Douglas Council says the formation of a housing association is putting a 'plaster' on a bigger issue.
Leader Claire Wells believes the solution to the current crisis lies with fixing the 'broken' funding mechanism for social housing.
The local authority is the largest housing provider on the Island and has requested the Department of Infrastructure increase social housing rents by seven percent next year.
Hello I'm local democracy reporter Emma Draper and I've been speaking to leader of Douglas Council Clare Wells and chair of the Housing Committee Devon Watson about social housing and the potential introduction of housing associations. It is probably one of the most important things that we as a council provide. It is a society that we bring together, it is about making sure that those that are in housing need have got housing and we provide an absolutely top-notch service on that year-on-year as I've been in council, it has improved. We have staff who are passionate about what they've done, it was mentioned about our grassroots values, we absolutely take that to heart and we make sure that we provide quality housing for those in housing need. It is not something that any of us are willing to give up and it's something that we are incredibly proud of. We are the largest housing provider on the Isle of Anne, we have continually fought to improve standards and build more housing and the reason why we've done that and it's not in managed decline in the way that other many public services are is because we're directly accountable. If you don't like the way social housing works, you can elect a new set of councillors, you can elect people who are passionate about the housing crisis and they can be solved. If housing is not handled or does not have a role within a democratic local community, then it loses its ability. We end up planning from budget to budget rather than having a strategic long-term plan. What was your suggestion to the DOI for the social housing rents? So we're pushing for about 7% and the reason why we're pushing for that is lower than the rent increase from last year, but what that does is it allows us to continue those improvements that we've made. So repair times have increased, we've introduced a 10-year housing plan that integrates housing into the local community and integrates housing with local public services. We've improved our communication methods, we still need to resist all further ways to go, but that's what that does and it also allows us to sort of undertake efforts to remove black mold from housing, remove asbestos from housing. In the 21st century, no one should have to live with that and ensure that more housing gets built. Peel road apartments are some of the best housing on the Isle of Man. We're opening apartments of the same, if not better, spec in Williston and we're continually finding to build additional housing to make sure that working in middle-class families have a place to live and we can only do that if we have the resources to do so. I think what is really important to actually note on this as well is that this is a recommendation that we put to the DOI. We have a deal with the government that deals with our deficiency. It's an incredibly complex system and we have to be realistic in this particular or duty in this particular part is to provide housing. We are not unaware of the difficulties of people that live in social housing. We are very, very aware of that, but we have to be very realistic in our recommendation. We are here to provide housing for those in housing need and in order to do that, we have to put realistic figures towards the government. We cannot continue to say to the government we need more and more money and not be realistic when it comes to actually increasing rents. How do you feel about the latter offering housing associations and how that would impact you guys? Housing association, I think, would devastate housing people that are in social housing at the moment. I don't think there is any concept as to exactly what impact it will have on those people. It is a money-making scheme. It's not something that is there to help those that are in housing need and there has to be some sort of recognition that when it comes to providing housing, it is always going to be subsidized. That is the reality of social housing. It is not an enterprise where you're going to make profit. That's not the point of social housing. It never has been. It should be a flow where people come in, they get helped and they are able to move forward in their own properties. However, that works. That is how the system works. You can't bring this into any arena where you think you're going to make profits. It was actually brought to my attention, which absolutely blew my mind, is that when a housing association was brought in in Jersey, rents went up by 80%. 80% is a lot of money. We're talking about 7%. We're talking about people that are going to be struggling. If you bring in a housing association and force that upon people, it isn't going to help. It's an incredibly short-term solution for something that needs a long-term solution. It's something that we've been shouting at for a long time. We've spoken to the DOI. We've had discussions with Treasury. The Council have a 10-year plan. It is a very effective 10-year plan. It has been very well-written. It has looked to the future. Even some of the things that we're in there, we've only had the plan for it's knocking on the door of two years now, and already some of the things that we put in there are coming to pass. We have a number of voids at the moment, which we knew were coming. We knew we're going to cause a problem. People who have been in houses for many, many years and the cost to refurbish those houses so that we can house some of the 250 people who are on our housing waiting list is going to cost an awful lot of money. We predicted it. We said it two years ago, "This has come in. You need to help us." We have to reach out to the government in order to do that because that is the agreement that we have with them. A housing association is a sticky plaster for something that needs a bulletproof solution. Social housing absolutely should not be run-for-profit. In allocation meetings, we sit with lists of people who need housing, and if someone is fleeing domestic violence, and if someone is homeless, or someone is dealing with a severe disability, or someone just lives in poverty, they should be provided decent, affordable housing at low rates. They themselves should not be used as a cash cow in order to supplement government budgets, and it's absolutely essential that we maintain a social housing model that provides cheap, affordable rents at decent quality housing, rather than running social housing as a for-profit enterprise. What has the council been lobbying, treasury, and government in general for about the housing? Okay, so there's a number of things, but really it's about the funding mechanism. The funding mechanism is broken. There is no two ways about it. I think, again, it was one of those things that was a sticky plaster that was put on to plug a hole. The hole is leaking in every direction at the moment. For the DOI, it's just not working. It's not working for us, and I really feel that it's something that they need to look at. The actual funding mechanism, housing association, is not going to fix that. Look at the funding mechanism. See how we do it. Where should the funds be coming from? Those people who can't afford the rents, where are the funds coming from to help them? How do we help them? The limits for being eligible for housing, all of those things need looking at, and they need looking at urgently, focusing on a solution that isn't going to fix us long-term. These things are not going to go away just because you bring a housing association in. I totally appreciate that they've been saying that they're going to, it's only going to be the DOI stock and stuff, but we are very, very aware that there is a wider agenda here. If we don't start speaking out now about the massive impact that that will have on us, it's just not going to work. On the whole, we've been talking about our tenure plan, explains to them where we're aiming, what we're looking for, why it will work, how it will work. Yes, it's millions of pounds. We're not talking about pocket change here. It will take a large investment, but it actually looks to their plans and what they want for the future, and how we can accommodate that too. It's really been well thought out, and that's what we're lobbying both the Treasury and the DOI for, to acknowledge the fact that our plans are well thought out, and they need to now start actually seeing how they can support us to make them a reality. Over and above on improving that funding mechanism, just making sure people are aware of how bad the house and crisis is, we need to be building more apartments, we need to be improving the standards of the housing that we currently have, and we need to have a government that provides income and funds to the people who are actually solving the housing crisis as it currently stands. So before we create additional mechanisms, focus on the housing providers that are already providing housing at the moment and give them the resources that they need to actually tackle the crisis and win. 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. (gentle music) You
