This is what’s stopping Bristol solving its housing crisis

Like most people involved in local politics (and certainly all my fellow Green Party councillors), I became a councillor in order to try and make a difference in the city I love. One obvious area of huge concern in Bristol is housing, and especially the lack of affordable housing.

So, when I was offered a place on one of the two planning committees where elected councillors make decisions about planning applications (with the help and advice of council planning officers) I was delighted.

What could be better? I could ensure that we pushed for more affordable homes in schemes and all sections of society could be helped to find homes that they could afford.

It turns out I was either hopelessly optimistic or incurably naive (or perhaps a combination of the two). In fact, the whole system has been rigged in a quite extraordinary way by the current government to ensure that very little affordable housing ever gets built and, what’s more, it is about to get much much worse.

Bristol City Council has a current policy that there should be 30-40 per cent affordable housing in all schemes of more than 15 dwellings. So far so good, except for the killer words that this is ‘subject to scheme viability’.

This means that if a developer can prove (with the help of planning consultants who practice this ‘black art’) that a scheme is not ‘viable’ with affordable housing included then the affordable housing can be simply disappeared.

I have recently sat on a committee where a large development of 235 homes (Lombard House and Regent House next to Asda in Bedminster) received planning permission despite including zero affordable housing.

The scheme was recommended for approval by the council officers because we were told that the expense of converting an existing building meant it would not have been ‘viable’ if affordable housing (with its reduced profit for the developer) was included.

This was the third such scheme the committee had looked at in the meeting and we were feeling pretty rebellious about this issue; so much so that we were considering refusing permission even though the scheme included much needed houses in central Bristol.

However, we were told in no uncertain terms by the council officers that there would inevitably be an appeal by the developers if we did so, and that we would (equally inevitably) lose the appeal. That would mean picking up the legal costs and stretching Bristol’s reduced resources even further.

What are we to make of this strategy being imposed from above? It seems to me that the Tories are determined to socially cleanse large areas of the inner city by excluding those who can’t afford to buy or rent privately. Certainly their policy direction suggests this.

Consider their idea of ‘starter homes’ for example, which will be sold at a 20 per cent discount to private first-time buyers under 40. This won’t of course help the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people who need homes, as they won’t be able to get mortgages or save large deposits.

In addition, the starter homes can be sold on again at full price after five years and the profit is kept by the seller. Effectively, this is a lottery win for those who can afford to buy this particular (state subsidised) ticket.

Under the Housing and Planning Act (2016) the council will be required to “promote the supply of starter homes” and ensure there is a percentage of them (potentially 20 per cent) on all developments of ten or more dwellings. “Good for them,” I hear you say; what’s this got to do with affordable housing?

The problem is that these starter homes can be built instead of the affordable homes quota. In other words, these privately owned homes will be substituted for the kind of social rented or shared ownership homes that we have at the moment under the affordable housing provisions.

Inevitably this will lead to a further dramatic reduction in affordable homes in our city. When you consider that the situation with such homes in Bristol is already terrible (the council only managed to achieve 21 per cent affordable homes in the schemes approved in 2015/16) we are heading for an even bigger housing crisis.

Stephen Clarke is a Green Party Councillor for Southville.

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