2 thoughts on “Cohen had his sights on beach hut “asset sweating” in 2012”
Yes – he did.
But perhaps a more interesting quote from this interview is: “On the one hand we have lower than average incomes but at the same time quite high property prices. Our concern is that young people don’t stay but people migrate here to retire. While that has a number of benefits it’s not a demographic that you’d want to carry on in those directions, so we like to find ways to create affordable homes and attract higher paid, higher skilled jobs.”
Well, so far there is little sign of affordable home of any description. Those “affordable” homes that are delivered are not generally affordable by young people, and of course EDDC continue to let developers reduce the numbers of affordable homes that they previously committed to. And I haven’t seen much in the way of higher paid, higher skilled jobs in the area either.
But of course, we do see a lot of homes for older people being built – with the most recent proposal to sell off the Knowle so Pegasus Life can build even more of these. And as the lead for the relocation project and the Knowle sell off, Richard Cohen is actually building this “retirement demographic” that he said was not the right direction.
P.S. The article has several other hypocrisies – he crows about the Sainsbury’s regional distribution centre which didn’t happen, managing car-parks to the advantage of local retailers (any retailers want to comment on that one?), the Community Infrastructure Levy (which we are still waiting for) etc.
East Devon Watch 
Yes – he did.
But perhaps a more interesting quote from this interview is: “On the one hand we have lower than average incomes but at the same time quite high property prices. Our concern is that young people don’t stay but people migrate here to retire. While that has a number of benefits it’s not a demographic that you’d want to carry on in those directions, so we like to find ways to create affordable homes and attract higher paid, higher skilled jobs.”
Well, so far there is little sign of affordable home of any description. Those “affordable” homes that are delivered are not generally affordable by young people, and of course EDDC continue to let developers reduce the numbers of affordable homes that they previously committed to. And I haven’t seen much in the way of higher paid, higher skilled jobs in the area either.
But of course, we do see a lot of homes for older people being built – with the most recent proposal to sell off the Knowle so Pegasus Life can build even more of these. And as the lead for the relocation project and the Knowle sell off, Richard Cohen is actually building this “retirement demographic” that he said was not the right direction.
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P.S. The article has several other hypocrisies – he crows about the Sainsbury’s regional distribution centre which didn’t happen, managing car-parks to the advantage of local retailers (any retailers want to comment on that one?), the Community Infrastructure Levy (which we are still waiting for) etc.
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