All the Tories standing for election are claiming they will work to ensure that there are sufficient affordable houses the community requires.

Tories have been building houses all over East Devon for decades yet every community is crying out for them.

What new plan do the Tories have?

Or is this just another empty gesture?

What does affordable housing mean?

The majority of us think that “affordable” means “social, council or housing association” houses. These are very much the minority.

Unbelievably, there is no single agreed definition. The most commonly referred to definition of affordable housing is set out in Annex 2 to the National Planning Policy Framework. This talks about affordable being at least a 20% discount on market rates for both rent and purchase.

As Owl reported recently: ‘Affordable housing” is a joke. The term is so subjective as to render the 80 per cent of market value definition useless. Housing is increasingly unaffordable to many, whether it comes at a 20 per cent “discount” or not. It is a problem particularly exacerbated in holiday let and second-home hotspots. 

CPRE Devon showed in 2018, that the Devon average price to income ratio was 8.4 (England 7.2). This is notably higher than it was pre-recession in 2002 when it was 6.0. The average price to income ratios in East Devon is one of the worst. The ratio has been consistently over ten for the last decade.

In contrast “Social homes” have rents pegged to local incomes and provide a truly affordable, secure housing option for people across the country. Social housing is provided by either housing associations (not-for-profit organisations that own, let, and manage rented housing) or the local council.

Thatcher introduced “Right to Buy” but squandered the proceeds 

In 1980 Margaret Thatcher introduced her “Right to Buy (RTB)” policy, forcing local authorities to sell council houses, if the occupant requested it, but at a discount to market value.

Unfortunately, the councils cannot reinvest 100% of the receipts. The Tory government restricted reinvestment rules again in 2021.

The net effect of selling at a discount and reinvesting only a portion of the receipts, is that local authorities have only been able to replace around a third of homes sold since 2012,

Coalition cabinet member Cllr. Dan Ledger’s recent article, pointed out that 70 RTB requests to EDDC were made in 2022. He then went on outline what he has been doing about it. 

The Tories have tried “Build, build, build” but it hasn’t worked.

As mentioned yesterday, EDDC Tories in 2013 put in place a local plan to deliver an average of 950 houses a year until 2031, 65% more than needed.

Build enough houses and the developers will cross subsidise the building “affordables”?

That’s the theory but it hasn’t worked in East Devon.

Having gained planning permission on a promise to deliver a certain number of affordables, developers frequently claim later that “viability assessments” mean that they have to reduce the number.

Notorious local examples include Goodmores Farm (25% down to 5%), Evan’s Field (30 houses to 5) and Cranbrook. (67 houses 28% of total reduced to 44 just 18% when EDDC’s policy target is 25% in one case and 26% reduced to zero in another).

The  CPRE mentioned above also found that the average priced new build in Devon is 18% more expensive than an existing home. At the budget end of the market (lower quartile) it’s worse, a new build is 27% more expensive.

The housing market won’t/can’t deliver

Put simply the private sector has not been able to build the affordable homes needed. 

In the same year as the CPRE study, former Tory cabinet minister Sir Oliver Letwin led a review into why developers took so long to build houses.

Surprisingly, he did not blame the planning system, rather he turned the spotlight on the developers themselves. In a report to the Secretary of State he laid out a number of “fundamental explanations”.

He found that with most development in the control of a small number of developers, they effectively control the market.

They control the rate at which they release houses onto the market so as not to disturb the market price.

So no matter what targets central governments set or how aggressive local “Build, build, build” policies are; the “market” will ensure that house prices won’t fall. 

The developer builds what he thinks will sell and make a profit, rather than what the communities need. Also developers don’t build specifically for the rental market.

Because of the cross-subsidy, building “affordables” and “social rented” houses come last (if ever).

Provision of Social Housing

If “market forces” won’t provide social housing then it is down to housing associations and local authorities. Independent Councillor Dan Ledger is the first in EDDC for years to grasp the problem. 

He found the Tories had left EDDC’s social housing company dormant!

 Have they really had a change of heart?

Housebuilder Vistry plunged into chaos by sudden resignation of most senior independent director

• Ashley Steel becomes third member of Bovis brand owner’s board to quit
• Turmoil risks reviving row over exec pay in the housebuilding industry

Patrick Tooher www.dailymail.co.uk 

Housebuilder Vistry – whose brands include Bovis Homes – has been plunged into boardroom chaos by the sudden resignation of its most senior independent director.

Ashley Steel, a former vice chair of accountancy firm KPMG, became the third board member to quit in a month when she handed in her notice last week after less than two years.

The turmoil risks reviving the row over fat cat rewards for bosses in the housebuilding industry at a time when young people are struggling to afford a home.

No reason was given for Steel’s departure. However, it comes just a few weeks after she was drafted in as chair of Vistry’s pay panel following a boardroom row over plans to award chief executive Greg Fitzgerald an enormous ‘Jeff Fairburn-style’ bonus package.

Fairburn was the former chief executive of Persimmon who became synonymous with executive greed when he pocketed a £75 million bonus under a pay scheme with no upper limit.

Shares in the housebuilder had soared, thanks in part to the taxpayer-backed Help to Buy scheme.

Under the proposal at Vistry, which was rejected by the board, Fitzgerald would have been in line to receive £60 million if the shares hit £18 within three years. They closed at £7.80 on Friday, valuing the company at £2.7 billion.

Steel had replaced Nigel Keen, who left abruptly last month as head of Vistry’s remuneration committee in protest at the controversial pay plan.

Another director, Katherine Innes Ker, also announced that she was stepping down. Directors feared the proposal would generate similar bad publicity to that heaped on Fairburn, who was ousted as boss of Persimmon in 2018.

Vistry’s pay plan was proposed by US activist investors Inclusive Capital and Browning West. They are also pushing the company to grow its partnerships business, which delivers affordable homes for housing associations. The Mail on Sunday can also reveal that Fitzgerald, who earned £2.4 million at Vistry last year, pocketed another £1.6 million as part-time chairman of his Devon-based housebuilder Baker Estates.

In addition, he received £421,000 in interest on loans he made to Baker, which recently built a £5 million stake in Vistry.

Based in Kent, Vistry became one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders after buying Countryside in a £1.2 billion deal six months ago.

It is not clear if Fitzgerald’s bumper bonus plan will be revived following the clear-out of three key board members. Ralph Findlay, Vistry’s chairman, is said to have agreed to revisit the scheme.

Steel’s exit comes just a fortnight before she was due to stand for re-election at Vistry’s annual meeting.

In a statement to investors, Findlay praised her ‘valuable contribution’ during ‘a period of significant change’.

Vistry said it was ‘entirely comfortable’ with Fitzgerald’s role at Baker Estates. His involvement did not impact his responsibilities to Vistry, the company added, and had been disclosed in all annual reports since he joined Bovis Homes in 2017.

UNACCEPTABLE FACE OF FAT CAT PAY

Jeff Fairburn became the unacceptable face of fat cat pay when he trousered a £75 million bonus in 2018 on the back of a taxpayer-funded housing scheme.

The jackpot was one of the largest in corporate history and made the former boss of housebuilder Persimmon the UK’s highest paid director.

His incentive plan had no upper limit. Critics said it paid out so handsomely because the Government’s Help to Buy plan had boosted Persimmon’s profits and share price.

Pay campaigners dubbed it ‘excessive and unearned’. The adverse publicity eventually forced Fairburn to quit.

He is listed as having 27 active directorships on Companies House, including privately-owned housebuilder Berkeley DeVeer, where he is chief executive.

Safety fears for pupils and concern over the heritage of a rural village have seen record numbers of objections against a proposal for an anaerobic digester. Residents of Halberton village have expressed strong objections at April’s parish council meeting to a proposed development at Bycott Farm that would see the installation of an anaerobic digestion plant.

Lewis Clarke www.devonlive.com

The Dibble family plans to build an anaerobic digestion plant at their dairy farm, Bycott Farm, located in the open countryside south of the settlement boundary of Halberton. The proposed AD plant will use biogas (methane) produced from slurry and manure to generate electricity and heat for the farm’s use. Surplus methane gas produced will be sold to a third party for injection into the national gas grid. The plant’s construction will replace the farm’s smaller on-farm tractors and telehandlers with their electrical equivalents and use biogas to run their larger tractors and machinery fleet.

Bycott Farm currently has a number of daily vehicle movements, including 29-tonne articulated HGVs, milk tankers, vans, cars, tractors, and trailers. The application proposes that the AD plant will increase the number of slurry HGV 30,000-litre tanker two-way movements from 6 to 29 per week, and the number of vehicles transporting straw will increase from 1 to 2 per week stating that the impact of this increase in movements is expected to be minimal.

According to Nick Govier, a spokesperson for the community, over 140 individual objections have been received, setting a record for the most objections to any application seen by the Mid Devon District Council.

The objections cite various concerns, including road safety, odours, and damage to the local infrastructure. The chair of governors and headmaster at Halberton Primary School have also expressed concerns about the safety of children on the road, and parents have begun making alternative school arrangements.

Mr Govier said: “In reality, the latest traffic report adds very little, but it does say that there will be a doubling of HGV volumes. There will be a minimum of 5,000 HGV movements passing through Lower Town to Bycott Farm annually. We know the road infrastructure is not there, and we see road damage; potholes, walls, and pavements are slowly eroded for anyone walking through Lower Town.

“The proposal has been framed as an on-farm application, and that is not the case as there will be external feedstock grown, and there will need to be slurry materials arriving from surrounding farms which are not built into the traffic volumes. The highways authority visited, but they do not believe there is a traffic issue in Halberton and say there is capacity in Lower Town and High Street for the volumes coming through. More accidents will continue to happen.”

He continued: “This development is within 1km of two conservation areas – The Grand Western Canal and Halberton Conservation area – and 27 listed buildings, of which one is Grade I and three are Grade II. The height of the digestion plant is the same as the parish church tower, and it will significantly harm the Halberton conservation area. It would only be 295m from the Halberton Primary School. Case studies show gases and odour travel up to 400m away from AD plants, and the heritage report does not consider noise, dust and pollutants.”

Chris Getheridge, a resident who has been driving HGVs for 45 years, said that the proposed development poses a significant safety risk. “To see the lack of concern from the authorities in their report on the possibility of accidents is criminal, and I cannot understand it. It is an accident waiting to happen, and it will be a bad one,” he warned.

Des Keenoy, who lives on Halberton High Street and looks out onto Bycott Farm, also expressed concerns about the impact of the development on the community.

He said: “Bycott Farm is a 20-hour-a-day operation mentioned in the previous objection; they carry on working with bright lights, shouting, and dropping large empty skips until 1 am, and they start again at 5 am. There is no effective screening.

“This is an industrial plant processing the product of animals and would be better placed in an industrial estate rather than turning Halberton village into an industrial estate.”

Halberton Parish Council has submitted a strong objection to the proposed development, citing concerns about traffic volumes and safety, protection of heritage assets, and adherence to the Local Plan. “The Parish Council consider that the application is of an industrial scale and not in keeping with the definition of on-farm activities and believe it should be considered as a commercial undertaking and not agricultural,” the objection states.

Development for the Avenues in Exmouth is impossible to reject, see article below.

The 2013 Tory administration set East Devon an eighteen year target to build a minimum of 950 houses/year (17,100 in total by 2031).

This binding target is what the Lib Dem, Independent and Green Coalition inherited, and they are lumbered with it. Worse, under government rules, they have to ensure a five year rolling plan to supply these houses.

EDDC currently can only demonstrate that it can bring forward development sites to provide 4.68  (including a 5% buffer) years worth of development. 

Under government rules, which keep changing, unless a local authority can show a 5 year supply, a presumption of development will apply to all development irrespective of neighbourhood plans, built-up area boundaries, green fields etc.

The main drivers in the overly complicated calculations are:

The eye-watering 17,100 new homes minimum target imposed by the Tory administration in the 2013 to 2031 local plan, This “objectively assessed” need was 65% more than the homes to meet demographic and normal economic growth. It was driven by an economic growth assumption that has not materialised.This averages out at 950 homes/year.

In 2020 Covid, unsurprisingly, resulted in a fall in housing completions and EDDC now has to play catch-up. But developers may not be playing ball.

Big developers can hold local authorities over a barrel by “land banking”, developing sites as and when they can maximise their returns.

Affordable homes are among a new development for the Avenues in Exmouth

Local Democracy Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk

Affordable homes will be among a new development in the Avenues in Exmouth recently given the green light by the district council.

A final decision for the application by developer Littleham 2010 Ltd for the houses on Douglas Avenue, demolishing one home in the process to make room for construction vehicles, has been delayed though, writes local democracy reporter Rob Kershaw.

Councillors on East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) planning committee needed more time to visit the site to check out the viability of the scheme, which had already been denied several years ago – although they accepted the council’s lack of a five-year housing land supply makes it impossible to reject the development.

Several residents at a meeting on Monday (April 24) complained about the demolition of a home in the upmarket ‘Avenues’ area of the town, as well as what they claim will be pressure on local surgeries, an increase in traffic and lack of affordability.

An agent on behalf of the developer insisted that 11 of the 44 homes will be classed as affordable.

Image of the site: East Devon District Council report.

Green Cllr Olly Davey warned that the location of the new homes will discourage the use of public transport and bring more cars into Exmouth, while Conservative Cllr Richard Lawrence criticised South West Water (SWW) for not attending the meeting to address sewage concerns.

Ultimately though, decisions to refuse applications need to be made based on breaches of policy, and because none were found by officers, Devon County Council or SWW, not enough valid reasons were presented to turn it down.

Lib Dem Cllr Eileen Wragg said the district council would have received a “hiding to nothing” at an appeal hearing if the committee were to reject the scheme.

Five members of the committee voted in favour of the application, one voted against and three abstained.

ALL DUE TO TORY DECISIONS and will all this building provide affordable homes, so far the record of providing affordables in Exmouth has been abysmal? – Owl

PS Click on the link to Littleham 2010 Ltd above to discover who the directors are and their affiliations.

Incurred whilst launching her bid for No 10. 

(The rest of us are picking up the bill for her crashing the economy.) – Owl

Truss ‘hit by £12,000 bill’ for Chevening ‘parties’ including ‘lost’ bathrobes

Sophie Huskisson www.mirror.co.uk (Extract)

Liz Truss, who became the shortest PM in history after crashing the economy – used Chevening “as a mini No 10″

Liz Truss has been hit by a bill of more than £12,000, which included items like bathrobes and slippers that went missing from her grace-and-favour country home.

The disgraced ex-Prime Minister has reportedly been ordered to reimburse the Cabinet Office after the items disappeared following “summer parties” she held at Chevening estate.

Ms Truss also needs to cough up the money for food and wine she and her aides tucked into as the meetings were political rather than state business, sources told the Mail on Sunday.

“Possums – and this is the future Prime Minister talking!” is how the car-crash interview ends.

Hilarious at the time, but now the joke’s on us.

Oh what fools these Tories be!

Not to be duped once, but twice in succession with Liz Truss – Owl