The Chair of the Housing and Communities Board has hit back against claims that government has done 'nothing' to tackle the Island's housing crisis.
Former minister Peter Karran told Manx Radio the situation has worsened since 2021's general election.
That's despite it being a topic that dominated the campaign trail.
The long-serving Onchan MHK, and former leader of the Liberal Vannin Party, also reiterated calls for restrictions on new homes being sold to off-Island residents.
But David Ashford has been defending government's progress to Lewis Foster:
Well, firstly, I don't think it is fair to say that nothing has been done. There's been lots done in lots of different spheres. Now, the important thing is a lot of the interview from what I've heard of it focused on first-time buyers. We have to remember housing is a lot wider than just first-time buyers. It was mentioned about it being a social cancer. Well, actually, if I'm going to talk to social cancers, one of the biggest social cancers when it comes to housing is actually homelessness. And there's been an awful lot of work done on homelessness to ensure that people actually have a roof over their heads. This housing issue isn't an issue that has suddenly just emerged. It's been something that's been building for over 20, 30 years because previous administrations, to be quite frank, haven't actually addressed the issue. What this administration has done is put a homelessness pathway in place that has helped 60 individuals and families have a roof over their head that wouldn't have otherwise that's looking to support them in getting proper permanent accommodation, has been trying to work with local authorities in relation to public sector housing, has commissioned an objective assessment of housing need, which is now being published, that shows where we need to go in terms of house building over the next 20 odd years. So actually gives us the evidence to be able to move forward rather than just superstition and what people think a superstition might actually be the direction of travel. And we've also delivered more first-time buyers homes than actually a last administration did. So for instance, in the first year of the administration, there was 24 last year, there was 34. And I believe this year, we're on course to go just over the 30 mark again. So to suggest things aren't moving, I think is a bit disingenuous. There is movement happening. And what do you make of that idea that he's moved there about a part equity mortgage scheme to help first-time buyers? So these are all things that are being discussed. You know, this isn't a vacuum. There are lots of ideas in the background being talked about. We've got a review of the first-time buyers schemes going on at the moment, looking at how effective they are and what we need to do to change them to make them more effective and accessible to more people. So all of that piece of work is ongoing. I'll be perfectly honest on the personal point of view. I have a lot of sympathy with the idea of a shared equity mortgage. I've mentioned as well, rent to buy and other things that I feel personally, we need to be looking at as well. Because one thing we have to recognise with housing is it's not one size fits all. That, you know, one solution doesn't solve everyone's problems. There's key worker housing. There's what I term last-time housing where people might want to downsize later in life. All of this is actually forming part of the programme. And I actually think that this poor administration is taking the issue of housing much more seriously than many previous administrations have over the last 20, 30 years. And those calls for restrictions on new homes being sold to off-island residents might be quite a controversial topic. But what do you think of that idea? Well, you have to be a bit careful because I can see where Peter's coming from. And I can see the advantage to it because you feel like you're protecting the internal market. But what you've got to remember is as well, what we're trying to do is create a new demographic for the island. Because at the moment, let's be blunt, our demographic is skewed towards the older element of the population. So while you might say that might encourage younger people to remain on Ireland, we don't just need what younger people we have now. We need to bring more in of families. And if they can't buy homes because there's a restriction on them buying and coming in, then that causes problems. It causes problems for key worker sectors as well, because we need to staff our hospital. We need to actually have teachers. We need to have police. We need to bring them in because of where we are with our population at the moment. So they need to be able to access housing. So if we were to go down that route, we'd have to be very, very careful that there isn't unforeseen consequences to any such policy. But can you understand perhaps the other view of perhaps a wealthy individual in the UK buying a second home in Port Aryan, for example, just for the summer that people might get a bit sore about that. But if you actually look realistically, and again, there's lots of studies in the UK at this because lots of areas have been looking at this. So, for instance, I think it was referenced in the interview about the Lake District. There's also a lot been going on down in Cornwall that the type of properties, a lot of those, particularly wealthy individuals, are purchasing on to the standard properties, so they're not the sort of properties that a first time buyer or a young family would purchase. They tend to be higher end properties that to be quite frank, or out of the beach of a lot of people. And that's where we need to be careful with the idea of second homes as well. Fully agree in relation to second homes that might be related to the lower end of the market, but a lot of the second home market is actually at the higher end, which isn't affecting the general housing provision, because they're properties that people aren't out of the reach of ordinary people at the best of times. And I can imagine that Mr. Karen isn't alone in his view of housing. How do you feel personally about this type of criticism from people outside of government? Does it distract you at all? Does it annoy you? It doesn't annoy me and it doesn't distract me. I actually welcome criticism to be perfectly honest. I think, you know, there is a frustration around housing out there. It was, as Peter rightly says, an issue on a campaign trail be big issue at the 2021 election, and it is frustrating that it's taken time to get things off the ground. I've made it perfectly clear, and I'll say it yet again, the first two years this administration have been around getting things in place, the next two years need to be about delivering physical things people can say. And that's the work plan that's being built up around the Ohan. It has been a frustrating journey to get to where we are now. And maybe in some quarters, it does look like nothing's actually happening. But I can assure you, and others, that there is a lot of work going on and a lot of delivery going on in the background as well. And like I say, the strides we've made on the homelessness pathway compared to where we were at the start of this administration is, is exceptional work. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radio podcasts at your favourite podcast provider. So our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
