Standing Up For Nature housing discussion.

‘Standing Up For Nature’ –  Community meetings to discuss housing crisis

On Sunday 1 December, I went along to the first ‘Standing Up For Nature’ discussion group where approximately 40 people shared their views on housing needs, nature conservation and the new HBC local plan. Dee Williams reports. 

It was heartening to see so many people in attendance on a wet and windy Sunday. We were divided into groups to discuss themes such as greenfield sites, empty buildings, second homes, etc, and I found myself on the discussion table for the use of brownfield sites.

Brownfield sites are often proffered by politicians as the most favourable development sites. They are areas that, in theory, have previously been developed but could be available for redevelopment as housing accommodation. Hastings and Rye MP Helena Dollimore recently spoke with passion about the housing crisis in Hastings on Politics Live.

She stated, “…there are so many brownfield sites which could be homes for local families.”  Hastings Borough Council is required to provide a map of available brownfield sites. It can be seen that many of the wards have no available sites at all and those that are identified are possibly too small to be of interest to a developer.

Brownfield sites available to HBC

One of the larger sites, the former West St Leonards Primary School (BL10), is a boggy marsh for much of the winter and, as such, acts as an important floodplain. Equally, the old bathing pool site (BL5) has been surveyed previously for development but flood risk and access to Southern Water installations beneath the site have to date ruled it out.

Brownfield sites in West St Leonards

Developers, with an eye to their 15-20% profit margin, will not entertain brownfield sites where there are expensive structural difficulties to overcome. The chances are that every brownfield site identified by HBC remains undeveloped for a reason.

It was made clear at the meeting that Hastings has great difficulty meeting its housing target. Bound on one side by the sea and on the other by The Ridge, there is little room to expand outwards and highrise development is restricted in areas of historical interest. As a consequence, attention fell on repurposing existing properties to include a mix of industrial, retail and housing on the same sites – applying a little ‘outside the box’ thinking to gain maximum use from the buildings already within the space.

Sarah (to the right) with a colleague from the Acorn Housing Project

Sarah from Acorn Community Union spoke to the group close to the end of the meeting.  She told us about a pilot project to build housing above an existing car park put forward by Hastings Rental Health Housing Co-op and Hastings Commons CLT.  She explained that the idea had been well-received and hoped that it would not be put out to tender by developers as that would most likely make the properties too expensive for local renters.  A better option would be for the Co-op and Hastings Commons to be the ‘developers’ and the work would then be contracted out to local builders.

Since the 1980’s and the introduction of ‘right to buy,’ local councils have built far fewer council homes, allowing private developers to have dominance over the market. Social housing requires social finance.

A figure of 787 empty homes was given out at the meeting. A large enough number to solve the social housing crisis if they were all brought back into use. Without funds to purchase and restore these properties, HBC is reliant upon private developers to show an interest in taking on restoration projects but developers have a responsibility to their shareholders first, not to the government or the council.

If Helena Dollimore is serious about solving the housing crisis in Hastings she could lobby the government to provide funding to local councils for the compulsory purchase of empty properties for development into affordable social housing. If the ‘right to buy’ policy was abolished, rents from these properties would then be an income stream for the council instead of disappearing into the pockets of private landlords. The chart below shows the clear shift of public money from building social housing to supporting private landlords via housing benefits.

UK Housing Review Briefing 2024 – Chartered Institute of Housing

The UK Housing Review Briefing also confirms that public money is leaching from the treasury with more than £1.6 bn spent on temporary accommodation in England in 2022/23; when administration costs are added, this rises to 1.77 bn. Surely this money could be put to better use finding a permanent solution.

Standing Up For Nature will be holding more meetings to discuss the needs of people, place and biodiversity. If you would like to get involved and have your views put forward to the new HBC local plan then sign up here for notification of the next meeting. Maybe I will see you there.

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