Last night the Council, all in a good cause, launched a year long landlord tsunami on Beeston

Last night, Broxtowe Borough Council's Jobs and Economy Committee made the decision to work towards the introduction of a Article 4 (planning) Direction regulating the number of HMOs in all of Beeston Central ward and and parts of the other three Beeston wards (see my Beeston council tax exemptions map below). Click on map to enlarge). 

For Beeston Central ward's two Labour councillors, Lynda and Pat Lally, this was a moment they had been working towards for a good few years and Lynda's concern about the fact that it was going to take a year to do was understandable because she and her husband Pat were only too fully aware of the landlord tsunami they were about to unleash on Beeston. Assuming the Government grants the Article 4 Direction, as from 27 February 2021 ALL HMOs in the mapped area will be regulated and subject to planning permission and in some parts of Beeston no more will be allowed — hence the landlord tsunami as they rush to beat the deadline.

Lynda Lally thanked Beeston Civic Society for their support over the years and it is under their banner that I have done my mapping and report writing. The maps below are maps I have produced for the Civic Society although the opinions expressed are my own.

The Borough's Planning Officer made the point that even though the Jobs and Economy Committee was about to make a momentous decision, there was no guarantee that they would be successful — the Government could decide to reject the Article 4 Direction application because there was evidence which suggested there would be a surplus of student accommodation across Greater Nottingham in four years time as more student accommodation blocks are built. Anyone who lived through Lenton's takeover by private landlords will tell you that this was a story told more than once in Dunkirk and Lenton as the (Labour) City Council delayed and delayed the introduction of an Article 4 Direction. When they did it was too late! 

As another councillor pointed out, it is a pity that the focus is on students when there are a good many non-student HMOs in Beeston. As I have repeatedly said in this blog since February 2015, when I produced and posted my first maps and tables, the data for non-student households doesn't exist. The nearest you can get to tracking them is via the electoral roll. However many overseas nationals, despite having a vote in local elections, choose not to register now that voter registration is voluntary. 

The fact that my registered HMO maps are able to show non-student HMOs is because I cross-reference student council tax exemption postcodes with postcodes listed in Broxtowe's HMO Register against addresses. I know how the Lynda and Pat feel, given the former Conservative led Borough Council showed no interest in what was a problem and this was echoed by the Borough's Planning Office the last time I heard him speak. Last night he was whistling a slightly different tune but his words leave me suspecting his commitment to the task the Jobs and Economy Committee set him last night. We shall see. 

Two of the Conservatives on the Committee abstained, one voted against. I'm afraid I don't know their names but the one who spoke sounded like a spokesman for those landlords who will actively oppose the Article 4 Direction regulation HMOs in Beeston whilst buying up all the properties they can. I suspect the next 12 months will see a good few families leaving Beeston as they take advantage in the house price surge which is hitting Beeston already — my own house has, according to Zoopla, has added over £100,000 to its value since we bought it 5 years ago. Coincidence or what but we are about to get a 6 bed HMO at the entrance to the cut-de-sac on which we live. Once an Article 4 Direction is in place, house prices will fall dramatically, simply because the landlord feeding frenzy will be over. Family homeowners know this. 2020 is going to be the year to sell in Beeston if you want to get a (very) good price.

How do I know all this? Quite simply, I lived in Lenton for 35 years and sold after Nottingham City Council introduced, very belatedly, introduced its own Article 4 Direction regulating all HMOs — which is why I spent the past five years describing the private landlord take over of Beeston as 'Lentonisation' (read my note below).

For now, what happens will be in the capable hands of Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Hallam, the Jobs and Economy Committee Chair, who was, effectively, given delegated power to oversee the process of ensuring that an Article 4 (HMO) Direction order covering much of Beeston gets Government approval and is introduced a year from now. I am in no doubt that he has a tough fight on his hands. I wish him well.

He also made the point (which I have heard him make before) that Stapleford could well do with a few more students.

For now, here are the 4 pages which made up my note to the Jobs and Economy Committee last night with the support of Beeston & District Civic Society:

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.

An e-mail to my MP Anna Soubry — Why the NHS, housing (and general wellbeing) needs a bipartisan approach — and the reply

As  you can see I sent the e-mail below two weeks ago come tomorrow. In the absence of a reply I have to assume my MP has no interest in a bipartisan approach to our NHS and the even greater housing crisis which has bedevilled us for decades. In fairness Ms Soubry is not alone. Many other MPs, including Labour, want to keep the NHS and housing party political. It is not a view I've ever shared.

From: Robert Howard <robert@parkviews.org.uk>
Date: 9 January 2018 at 5:54:09 pm GMT
To: anna.soubry.mp@parliament.uk
Subject: NHS, housing (and general wellbeing) needs a bipartisan approach

Hello Ms Soubry

First, please forgive this long email, but please bear with me.

You write in your latest e-letter  'We really do have to grasp the challenges our NHS and social care system face. Extra money is important but so too are better systems and integration.' Over 40 years ago Old Boot, an English sheepdog character in the Daily Mirror strip cartoon 'The Perishers' said of a comment: 'As a statement it cannot be faulted for its accuracy, but it hardly throws a blinding flash of illumination on the dark mysteries of the universe (or in this case the NHS and social care).

I have long held the view that the NHS (and social care) needs a bipartisan approach involving politicians of all political parties, health workers, regardless of their status, the voluntary sector, related businesses and the general public, and that we need some kind of national convention to come up with a framework which supports local innovation and diversity alongside standards and a funding formula based on some kind of  health & care tax/charge, which also covers dentistry and eyesight (hearing is still part of the NHS, whereas the other two cost considerably more than many can afford).

I would also argue that housing needs to be considered as part of our health and social care system, because lack of decent housing impacts on personal wellbeing, and lack of wellbeing feeds into health needs big time (alcohol, drugs, diet, mental health and so the list could go on).

You are well placed to argue the case for a national convention to consider health care and related issues in the widest sense, perhaps suggesting that someone like Graham Allen could chair it (we live in an age when 'experts' rule when we what we need are sensible adjudicators who come to a problem not thinking they know the answers). He was an able honest MP with capabilities not utilised because he was a bit of a maverick - which is how I regard you.

Less than 12 months ago I had open heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic heart valve I was born with 73 years ago and 3 weeks ago my wife had a mastectomy after a recurrence of breast cancer after 11 years, so we both know the value and quality of the NHS first hand.

Between 1971 and 2006 when I retired I worked for two voluntary health care charities. BPAS Development Officer and Regional Manager/Head of Housing Management Advance Housing & Support (mental health/learning disability support), and chaired a community health council for six years, so I have a personal interest in health related issues and the local historian in me rate the provision of municipal housing in the 20th century as a greater achievement than the creation of the NHS.

I was lucky enough to grow up in the post-war period when, it can be argued, there was a (albeit competitive) bipartisan approach to health and housing by political parties. Public buildings all around us attest to this fact.

If I have a political wish for the future this is it!

Robert Howard
Beeston NG9 2PJ

PS. Brexit has to treated as a political beast with a life of its own and not one which we are all in thrall to at the expense of all else (ie. health, care, housing).

AN E-MAIL REPLY DATED 24 JANUARY 2018:

Dear Robert,

Thank you for your email and apologies for the delay in replying.

Anna very much supports the introduction of some sort of bipartisan commission or body for the NHS. At this stage Anna would be open as to exact nature of this commission and looks forward to considering proposals put forward by her colleagues and others. Anna sends both you and your wife her very best wishes, and would like to thank you for your work in this field.

Please be assured that this Government intends to significantly increase the number of houses being built. That is why the Government has committed to a total of at least £44 billion of capital funding, loans and guarantees to support the housing market over the next five years which will help deliver 300,000 net additional homes a year on average by the mid-2020s.

I hope this provides you with some reassurance.

Best wishes,

Emily
Emily Horner I Parliamentary Assistant to the Rt Hon Anna Soubry I Member of Parliament for Broxtowe.

A Beeston (housing) elephant in the room

Earlier this year I drew attention to a growing problem in Beeston (click here to read post from February 2015). See also page about student accommodation in right-hand column. The increasing number of rented houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). Then it was a Labour led Broxtowe Borough Council showing no interest. Now it's a Conservative led Broxtowe Borough Council showing no interest.

The BBC's online magazine has just run a story about HMOs in Blackpool (click here to read). It makes grim reading whilst making the point that Blackpool is one of the better councils when it comes to enforcement, which suggests that where councils, like Broxtowe, are lax when it comes to regulating private rented housing, the lives and wellbeing of tenants is at risk. This is happening, right now, in Beeston. Of course I cannot prove this claim on my part, but it is an educated guess I would like to see put to the test by the systematic inspection and registration of every privately rented property in the borough.

All I want is that every private landlord is subject to the same regulations and control as housing associations and local authorities. I suspect that many private landlords would close up at the first opportunity.

It is an issue I know something about. I was a supported housing manager from 1985 until I retired in 2006. For a good few years I was on the board of Nottingham Hostels Liaison Group (HLG). Housing really is the elephant in the room politicians are happy to ignore (nearby Nottingham City Council is a notable exception).

As a owner occupier, I have to pay for all my own maintenance and have to pay VAT in the process, whereas private landlords can reclaim the VAT if they are VAT registered and set the cost of all the work they do on their property against profits, so that they pay less tax (perhaps no tax) — something else I cannot do as a owner occupier.

I have long been of the view that housing and homelessness is the biggest issue facing our country. It is a issue I will return to, but for now all I ask is that you take a few minutes to read / watch the BBC news report.

How Beestonians can support municipal enterprise

Today I began the process of switching my gas and electricity supplier from Scottish Power to Robin Hood Energy, the new Nottingham City Council energy company, which started trading today. The only difference between now and the old pre-nationalisation days is that the City Council does not own the power stations, so they have to buy gas and electricity on 'the market', but by any measure it is a welcome, and enterprising, step in the right direction.

My projected annual saving is modest — £176 — but I know that my money is not going to pay directors and shareholders. The City Council's directors will not be paid and RHE is described as 'a not-for-profit' business. There are different tariffs for city council area residents, so I suspect they will get a better deal than me, but I am happy to be supporting a municipal enterprise.

I would like to see a return to municipalism across a whole range of services: public transport, primary health care, all utilities and housing, especially the latter. There is a limited role for specialist housing associations, but they have no role to play in the provision of general housing, and private landlords would disappear overnight if they had to 'compete' with municipal housing on the same terms and lost all their tax advantages.

From 1985 until 2006 I was a supported housing manager, both regionally and nationally, and saw how Thatcher and the Conservatives set about crippling local authority housing and effectively brought about the commercialisation of voluntary housing associations. I saw them 'professionalised' (like the voluntary sector in general) and watched as large pay increases for senior officers were justified on the grounds that to get the best staff the sector had to 'compete'. It was a spurious argument then and still is.

The money wasted by housing associations having to compete for proposed local  'social housing' developments over the years could have been better spent building homes. I have no idea how many housing associations operate in Broxtowe Borough or Nottingham City, but the duplication of services in this way cannot be justified by any measure.

I have already blogged about how Broxtowe Borough Council appears to have no interest in controlling private landlords, as witnessed by its irresponsible attitude towards houses in multi-occupation (HMOs). Perhaps now Labour is in opposition in Broxtowe, it might take more of interest in this issue. I hope so.

My favourite blog, which you can find in the right-hand column and its masthead at the top of this post, is Municipal Dreams. To use the site's own words:

Municipal Dreams celebrates the efforts and achievements of our early municipal reformers.

These men and women dreamed of a better world.  But this was a dream built in bricks and mortar; an idealism rooted in the practical power of the local state to transform lives and raise the condition of the people.

I believe that the legacy of our early municipal reformers is unjustly neglected and often unfairly maligned.  This is a modest attempt to record their story and set that record straight.

But I’m not naive.  There were failures and missteps as well as successes. Mistakes are made, real-world limitations intervene, times change – the road to a better future is never easy.  But at least that road was taken – however falteringly – and a better, fairer future striven for.

This isn’t a crudely party political blog but, at a time when the local state and directly provided public services  are under unprecedented attack, the lessons of the past seem relevant.  In other words, this is not an exercise in nostalgia but a reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way.

For the second time in my active political life, which began in 1959 when I was fifteen, I sense change is about (the first was 1964 and you have only to look at Labour's achievements under Wilson to realise he was second only to Attlee). There are those among us who are determined to destroy what hopes and ambitions we have. We must not let this happen. The best way to win is to be open, to be reasonable and to promote models of ownership and control based on local communities and not state capitalism, for that is what the old model of nationalisation was and remains.

We will know soon enough and Nottingham's Labour controlled city council, for all its shortcomings, is there, once again, showing a better way. 

Some have greatness thrust upon them. If the person I voted for in the Labour Party leadership ballot wins, we will have to stand shoulder to shoulder with him as he faces a media and establishment determined to bring about his downfall at the first opportunity.

Right now, give yourself a lift and get a quote for your gas and electricity from Robin Hood Energy. As someone said 'Every journey begins with one small step'. Let this be yours! a