Addressing the Housing Crisis: South Hams' Progress and Future Plans

I’d like to reassure John Grocock (Letters page August 1) that the year-old Liberal Democrat-led administration at South Hams District Council hit the ground running and is working hard to tackle the housing crisis declared three years ago, and we’re already seeing successes.

Many councils including South Hams have declared a housing crisis - no doubt Mr Grocock is aware that a key reason for the lack of social housing is the short-sighted failure to replace homes lost under the Right to Buy policy introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

It’s estimated 40 per cent of the many council properties sold off have ended up in the hands of private landlords, and we all know that the cost of private rents has soared. In the South Hams there’s the added issue of landlords turning to lucrative short-term holiday lets, exacerbating the shortage of properties to rent long term.

So what are we doing to try to tackle the problem? We have set up the South Hams Housing Offer to support communities to bring forward affordable housing projects where they’re needed. We have several promising projects in the pipeline, including working with a Community Land Trust at Stoke Gabriel on a 100 per cent affordable scheme on a rural exception site. We can offer expertise and funding to help our residents achieve their housing goal.

Philanthropic landowners have been coming forward to offer land for such schemes which our excellent team will do their utmost to take forward to planning where possible.

The council has also been acquiring property for use as temporary accommodation to help ease the homelessness crisis, assisted by Government funding. This includes nine flats in Kingsbridge which have been refurbished and will be ready for occupation this Autumn. I’ve been informed (hot off the press) that we’ve obtained further Government funding to help us buy more such desperately-needed housing.

And some exciting affordable housing projects are coming to fruition - building is due to start soon in Dartington on 39 energy-efficient social rent homes through a partnership with Transition Homes CLT and Aster Housing Association, supported by SHDC.

SHDC has given planning approval for housing association LiveWest to build 35 social homes at Parkers Way, Totnes, in a redevelopment scheme due to begin in the Autumn.

And housing association PCH has acquired an additional 117 affordable homes at Sherford which will begin to be delivered in time for Christmas. Seventy five will be social rent with the rest shared ownership.

This will all help our residents who are in desperate need - but we need more help from Government. Holiday and second homes, for example, should not be able to switch to business rates, but should have to pay council tax, and should be subject to registration and the planning system.

And more locally-targetted funding is needed to help build often rural housing which our community wants and needs, whether via the council or housing association.

As SHDC leader Cllr Brazil said in his Opinion column in this newspaper (Aug 1) national top down targets are not the answer in our area. The estates built by the profit-led developers are not solving our problem, often providing far less than the required 30 per cent of affordable housing, which even then is beyond the means of many local people, as it’s all too often still 80 per cent of market price.

We have invited Angela Rayner MP, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to come to the South Hams to meet us and listen to what we have to say. Let’s see if she takes us up on our offer - I don’t remember any Conservative Ministers doing so.

Cllr Denise O’Callaghan

Housing Lead at South Hams District Council

Re-evaluating the winter fuel allowance

I'm disappointed to see our new MP - elected not just by LibDem supporters but as a result of our broad-left South Devon Primary - already taking cheap pot-shots at Labour.

Scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance is in fact an extremely sensible act by the Chancellor. The money saved by not sending this out to all pensioners, rich and poor alike, whether they want it or not, can now be much better targeted at only those who truly are in need of it. Let's wait to see how the whole thing pans out in the next budget before leaping in to criticise.

Even Ann Widdicombe used to say that the WFA was a nonsense and she always donated hers to charity!

Sylvia Rose Totnes,

TQ9 7JH

Love your Park day was a delight

What a wonderful day was had by all who attended the "Love your Park"day highlighting the importance of our parks, in this case the Recreation ground. And it was primarily families with younger children there enjoying all that was on offer ...from Punch &Judy shows, bouncy castles, games, creative arts, Tennis and other local organisations. A reminder that we need to preserve our well used green spaces, not consider   concreting them over ,however much we may support the idea of a pump track for cyclists. Please don't divide the town residents by asking us to choose how to use the green park spaces that are already well used. We simply have run out of space. A big thank you to Kingsbridge town council for supporting this event financially so it can be enjoyed for free by so many. And to all those stall holders/ supporters who gave up their time to make the day a huge success. 

Anne Bonham. 

Kingsbridge.  Help with parking tickets

I am writing this letter to ask if anyone has had a parking fine from Dartington. I was a student and had three fines. But, I did not receive any letters from RCP parking to tell me about the fine. I just received a letter from Trace debt recovery with a demand for £170. At first I just assumed that the initial letter must have got lost. But, now it has happened three times so not a coincidence. I casually mentioned it to a member of staff and she said the same thing had happened to her. So now it is beginnig to look like fraud. I informed the police but require more people to come forward in order to build a case. Has this happened to you? Please contact me on [email protected] so we can build a case and hold these people to account. Im lucky as I had free parking anyway but I know there are many people who would feel obliged to pay the extortionate fine: four times is not a coincidence!

Derek Bowerman

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