and repairs hasn’t been enough.”
He says the sector is still quite diverse, with a lot of good being done by smaller-scale housing associations or by committed individual housing officers.
“But we’ve seen the worst of what can happen with disasters like Grenfell, with the lack of building safety standards, which applies across both private rented housing and the social housing sector. We’ve seen it with awful situations like in Rochdale where a young boy, Awaab Ishak, died because of mould.
“However, you can also see what some people have called the ‘slow violence’ – not enough maintenance, not enough repairs and the fundamental problem, I think, of social landlords just not listening to tenants. That’s across the board, whether it’s local authorities or housing associations.”
Locally in Calderdale, there’s hope that bringing the borough’s 1,500 empty properties back to the market will help provide part of the solution to a critical problem.
In June, there were 9,773 households on the housing waiting list and the main cause of homelessness is the end of a private tenancy.
Scott Patient, Calderdale Council deputy leader and cabinet member for climate action and housing, says that’s why it’s been so important to have a local housing plan, passed last year.
Only 21 per cent of councils have passed a new or revised local plan in the last five years, a slowdown on previous years, according to estate agents Savills.
Council stock was transferred in 2000 and although the Labour-run authority would like to build more social homes itself, that’s not a priority, says Patient. Instead, the local plan – unsuccessfully contested in judicial review by Clifton Neighbourhood Forum because of concern about transport impacts – envisages 10,000 new homes built by the private and social sectors into the 2030s.
There is space for that target, says Patient – Calderdale has about half the population of neighbouring Kirklees but in a similar area. But there isn’t space for much more than that, because of the borough’s challenging terrain, with steep hills, mining legacy and culverts.
But he adds that Calderdale has adopted a focus on bringing back its 1,500 empty homes into use. Some are in a poor state, have been land-banked by developers or are in the social sector and part of a regeneration plan that’s been delayed.
Using powers in the 2012 Local Government Finance Act, Calderdale Council now applies the maximum charge of 200 per cent council tax on homes left empty for one year – down from two years – with 400 per cent tax payable on homes empty for 10 years or more.
The council has also worked with a probate researcher and genealogy company, Fraser & Fraser, to identify family members of deceased owners and speed up the return of properties to the market, as well as using compulsory purchase orders.
It says the number of long-term empty homes in Calderdale fell by 12 per cent in the year to 2023 – the second biggest reduction in the region.
“That’s an example of us thinking outside the box to make sure there’s capacity in the system,” says Patient. “It’s not just about building new homes – it’s about making those that are either in poor condition good or that are currently unoccupied, occupied.”
Coun Patient on the council’s plans for empty homes across the borough
Councillors on the place scrutiny board also want to press banks to accept tenants’ rent payment records when they apply for mortgages. Many do not, but the Skipton Building Society now does.
Patient believes Calderdale is well set if Rayner comes through on her promises on housing. Rachel Reeves’s Budget last month brought some spending commitments, with more likely in the government’s spending review next year.
The Chancellor’s Budget included a £500 million top-up to the Homes England affordable housing programme, consultation on a new rent settlement for housing providers, and changes to the Right to Buy scheme, reducing the discount and allowing councils to keep 100 per cent of receipts.
That covered some of the items on a list presented to the Treasury in the run-up to the Budget by the Northern Housing Consortium, whose members own or manage 90 per cent of socially rented homes in the North.
The boost to the affordable housing programme is welcomed by Patrick Murray, Northern Housing Consortium policy and public affairs director, but there is a “real issue” about whether the programme will be extended beyond its current lifespan, due to end in 2025-26.
A proposed rent rise for social housing of 1 per cent above inflation for five years will release investment, says Murray, although he acknowledges it’s a difficult policy because it means higher costs for tenants. Allowing councils to keep Right to Buy receipts is a “big thing that will lead in an immediate sense to more social housing”.
Overall, the Budget “shows a government that is at least listening and engaging”, says Murray. “Let’s bank the wins.”
But the spending review will be vital to add long-term certainty for housing providers. Housing associations and local authorities work to 30 year business plans on housing, he points out, and have to balance their requirements to build new homes, adapt to stricter maintenance and repair regulation brought in since Ishak’s death, and increase decarbonisation.
The legacy of years of enforced rent reductions in the social housing sector and the government’s insistence that providers focus on new homes means maintenance got cut back. The 1960s social housing boom has brought a “legacy stock issue”.
“The spending review is important to allow the long-term stuff for affordable housing, decarbonisation and support for regeneration,” says Murray. “If you can give them a window of certainty they can lock in finance more cheaply.”
This article is a joint publication by The Lead North and our Brick by Brick campaign, which seeks to shine a light on the social housing crisis across the country.
Through personal stories and a closer look at local initiatives, we aim to highlight the very real impact of this issue and the urgent need for reform in social housing, better tenant protections, and a comprehensive strategy to meet the housing demand.
As the debate continues at the national level, we must also recognize the experiences of those on the ground, like Barry, who face daily struggles as a result of inadequate housing solutions. Our campaign calls for bold action to secure safe, affordable, and sustainable housing for everyone.
That’s this week’s The Calderdale Lead - I hope you enjoyed the first Saturday edition. As always keep the feedback coming to calderdale@thelead.uk and if you’re in a position to support us through a subscription then it is just £4.99-a-month.
Thanks very much for reading and I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday!
Andrew
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