Just 52 social homes were built last year in the Harrogate district, despite there being 1,867 households on the social housing waiting list.

The latest annual figures were published by the government yesterday.

Social homes are low-cost homes rented to tenants by housing associations or a local council. It is the only type of housing where rents are linked to local incomes with any increases limited by the government.

The charity Shelter says social housing is the only genuinely affordable type of “affordable” housing.

Affordable housing also includes homes sold under shared ownership schemes and those sold at 80% under the market rate.

The figures for the Harrogate district were criticised by both the local Liberal Democrat and Labour parties.

Lib Dem leader on Harrogate Borough Council Cllr Pat Marsh, who also sits on the council’s planning committee, said the numbers were “alarming but not surprising”.

She said the council needs to be more proactive instead of relying on developers to build them.

“New homes for social rent are being built on predominantly small infill sites such as former council garage sites and are relatively low in numbers.

“There doesn’t seem to be much of an emphasis on the council developing larger sites with social housing. When there are so many people on the housing waiting list this seems to be letting our residents down. We cannot just rely on developers providing affordable homes on their sites, as welcome as these truly are, they will not solve the problem.

“The council needs to be more proactive and that includes the new authority when it is up and running in 2023. We owe it to those people needing houses.”

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The figure of 52 is an improvement on recent years. In the three years prior to 2020/21, just 18 social homes were built out of a total of 2,355 new houses.

Margaret Smith, chair of the Harrogate & Knaresborough Constituency Labour Party, said the amount of social housing built in the last few years has been an “absolute disgrace”.

“It reflects really badly on the council and all its councillors when the waiting list for social housing is so large.”

According to Harrogate Borough Council, 359 new affordable homes were built in 2020/21 but Ms Smith said that not enough of these were genuinely affordable homes for social rent.

Ms Smith added:

“One assumes that social housing is not considered as much of a priority as the other categories in ‘affordable’.”

The Stray Ferret asked Harrogate & Knaresborough Conservative Party for a response, but we did not receive one at the time of publication.

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said:

“Although we are limited by the amount of land available to us, and the high sale price of land on the open market, 359 new affordable homes were provided by Harrogate Borough Council, our partner housing associations and through the planning system last year (2020/21). In the first six months of this year, 170 new affordable homes have also been provided.

“There are currently 1,867 households on the housing waiting list. We urge anyone with a local connection to Harrogate district who would be interested in a council or housing association property to apply to join the list.”

Objections have been raised by Pannal residents after plans were revealed to demolish eight garages and build two new houses.

The plans for the site on Pannal Green have been submitted by Harrogate Borough Council, which owns the garages and wants to replace them with two semi-detached “family” homes for social rent.

One of the homes would have two double bedrooms, while the other would have a double and two singles.

As well as the garages, the application states there would be a loss of one on-street parking space, with part of the green itself used to create new parking bays.

However, residents say the loss of eight garages is only part of the issue: the development would also reduce the on-street parking, meaning an overall loss of up to 12 parking spaces. They have raised concerns about the impact in an area which is already under significant pressure, with visitors to the nearby primary school and care home adding to traffic issues.

Louisa Humpage, who lives with her husband and two children in one of the houses adjoining the site, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are already in a deficit of spaces as it is. These are all originally council houses and when they were built, each family didn’t have one car, let alone two. Now, most families have two cars so we’re already squeezed for space.”

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Mrs Humpage’s garden will be along the boundary of one of the new homes if they are built, removing the family’s access to the back garden via a gate, which she said was a selling point when they bought it.

She said she was also worried about access for deliveries and emergency vehicles, with several elderly and disabled residents living in the mix of council and privately-owned homes around Pannal Green.

Access to a footpath through to St Robert’s Church could also be lost if the new homes are built, and residents have raised concerns about a ripple effect on parking in the surrounding streets. It is particularly challenging at pick-up and drop-off times for the nearby Pannal Primary School, when Main Street is reduced to single file for through traffic thanks to cars parked either side of the road.

One letter said:

“If a resident cannot park their car close to their home, there is nowhere in the whole village to park, as the whole area has the same problem.”

Mrs Humpage added:

“The only option for us is the church car park or even Main Street, but then people will have to walk a long distance to their houses. The church car park isn’t lit and in the winter it’s slippy, with leaves everywhere. You’re asking people to put themselves into jeopardy just to get to their front door.”

Residents say there is even greater pressure on parking locally at school pick-up and drop-off times

Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council is due to discuss the plans this evening and Mrs Humpage plans to ask councillors to object to the proposals. She has also spoken to Cllr John Mann, who represents Pannal on Harrogate Borough Council, to ask for his support.

She added:

“I know they have a long list of people requiring social housing, but there has to be more suitable places to build houses for them. It’s just two houses – is it really cost-effective to do that just to knock two people off the list?

“There has to be some sort of duty of care to existing residents.”

The Stray Ferret approached Cllr Mann, Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council, and Harrogate Borough Council for comment on the proposals, but none had responded at the time of publication.

An uncertain economic climate for housebuilders could mean Harrogate Borough Council will buy more social housing like its unprecedented £4.5m spend on 52 homes on Whinney Lane.

HBC’s cabinet gave the green light for 36 of the homes to be made available for social rent with 16 transferred to HBC’s housing company, Bracewell Homes, to be sold under shared ownership.

The developer Stonebridge would not tell the Stray Ferret why it is selling the homes to HBC, but there have been signs locally that housebuilders are expressing caution in a market that has been thrown up in the air by coronavirus.

HBC’s planned purchase at Whinney Lane has been called its biggest investment into social housing in over a decade and could open the door to similar investments that will help people living in the district pay rent at a genuinely affordable price.

Waiting lists

The council has 1,523 households on its waiting list  — but in Harrogate, less than one in ten applicants are likely to be allocated a property each year.

This waiting list has swelled as Right to Buy sales have depleted HBC of its housing stock.

Introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, Right to Buy gives council tenants the option to buy the property they live in for a discounted rate.

But critics say it has trapped people into expensive and often poor quality private rented accommodation and has stripped councils like Harrogate of a vital revenue stream.

Affordable housing

HBC says that to create socially diverse communities, every large development in the district must include 40% “affordable” housing, which means homes sold at 80% of the market rate.

However, in a high-value town like Harrogate, an “affordable” home still costs over £300,000.

HBC’s own Draft Housing Strategy 2019-24 concedes that the town is one of the most unaffordable places to live in England, with average house prices around 11 times the median annual income of people who work in the town.

This means people earning a modest salary will never be able to get on Harrogate’s unforgiving housing ladder and could be trapped paying high rents forever, unable to save for a deposit.

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Liberal Democrat county councillor Geoff Webber told the Stray Ferret that he’s “ecstatic” HBC looks set to make the Whinney Lane purchase, and hopes there will be more to come.

He called on the council to usher in a “comprehensive programme of council house building”, where the homes are protected from Right to Buy and are available in perpetuity at a social rent.

Winds of change

Council estates have at times gained a reputation for bad behaviour which Mr Webber blamed on austerity and the closure of local housing offices.

Planners have avoided placing large concentrations of social housing together over fears of creating so-called “ghettos”.

But where once social housing was seen as politically difficult, it’s now firmly on the agenda. In each of the major political parties’ manifestos there were commitments on building more social housing.

After the second world war, the UK rebuilt itself with a massive programme of social housing and it’s been suggested that we should do the same to recover from coronavirus and deal with the housing crisis.

Locally, the mood music is also positive and at the cabinet meeting both council leader Richard Cooper and cabinet member for housing Mike Chambers enthusiastically backed the Whinney Lane purchase.

While the 32 homes at Whinney Lane will only represent a small dent into the council’s waiting list, Geoff Webber said building more social housing is a win-win for Harrogate.

He said:

“People living in council homes are no different to anybody else, they might have a little less money but they are no different. Some of them are absolutely essential to Harrogate’s economy.”

Councillors have backed a major investment into social housing in Harrogate.

Meeting last night on Zoom, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet gave the green light for the authority to spend £4.5m on 52 properties that are currently being built on Whinney Lane in Pannal Ash.

16 of the homes would be transferred to HBC’s housing company, Bracewell Homes, to be sold under shared ownership, and the rest would be made available for social rent.

Developer Stonebridge Homes has planning permission to build 130 homes at the site with work currently underway. The homes earmarked by HBC for purchase are scheduled for completion in November.

Councillors were told that around 1,500 council homes have been lost in Harrogate town centre since Right to Buy was introduced in 1980 which the Whinney Lane purchase will help mitigate.

Cllr Mike Chambers, cabinet member for housing, called the purchase “good news” for HBC.

Cllr Graham Swift, cabinet member for economic development emphasised that HBC’s housing stock has been “significantly” reduced due to Right to Buy sales and the investment would “alleviate some of the demand from social housing that is there.”

HBC says it could recoup between £1.18m and £2.37m from the 16 shared ownership properties, with the council turning a profit on the purchase after at least 13 years thanks to the rental income.

Cllr Chambers said the purchase will help get families off the council home waiting list, which currently stands at 1,249 households.

However, the council’s report into the purchase warned there is “uncertainty” over the medium to long-term future of the housing market as estate agents in the district report a “pent up” demand for housing following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

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In related news, almost 50 Pannal Ash residents met on Sunday at the Squinting Cat pub to “mobilise” against hundreds of new houses proposed for Whinney Lane.

It was organised by Whinney Lane resident Mike Newall who wanted the event to be a “wake-up call” for locals who he said will face years of disruption.