County affordable homes not affordable

AS NEW PM Andy Burnham was setting out his plans to reform housing – Dorset councillors were told that ‘affordable’ homes are not affordable at all in the county for most people.

As new PM Andy Burnham was setting out his plans to reform housing – Dorset councillors were told that ‘affordable’ homes are not affordable at all in the county for most people.

Colehill and Wimborne East councillor Andy Todd (Lib Dem) said that in reality ‘affordable’ homes in the county went to people who were relatively wealthy – most earning more than the median wage which now stands, nationally, at just under £39,000 a year, although the figure is thought to be less than that in Dorset.

He told Monday’s Dorset Council people and health scrutiny committee in Dorchester that the county’s housing strategy would need serious re-consideration.

“They do not see ‘affordable’ as applying to them, we have a fundamental dis-connect. There is nothing in the communications strategy we have that allows an individual… to visualise themselves being able to move into that house tomorrow. They do not see ‘affordable’ as applying to them,” he said.

The meeting was told that social housing was a better option for Dorset, something which was being backed by the new Prime Minister although the detail has yet to be released about how council’s like Dorset might be able to achieve building new council homes.

The same meeting heard that the county has at least 10,000 private landlords, who offer the majority of rented housing in the county – and yet

Dorset Council has no idea who most of them are, although a new register being planned should solve this in the future.

Dorset Council only had a handful council homes for rent, the majority handed over to housing associations at the previous Local Government reorganisation: Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole retains around 9,500 of its council house stock, although there are none in Christchurch because of its previous ties with Dorset Council.