`AFFORDABLE HOMES ARE IN DIRE NEED`

 

Housing cuts that

hit the

needy

Just how serious is the housing crisis? And just how serious are the  building companies in efforts to solve it?

The questions are prompted by the plan by the Carlisle based Story Homes  to  build 40   new homes at Greystoke(Cumbria) and the spirited defence of the homeless and less well off people when that company decided to drastically reduce the number of affordable homes  planned in the scheme.

 Many people will applaud Dacre and Greystoke parish councils in telling Eden Council`s planning comittee that the reduction- from ten to four houses-  “made a mockery of the whole scheme and that local affordable housing is in dire need.”

Applause too for Councillors Debra Wicks and Roy Fisher for highlighting the exodus of young people from Cumbria and  the great need in the county for affordable housing.

The Greystoke scheme is not the first in which Story Homes has sought a big reduction in affordable  homes.

In January it was reported that the company sought to reduce  the number of affordable homes from 31 to 22 in the new Carlisle Road estate planned at Brampton.

Is this modus operandi  becoming the  norm with Story Homes?

It certainly is the norm with many other building companies thoughout the country. They make similar applications, pleading that their  schemes  become no longer viable if no affordable housing  reductions are made.

These reductions of course mean better profits for the builders, but  also, scandalously,  a continuous decline in the the number of affordable homes.

At the same time the housing crisis roars ahead, characterised in urban areas by the never-ending scandal of rough sleeping in the streets.

What can be done? No point in looking to our Tory government which has  long been ideologically opposed to any form of social housing and is of course  a friend of the big builders.

And those big builders- any help from them?

Many of them have a second scandalous record:  grossly excessive profits, beefed up by various lucrative government housing schemes.

The only help seems to be the  very welcome and commendable pressure from bodies like Dacre and Greystoke parish councils, from individuals like Councillors Wicks and  Fisher. 

PICTURED :Stafford House, Greystoke.

  Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227