Thu 6 Feb 2020, 06:36 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, member of Newton Abbot LP
Panorama’s reporter, Callum Tulley, investigated the growing scandal of temporary accommodation supplied by local authorities to those who are registered homeless. In the past, many homeless people would be put up in hotels, bedsits and the private-rented sector. However, since 2013, the Government changed the law to allow office blocks to be converted into housing units.
This so-called ‘permitted status’ allows developers to convert office buildings without the usual planning requirements. Examples given were that there was no minimums on the size of rooms and no requirement for the fitting of windows. Around 50,000 homes nationally are supplied via the conversion of office units. The capital of this new kind of provision is the town of Harlow, in Essex, which has 1500 units in 12 different blocks.
Tulley interviewed a number of former and existing tenants in a converted block called Templefields. It was converted by a developer called Caridon Property. One family complained about the level of anti-social behaviour but didn’t get any response. Another guy explained that they had lived there for 3 years. His partner has a terminal illness and the size of the unit was entirely unsuitable for their needs.
Caridon claim that they only make profits of around 2% and have a zero-tolerance approach towards the widespread use of drugs and the dealing of illegal substances. Tulley also reported that the units are a 40-minute walk from the centre of town and there are no transport links. A councillor pointed out that this was providing housing on the cheap and should be unacceptable in a nation that is ranked the fifth richest in the world.
It is likely that thousands will live in converted office blocks for the foreseeable future. A spokesperson for Shelter said that many people are literally one pay-check away from homelessness. Soaring house prices and rents will push more of us into temporary accommodation and the only solution is building social homes at affordable rents.
The Tories and Lib-Dems will never solve the housing crisis. Reliance on the market for the provision of homes for all is wishful thinking. It will require both state and local authority intervention. The public ownership of land held by the major developers and the banks is essential for a huge programme of social house-building and Labour must make this a central issue in any future programme for government.
