Calderdale Housing Campaign

Statement by Chris McCafferty MP on Affordable and Sustainable Housing

"Our young people are facing great difficulties in finding homes and this is a problem across the Calder Valley area, as well as on a national scale.

Recent figures show that 56% of employed people in Heptonstall between the ages of 20 and 39 cannot afford to by a house and 48% of people in Mytholmroyd are in the same position. In Todmorden 30% of people cannot afford to buy a house.

I believe that Calderdale Council, together with local housing associations, need to tackle this issue head-on and introduce a supplementary planning note to increase the percentage of affordable homes in new developments and reduce the threshold at which the affordability requirement applies.

I am pleased that the Council has commissioned a Housing Needs Survey across Calderdale, which will be presented to Cabinet on 18th July.

Councillors and housing associations should also be looking at more shared ownership developments, affordable accommodation for rent and housing mutuals and cooperatives.

Whilst the Council are looking into implementing change, it may be sensible to holdover or delay applications for large new developments, particularly as there are few flat, viable sites for development, left in the Valley."

Additional Information
House of Commons
Wednesday 6 July 2005
OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Affordable Housing
Chris McCafferty (Calder Valley) (Lab): Will my hon. Friend the Minister look carefully at the particular problems in rural honeypots, such as Hebden Bridge in my constituency? It has received wonderful accolades, such as the fourth funkiest town on the planet and the best high street for local shops in the UK

David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire) (Lab/Co-op): Cannabis allotments!

Chris McCafferty: It is certainly a centre for alternative lifestyles. All those aspects conspire to make Hebden Bridge a highly desirable place to live for people from all over the UK. Can my hon. Friend the Minister look carefully at the problems of affordable housing for local people in such places?

Yvette Cooper: My hon. Friend makes an important point and we are setting up the rural affordable housing commission to consider exactly such problems. She is also right that the increased economic prosperity and investment that we have seen has had consequences for the housing market. We should recognise that we have 1 million more homeowners since 1997, as a result of the changes that were made with regard to the Bank of England, economic stability and economic growth, but we also want to support a new generation of first-time buyers. That is why we are considering those measures now.

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Statement by Chris McCafferty

How to respond to a housing planning application

Calderdale Council and affordable housing

Can we make new houses more sustainable?

How many new dwellings are the Council required to provide?

STOP PRESS

15th July: Council refuses huge Crow Nest, Hebden Bridge planning application

New Council housing strategy 2005-10 and affordability housing policy report