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Dear Mr Warr, I cannot say how disappointed I was to read, and indeed watch, your recent project designed to encourage those owners of empty ‘nests’ to contact you!
Alas, I fear the posting of letters on empty properties is unlikely to make an iota of a difference in tackling the lack of accommodation for islanders.
The UK Affordable Housing Commission Report - 'Making Housing Affordable Again' - presented findings from a survey of social housing landlords and called for a fund called the 'National Housing Conversion Fund' to buy-up private housing for social rent. Despite much hype and encouraging words by politicians in particular, there remains a housing crisis across the whole of the British Isles.
In my view, until we change the way we provide social housing, abandon the pointless term 'Affordable Housing' which simply does not exist, and adopt a whole new approach to how we set rents, based on a percentage of family income , say 33% and build many more units, whilst opening up the qualification criteria, the crisis will continue.
Seems we need to get creative when it comes to trying to get long abandoned properly back into housing. Being foiled by GDPR rules, let’s see if this works. pic.twitter.com/wkElMnZHSS
— David Warr (@WarrOnWords) July 29, 2022
The private landlords and property investors continue to reap huge financial gain from their investments, just ask your Chief Minister. The Social Housing organisations must provide good quality homes for islanders and key workers, and at genuinely affordable rent rates.
The market rate used to determine prices currently makes housing affordable for the minority.
Unless this changes more people who own will cash in and move away - those essential key workers so desperately needed will never come, and more islanders currently struggling will give up and look elsewhere. Posting nice letters on the doors of empty properties in your first 100 days is not worth the paper your request is printed on and neither is good for the environment.
So much for change!
Note: Preceding his letter, Mr Wareing-Jones also provided a link to the following report, which he urged the Minister to read "carefully": 'Birds have nests' by David Corbett (Cambridge Papers)
