Council’s housing claims slammed (From York Press)
Get in touch: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting YORK to 80360 or send an email»
City of York Council’s housing claims slammed
9:34am Thursday 8th November 2012 in News
By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter
COUNCIL officials have come under fire over claims that York has experienced a significant increase in the number of homes built – using figures which included a huge new student block.
City of York Council chief executive Kersten England tweeted that the number of completions in the first six months of this year was up on the figure for the whole of last year.
But the net gain of 294 completions includes 124 of the student flats at a new complex built on the old dairy site in Hull Road.
The council says they are included in the figures because they are managed by a private landlord and not the University of York, and also says their inclusion is in line with Government guidelines.
But York developer John Reeves claimed that to include halls of residence in housing figures was “misleading and downright wrong,” adding that such a calculation ultimately affected every other housing statistic produced by the council and made them all incorrect.
York architect Matthew Laverack claimed: “Specialist student blocks are no substitute for proper houses and flats. The construction of student blocks will make not the slightest difference to houses currently occupied by students.
“The chief executive tweets that housing completions are “significantly up” when it is not houses at all, nor flats. It is student rooms in clusters occupied temporarily in term time. This is not what any reasonable person would regard as “housing” in the normal sense of the word.” Quantity surveyor Paul Cordock claimed the inclusion of student accommodation as housing was a vain attempt to mislead residents.
However, Coun Dave Merrett, cabinet member for planning, said students were York residents too, and their presence impacted on housing demand, and so it was “entirely appropriate” that extra student units should be counted in the figures.
He said there had been a major increase in student occupation of local housing, particularly near the universities, increasing pressure in the housing market. “Provision of new specialist student housing will therefore help to address this pressure,” he said.
“If purpose-built student housing was not being delivered, that would be extra demand on the existing housing stock, competing with ordinary York families.”
Comments(18)
CllrPSHealey
says...
10:18am Thu 8 Nov 12
How to turn a good story bad?
Tweet without context!
AngryandFrustrated
says...
10:46am Thu 8 Nov 12
smith63
says...
10:52am Thu 8 Nov 12
Lets presume the 124 student flats were not built. Where would the students go - into 'new' student rental houses that would remove the availability for non-students. Ok, so 124 student flats = 124 students and this is not the same as 124 houses but this article seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill!
York1900
says...
11:19am Thu 8 Nov 12
You can make the case any which way you want on this subject but it just shows that private landlords do not want to rent to family's they only want high profit student lets were they can rent a house out to students for twice or three times as much as they can rent to a family
.
old_geezer
says...
12:52pm Thu 8 Nov 12
Choir2
says...
1:49pm Thu 8 Nov 12
meme
says...
1:59pm Thu 8 Nov 12
Trying to fool themselves and everyone else into believing all is better is just madness and harms everyone.
For goodness sake York be honest. There is a problem...admit it, solve the issue and when things do get better then congratulate yourselves with decent honest figures...... not spin
meme
says...
2:02pm Thu 8 Nov 12
More homes in other areas will be lost to students...Why not keep them in the same sustainable area?
Plus at a stroke houses in multiple occupation shot up in value because of scarcity of licences!! Well done CoYC another own goal
Turpinette
says...
2:52pm Thu 8 Nov 12
the andrew
says...
3:44pm Thu 8 Nov 12
Turpinette wrote:......and it is only half full even though it was completed before term started.
Those students in the new block must be the poorest ones from the uni, none of them seem able to afford blinds or curtains, or seem aware that everybody can see in to their flats once it gets dark.
Student letting agency next door, mind boggles.
nowthen
says...
4:47pm Thu 8 Nov 12
The number of people waiting for council housing in York has risen by more than 70% in a year.
The City of York Council said the growth in demand was due to the high cost of property in the city.
Housing charity Shelter said the average private rent in the city for a two-bedroom home was around £650.
The Labour-run council said more than 4,500 people were now on its waiting list for homes but supply was "limited".
Tracey Simpson-Laing, deputy leader of the council, said: "York is one of the most expensive areas outside the south east of the country.
"People are coming to us saying we need a council or housing association home but the supply is limited."
In September 2011 there were 2,731 people waiting for a property. By October 2012 the figure had risen to 4,674.
Scarlet Pimpernel
says...
4:57pm Thu 8 Nov 12
smith63 wrote:This is a serious and wrongful spinning of statistics.
Ok, so we are talking about a tweet here - not mch space for details and the figures follow government guidelines. Lets presume the 124 student flats were not built. Where would the students go - into 'new' student rental houses that would remove the availability for non-students. Ok, so 124 student flats = 124 students and this is not the same as 124 houses but this article seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill!
The student accommodation being counted as housing, is not subject to affordable housing rules, and therefore should not be counted as housing. There have been numerous student accommodation schemes most recently over 500 units in Navigation Road, but, these were not counted.
The article also does not explain that the Hull Road site has a total of 394 student beds, but only each cluster that has a kitchen can be counted as a 'dwelling', which is why they only count 124 units. This is farcical, inconsistent and almost arbitrary. They will be counting caravans next !
Scarlet Pimpernel
says...
5:04pm Thu 8 Nov 12
Turpinette wrote:Have you seen the rents ?
Those students in the new block must be the poorest ones from the uni, none of them seem able to afford blinds or curtains, or seem aware that everybody can see in to their flats once it gets dark.
Google 'UniLiving York' - the development is known as 'The Boulevard'
Rents per week range from £123.90 to £185.00 - over double the going rate of a bedroom in a shared house. The students who can afford these must have rich parents ?
gmsgop
says...
8:52pm Thu 8 Nov 12
smith63 wrote:yeah, that is exactly what I was thinking..all the official counting has to go on.. But we need to understand the net positive or negative housing impact of these new units.. So x university builds x units, but increases intake by x times 2... Negative impact on house availability... But if they increase units and not numbers... Then more housing available for locals?
Ok, so we are talking about a tweet here - not mch space for details and the figures follow government guidelines.
Lets presume the 124 student flats were not built. Where would the students go - into 'new' student rental houses that would remove the availability for non-students. Ok, so 124 student flats = 124 students and this is not the same as 124 houses but this article seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill!
ruavinalaughf?
says...
12:10am Fri 9 Nov 12
meme wrote:HMO licensing has been in place since the Housing Act 2004 came into force in 2006. I think you are getting confused with the Article 4 Directive (the requirement for planning consent for change of use from C3 'Dwelling House' to C4 'HMO') which sets quotas for HMO's at ward and street level. At present there are a lot of empty HMO's because landlords got greedy this year and asked for too much rent when student admissions (and therefore demand) was down. Those properties located furthest away from the Universities were most badly affected by this as they were less attractive. The building of student accomodation by the private sector (e.g. UniLiving on Hull Road) at the same time (but completed too late for the 2012-13 intake - 75% of units are unoccupied) threw the market into further confusion. Next year will be interesting - will hard pressed students gravitate towards the cheaper rent offered by landlords of properties further out who are desperate to avoid a second year without tenants/rent OR will they be prepared to pay pemium rents for higher quality accomodation nearer to the University at UniLiving? Article 4 has added further confusion to an already confused market as landlords of properties with established use' as 'C4 HMO' would rather keep them empty for a year than rent it out to a family which would require them to reapply for 'change of use' back to C4 HMO if they later wanted to revert back to a shared house. The only thing you are right about is that Article 4 has resulted in a sale premium for properties that have exisiting use as HMO's. At the end of the day, like or not, Article 4 was a value judgment intended to stop the haemorage of family accommodation in the city. Hands up anyone who gives a **** that some private landlords will not be getting richer because of it?
One other thing the new policy of houses in multiple occupation needing licences will cause even more problems than it solves. More homes in other areas will be lost to students...Why not keep them in the same sustainable area? Plus at a stroke houses in multiple occupation shot up in value because of scarcity of licences!! Well done CoYC another own goal
Scarlet Pimpernel
says...
1:23am Fri 9 Nov 12
Sorry Tracey, you are WRONG !
Thunderblade
says...
9:00pm Fri 9 Nov 12
Mr Trellis says...
10:04am Thu 8 Nov 12