Dorset declared least affordable county in the South West as waiting lists for social homes hit 14,000
The economic climate is doing little to help Dorset families looking for their own home as the county has been named the least affordable in the South West according to a new report published today (Tuesday 27 October).
The National Housing Federation’s ‘South West Home Truths’ is being launched at a special reception at the Jubilee Rooms at the Palace of Westminster this afternoon. The event is being hosted by North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson, with Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke among those due to attend, alongside representatives of housing associations, the Tenant Services Authority and Homes and Communities Agency.
The report clearly highlights the growing need for more affordable housing in the county as well as the wider region. The estimated average house price for Dorset for 2008 (£262,332) stood at almost 15 times the average (median) individual income (£17,909), with even homes in the lowest quartile costing an average of almost £175,000.
Broken down by affordability, a ‘league table’ for Dorset would look like this:
• Christchurch: £276,231 average house price (19.1 x £14,472 average income)
• East Dorset: £299,604 average house price (16.2 x £18,533 average income)
• Poole: £287,876 average house price (14.9 x £19,360 average income)
• West Dorset: £269,639 average house price (13.9 x £19,406 average income)
• North Dorset: £242,002 average house price (13.5 x £17,940 average income)
• Purbeck: £258,169 average house price (12.6 x £20,488 average income)
• Weymouth & Portland: £215,903 average house price (12.6 x £17,108 average income)
• Bournemouth: £216,142 average house price (12 x £17,966 average income)
NB: The affordability ratio is the house price divided by individual average income.
It’s not surprising then that more and more people here are turning to social housing, with over 14,000 households in Dorset now on waiting lists – a huge increase of over 84% in the last five years.
This situation is exacerbated in rural areas, where younger people are increasingly priced out of the communities in which they grew up or have families. On average homes cost over 13 times local incomes in these communities compared to 11.6% in more urban areas.
In addition eight of the top 20 locations for second homes are in the south west, more than any other region. These present a significant challenge to the local economy - testing the viability of many local shops and services to breaking point. The Isles of Scilly comes out top of the list with second homes at over 18%. The worst affected parts of Dorset are Purbeck with nearly 7%, West Dorset with over 5%, Bournemouth with nearly 4% and Christchurch with over 3%.
The National Housing Federation is calling on the government to:
• Increase public investment to support the building of new high quality social housing
• Make public land available to affordable housing providers at discounted rates
• Compel the nationalised banks to make mortgage funds available for shared ownership
• Ensure local housing authorities assess housing need in all rural areas every three years and publish an action plan to deliver affordable homes.
Jenny Allen, South West Regional Manager for the National Housing Federation, said: “While we welcome the Government’s efforts to inject more money into affordable housing we need high levels of funding to continue if we’re going to avoid a housing crisis in the future.”
“In today’s tough economic climate, where first time buyers and low-to-middle income households in the region can only dream of owning a home, the solution has to be to invest in more high quality homes for social rent now before prices begin to escalate again.”
”In order to meet this need, Government must ensure that the region’s housing associations, who build the majority of affordable homes here, get the necessary funding and income required to enable them to deliver the homes we so desperately need.”
Wayne Morris, Chief Executive of Spectrum Housing Group said: "Affordability is still a major issue in Dorset despite falling house prices in recent times. The Home Truths document recently published by the National Housing Federation identifies that in Dorset the average house price is 14.6 times the average salary - this is the highest affordability ratio of any county in the south west. This is driving up the need for affordable housing and we urgently need to find ways of delivering more homes. We can do this by working collaboratively with other housing providers and builders but we also need to see increased public investment from the Government.”
“House building helps to create working communities with employment opportunities sustaining local economies. For example we know that Persimmon will create around 1,300 jobs in the construction industry as part of their ’affordable’ building programme that would otherwise have stalled due to the recent economic climate."
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For media enquiries or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Peter Jones, Communications Officer at the National Housing Federation (South) on 0117 9529913 or 07771 552090.
OR
Tina Partridge, Communications Officer for Spectrum Housing Group on 01258 484884.