In the grip of a housing crisis

Some 14,000 people are on the waiting list for affordable homes in Bristol, the numbers of people sleeping on the streets is rising, thousands of people are trapped in sub-standard rental property, the gentrification of previously affordable areas is pushing prices sky high and a generation of people may never be able to afford their own homes.

Last month Bristol City Council started a new council house building programme, a new city-wide ethical letting charter designed to protect tenants was launched and a new housing zone in South Bristol was announced in the budget.

But will these go far enough to address a crisis in a hugely complicated housing situation which has been decades in the making?

“Not even close,” says Richard Lloyd, from squatting group Bristol Housing Action. “Housing is a serious political issue that cannot be ignored or brushed aside with nice sounding but meaningless policies.”

The group has witnessed first-hand the breakdown of the housing system and the problems it has created in Bristol.

“We can really see the impact on people’s lives. It stretches all the way from people sleeping rough on the streets, to it being very hard to access hostels because they are full, the hostels have problems moving people on because the accommodation isn’t there – the system is grinding to a halt at that level.

“Even if you are quite well off and happy with your housing and can afford a good place to live people are worried about what will happen to their children,” he added.

While there is no one cause of the housing crisis, much can be traced back to Margaret Thatcher’s Right-to-Buy scheme. Introduced in 1980 it enabled tenants to buy their council houses at a large discount. 

When he was environment secretary responsible for the policy, Michael Heseltine described it as “one of the most important social revolutions of the century”.

However, David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation said while the impact of right-to-buy is still heavily contested, he thinks there is broad agreement that the failure to replace the homes sold with new homes available for rent has contributed to the present position, where there is a huge undersupply of good quality homes available for new households to rent at affordable prices.

Nearly 19,000 council houses have been sold in Bristol since the scheme began and Right to Buy continues to this day.

Bristol’s assistant mayor Daniella Radice says the policy has far reaching consequences in the city as it “removes council homes from our stock, meaning that even as the council builds new homes, less homes are available at affordable rents each year”.

This means thousands of people are being forced into the private rented sector and huge demand means rising rents so, even people working full time, can find it hard to pay rents and rely on benefits to make up the shortfall.

In turn this has created another problem according to housing charity Chapter 1.

The charity will manage the conversion of an office block in St Anne’s into 33 affordable housing flats. Unusually this development will be let exclusively to people who struggle to rent privately. The charity asks for no deposits, no rent up-front and rent is capped at housing allowance levels. 

Chapter 1’s Faith Kirkwood says: “There is a misguided perception that people on benefits are more risky. That’s not just amongst landlords – mortgage lenders and insurance policies often make renting to people on benefits difficult, if not impossible.”

Widespread prejudice against benefits claimants risks having an impact on the social make-up of parts of Bristol, as people struggle to find somewhere to rent in their communities and stay close to their families.

The implications of social engineering through house prices, rental costs and benefit prejudice are stark, says Richard Lloyd. 

“You could look at Bristol and see a situation arising where all the working class people are having to move out of the city and where would that leave Bristol?”

So who is standing up for people and communities in Bristol?

Community action group Acorn was launched last year; its founders feeling that there was a need for a community union in the same way you have unions in the work place.

“We go door-to-door talking to people and talking about the concerns that they have identified facing them and their family and community,” says Acorn spokesman Nick Ballard.

“What we do in an individual neighbourhood or city is determined by the responses we get on the doorsteps and ultimately we want to empower low income communities to have a greater political voice.”

The group has created an ethical lettings charter to support and protect some of the 43,000 people in the rental sector in Bristol. The voluntary charter encourages landlords and letting agents to curb excessive fees for renting properties and carry out repairs and renovations promptly. 

Nick says the only way long-term way he can see to tackle the problem is a huge social housing building program. 

“Even the best case scenario of what is being offered at the moment isn’t nearly enough – lack of supply is the problem. It is not going to be solved overnight and it’s not going to be solved without a massive building programme.”

One step towards that may be the creation of 20 new housing zones across the country, including Bristol South, which was announced in March’s Budget.

As a result Bristol City Council said it is planning to up to 1,700 “high quality, sustainable market homes” on eight brownfield sites in south Bristol. Around 700 of these will be affordable housing.

But while assistant mayor for place Mark Bradshaw thinks the zones will bring huge benefits, he cautions that we need to do more.

That, however, needs a change of direction from central government. 

Work began last month on a new council building programme in the city after a relaxation of policy allowing councils to invest in social housing. 

On a plot of land tucked away in east Bristol two new council houses are being built. It is a small start but, according to mayor George Ferguson, a significant one: “At least now we are able to use the money from rents and Right to Buy to build new homes – it’s ring fenced money it cannot be used for anything else.”

The council aims to in-fill brownfield sites it already owns across the city with houses. A total of 1,000 council houses will be built over the next 15 years.

Ultimately, as the demand for housing escalates, a more radical forward thinking coherent policy is needed according to the Bristol Housing Action Group, which has organised a rally in Bristol this weekend.

“Our demo is about warning that things need to change and it can’t go on like this,” said Richard Lloyd. “If nothing changes there will be real serious long term consequences both for individuals and society as a whole.”

The march organised by the Bristol Housing Action Group is on Saturday, April 11 starting at 2pm at the Bearpit.