Let's turn the £1m plus cost of student council tax exemptions in Broxtowe to the advantage of everyone by putting £2m annually into housing for young people in Broxtowe

Reading my headline you may think that I have gone mad but hear me out. 

The first thing to say is what I'm proposing will mean landlords paying council tax at 100% on presently council tax exempt student properties. This would bring in c.£1m — a sum already paid by existing council tax payers to cover the shortfall. That money would continue to be collected as a young persons' housing precept, which added to the £1m from landlords, would create an annual income of c.£2m towards housing located in Broxtowe Borough for young people (who would have family/work links and students).

Rent charges suggest that landlords, for the most part, do not share their council tax exemption with their tenants. It is money most of them pocket (this claim is based on looking at weekly rent charges on Zoopla  and Rightmove websites today - £81pw for a room in a student let; £156pw for a 3 bed family semi is just one example - a student let would probably be at least 4 beds and, potentially, double the income from the house remaining a family let). ALL landlords should have to give every tenant an annual statement of what they do with the rent they charge: where the rent goes; the amount of any mortgage and the repayment terms; maintenance costs, repairs etc.

This annual £2m pot would help cover the loan costs of capital borrowed to build suitable housing for young people located throughout the Borough of Broxtowe. The housing would be managed by a housing co-op much like that already envisaged by students.

It is a win-win situation for everyone. Family housing can be protected by planning from landlords, who buy to let and, in the process, drive up prices. Older residents benefit because streets keep families and neighbourhoods are more balanced than they might otherwise be. Young people and students get purpose built housing which they manage as a co-op and it can take account of housing needs across Broxtowe Borough, not just in Beeston.

To those who say I’m living in Cloud Cuckoo Land, I would point out that change has to start somewhere so why not Broxtowe? and if there can be council precepts for business (ie. Beeston), town councils and parishes why not housing? Money ring fenced, as this money would be, would, I believe, attract support from across the whole community.

Initially, there would be lost council tax, but the council tax being paid by other previous exempt groups would cover this and within two years maximum the council would begin to receive additional council tax income from the new houses being occupied by young Broxtowe residents and students. The idea not only builds homes for young people but generates council tax income.

I can hear other voices saying you'll have to change the law to remove some of the council tax exemptions. With an existing high-profile MP and Greg Marshall in the wings waiting to take over, both have the skills and nous to persuade central government to make an exception of Broxtowe on a pilot basis — this kind of thing happens all the time. It could even be done by Parliamentary Bill.

Having spent 21 years of my life as a supported housing manager, preparing budgets and development briefs, I know what I’m proposing is viable, manageable, and something which can help resolve in some small part the housing need which exists in Beeston and across Broxtowe.

If you think my idea is rubbish then I challenge to come with a better, more affordable, viable solution and share it.

National Audit Office's local government financial data including Broxtowe invites as many questions as it answers, so let's have a council budget 'Teach-in Day'

The National Audit Office has published a report, Financial sustainability of local authorities: (a) 2018 visualisation, relating to local government finances covering the period 2010/11 – 2016/17. Unfortunately it is all percentages and not actual amounts of money. On the plus side you can compare Broxtowe with Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Council, albeit very different beasts. I have extracted some data which I will turn into tables over the next few days.

In the meantime if you have missed this story in the news media or don't have a weblink, follow this link.

The following quote from the report's introduction delivers the message loud and clear. It is that local government and local communities who have paid the price of the financial crisis, together with those on low incomes, the vulnerable and disadvantaged. To all these people local services matter!

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government measures the impact of reducing government funding on local authority income via ‘revenue spending power’. This indicator captures the main streams of government funding to local authorities alongside council tax. We found that nationally revenue spending power fell by 28.6% in real terms from 2010-11 to 2017-18. If council tax is removed, our analysis shows that government funding fell in real terms by 49.1% from 2010-11 to 2017-18.

Here is a comparative table (click on table to enlarge).

If I had the time I would request the financial data which has been used to compile these percentages (which all appear in the report). There has been talk of Broxtowe Borough Council's financial problems. What this comparative suggests is that Broxtowe appears to be in no worse position than Nottingham or the county council.

Notice how percentage reserves have increased and you can see why this data matters in money terms. I will have a look at Broxtowe. What the figures do show is that Nottinghamshire County Council has a far lower level of reserves (in percentage terms) than Broxtowe and Nottingham, which probably helps explain the enthusiasm among some county councillors for the creation of a unitary county council (an idea since dropped, for the time being at least).

That said, the county council spends (in percentage terms) 64.6% of its budget on adult & child social care, whereas the city spends 54.5%. At this rate, as the news media tells us every few days (so it seems), the county and city will soon have little money to spend on anything else!  

Some the data is less complete for comparative purposes so I will just refer to Broxtowe when it comes to loss of Government funding and spending power.

Between 2010/11 and 2017/18 Government funding to Broxtowe fell by 62.9% and, as I understand it, will continue to fall until it reaches 0%. I'm sure when this will happen. In real times this equals 42.6% and council tax lost 3.2% of its spending power in Broxtowe during the same period.

It gives me a headache just trying to comprehend what is actually happening. We all need to understand because it is that important!

Perhaps the Labour Party might like to organise a kind of 'Council Budget Teach-in Day' a few weeks before the Borough Council elections (one day in Beeston/Stapleford and one day in Eastwood/Kimberley) with stalls and data based on services. It could well attract much need media attention!

For council tenants there could be a stall with info on 'Where does you rent go?' looking at the housing budget.  Another for leisure and parks. Then there's Environmental Services. You get the idea. Once in power the Borough Council can take over the days.

Residents can be asked for their views so that changes can be planned for. Holding budget consultations in October/November is far too late and only serves to show how little interest have in their own 'public consultation'! 

Map showing Council Tax Band 'A' charges in Broxtowe Borough and Nottingham City councils.

A map which speaks for itself. Beeston Band 'A' council tax payers transferring from Broxtowe borough Council to Nottingham City Council will, at the 2018/2019 charge rate, pay an extra £71 per annum, assuming the City Council's unitary charge matches the £885 levied by Nottinghamshire County Council onto Beeston Band 'A' council tax payers.

Usual thing, click on map /table to enlarge

I created the Council Tax chart below in August 2018:

The Broxtowe Council Tax charges are as for Beeston. As the above map shows these charges vary across Broxtowe because of charges levied by town and parish councils. 

Because Beeston's services are provided by two councils there has to be additional admin charges. By Beeston joining Nottingham there will only be one council managing council services and we should be as beneficiary of this.

The 'Lentonisation' of Beeston by landlords and goodbye to Gourmet Delights

Evidence (like the signs above over shops on Beeston High Road) and experience tell me that private landlords are in the process of doing to Beeston what they did to Lenton and it all begins with students wanting to live away from the campus, preferably with just a few friends, in a house. An innocent enough ambition in itself, but it is one which takes an established mixed/balanced community and turns it into a ghetto.

It was the mid-1980s when Thatcher made it easy
for universities like Nottingham and Trent to expand rapidly and this continues apace. Back then residents like myself saw the consequences and argued that all student accommodation in the community should be registered and the number of student properties in any road limited to 25%. This level still results in 50% or more of the residents being students and contributing to the destruction of the community so many want to be part of. Sad to say few listened and the City Council and the two city universities ignored us. We won a few fights along the way, but it was others, who took a harder line when it came to students, who finally won the day resulting in Nottingham City Council introducing rules in 2013 requiring any shared property with three or more tenants/occupants to be registered as a house in multi-occupation (HMO) and banning more HMOs in many parts of the city, including Lenton and Radford (Broxtowe Borough Council presently sets the HMO test at six sharing a house, but appears to have no enforcement plan).

Talk to students and their representatives and they, for the most part, understand this. Beeston can prevent its "Lentonisation' if it chooses to.

This is not a new claim or observation by me and I am not the first to make it. What I probably do have is more experience and understanding of the challenges Beeston faces, which left unchecked will see the town losing many of its shops, many being turned into student accommodation. It happened in Lenton, Radford and Hyson Green in the city and can happen here.

In Lenton, where I was a community activist for the best part of thirty-five years, we saw road after road bought up by private landlords who happily paid more for a house than any owner-occupier ever would or could. Why? Because they counted the number of rooms they could turn into bedrooms and this almost always including one, if not two, of the ground floor living rooms. This way they could easily fit 4, 5, 6, even more students into the house.

My 2015 map when I am able to update it will show the onward march of council tax exempt properties in Beeston. Of this fact I am sure. The signs on the streets I walk along tell me this.

I use the word 'student', although the official term which is important here is 'full-time education'. I think the latter is a nicety. Students do not have to pay council tax on the property/room they rent because properties occupied exclusively by those in 'full-time education' do not have to pay council tax.

This exemption currently reduces the council tax collected in Broxtowe by £950,000. This figure was provided by the Borough Council to a Beeston councillor. In the side column you will find a page devoted to this topic which I compiled last year based on the information available at the time. Last year 84% of Broxtowe's council tax exempt properties were in Beeston. I am sure the percentage is now higher and I am currently waiting for this information to be provided, but at 84%, the cost, you can argue to Beeston is £798,000!

When landlords set the rents they charge students the fact that the student occupant does not have to pay council tax becomes part of the calculation used to set the rent. This way the landlord can charge a slightly higher rent and increase his/her profits in the process.

Once Beeston had a few established estate agents, now they are everywhere and they are like the private landlords they feed on. The lucky make fat profits and can pay higher rents and business rates. Established businesses are forced to close because rents go up and business rates rise as well. And it is the demise of one such local business which prompts this post. The loss of a café may seem of itself of no importance to anyone bar the staff who lose their jobs and the regular customers who see it as an extension of their home — for that is what a good café can become.

I will leave you with the evidence and I will not be alone in mourning its passing. The question is 'Do you?'

Broxtowe Borough Council cuts 'consultation'

Today I completed Broxtowe Borough Council's online questionnaire about saving money. I am opposed to cuts which will hit those least able to bear them, be it financially or socially. For 'savings' read 'cuts'. I should add that I am in favour of all public services being managed efficiently and to the best advantage of users, but 'savings' is a different beast. My approach is to provide better services and facilities by managing what money there is better, even increasing council tax and council charges if this can be shown to be beneficial to users and the local community in general.

Before completing the questionnaire, I did, on 7 October, via email, ask Broxtowe Borough Council to tell me the product of a penny rate. I have yet to receive a reply, but I did copy in Borough Councillor Janet Patrick, who emailed me a reply on 10 October:

If Broxtowe raised its council tax by 1p in the £ it would raise £53000. Presently the Government anticipate an annual increase of 2p in the £ and are paying this to councils who are charging 2p in the £ increase a year. The Tories promised not to raise the council tax, consequently we are forgoing £106,000 a year from the government.  Information supplied by Paul Adcock, most senior finance officer after the Deputy Chief Executive.

Given this information, I have answered the question about council tax by saying I favour at least a 2p increase in the Borough Council's penny rate and included Janet's email to show why.

I also added this general comment where the questionnaire asks for comments:

Broxtowe Council needs to introduce tighter controls on Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)* and Council Tax exempt properties, as these are increasing fast in an around Beeston, with some streets now over 25%. Above this level the balance of the social mix begins to tip and some groups begin to move out (eg. families, older people), resulting in more properties becoming HMOs* and Council Tax exempt. The evidence for how such change negatively impacts on housing occupation can be found in the Dunkirk & Lenton and Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey wards in Nottingham, which adjoin Beeston. Belated planning controls in Nottingham have pushed private landlords into Beeston. Housing and Planning officers, together with borough councillors, knowingly ignore the problem at a social and economic cost. One direct consequence will be Beeston town centre becoming no more than a collection of eateries, cafes, take aways, estate agents and charity shops surrounded by supermarkets. 

Note:* Any property with 3 or more unrelated residents should be classified as a HMO.

Council Tax exempt (student) properties in Beeston and Broxtowe by street

In the right-hand column under Pages you can see a complete list of council tax exempt properties by street. I received the information from Broxtowe Borough Council on 23 February 2015 following a request I made to them. I would like to thank the Council and the staff involved for compiling the data.

The map below shows the Beeston streets with the highest percentages of council tax exempt properties (click on the map to enlarge):

At some point I will have more to say about the information I have received. For now it is suffice to say that the streets with a high percentage of council tax exempt properties are presently clustered, for the most part, around Beeston town centre.

At a recent meeting of the Beeston North Community Action Team, a Council officer, Steffan Saunders said that it was a matter Planning had not looked at in any depth and that they would be looking at six unrelated occupants and the property becoming an issue before doing anything, but accepted that three unrelated occupants could be enough to trigger registration as an  HMO if that was Council policy (Steffan, understandaby, qualified his response to my question by making the point that actual registration is not a Planning decision - it rests with Environmental Health).

As far as I am aware this is the first time this information has been published in this format. In the meantime you can find some initial analysis in the right-hand column headed Broxtowe properties claiming council tax exemption by street.

I have also submitted a Scrutiny Suggestion Form to the Council, in which I ask the committee to look at 'the impact of student lets and Houses in Multiple Occupation on the Borough of Broxtowe and, specifically, Beeston'. The form asks 'What outcomes do you expect?', to which I have answered 'That in the absence of continual monitoring and assessment, the balance of local communities cannot be satisfactorily measured or maintained'.