Coun Liz Harvey, Vice-Chairman, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Herefordshire Council, says affordable homes at prices too high (From Hereford Times)

Coun Liz Harvey, Vice-Chairman, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Herefordshire Council, says affordable homes at prices too high

7:00am Monday 6th February 2012 in Letters

I AM pleased to see Frank Hooley (Readers’ Times, January 19) calling for more affordable housing in Herefordshire – especially as he is doing so from his home in Powys.

It’s Our County has always been clear in its support for such housing – be it in the city, the market towns or even in the countryside. This can be seen in the party’s election manifesto at ItsOurCounty.org.uk.

Indeed, Mark Hubbard has been consistent in welcoming the mix of more than 800 housing association and private homes which are planned in his ‘backyard’ as part of the redevelopment of the cattle market site in Hereford.

Mr Hooley gets to the nub of the matter where he talks about ‘affordable homes’ because throughout the latest version of the 20-year plan for Herefordshire, which has been so quietly consulted upon, there has been an increased muddling (misuse) of the term ‘affordable’.

Increasingly in Herefordshire Council-speak this term is used to mean any property which is around the sale price of 10-times average salary in the county. Since the council quote this as being about £19,000, this means that any mention of affordable housing can simply mean houses selling for around £190,000 on the open market. Not entirely what Mr Hooley had in mind, I’m guessing.

Indeed, in my home town of Ledbury, the planners have gone so far as to state that they see ‘no requirement for social housing’ of any sort.

So the quota of affordable housing to be built as part of the proposed additional 800 homes for Ledbury over the next 20 years will be either private houses in that price bracket or houses which are built to be part owned, part rented. This, despite the town council and local people being consistent over the years in their calling for social rented housing alongside an emphasis on growth through job creation.

Interesting then that it’s only social housing which is exempt from what’s called developer contributions, because when Eric Pickles’ Community Infrastructure Levy arrives next year, the council plans to syphon off up to 100 per cent of the developer monies currently used to invest in the local infrastructure and services Mr Hooley so rightly values, to fund ‘strategic’ projects at county level – such as the relief road around Hereford.

COUN LIZ HARVEY, Vice-Chairman, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Herefordshire Council.