HOUSING CAMPAIGN

At this stage the debate is all about how many houses we need. In December it will be about where they should go.

Much dialogue has taken place since the Extraordinary Council Meeting on the 3rd October where the Alliance voted against a Conservative amendment to reduce the housing target. Instead the Alliance voted for an increase from 9,250 to a range 9,250-11,500 houses in the planning period to 2031.

Since that decision:-

1. •David Drew has stated that the Labour group are adamantly opposed to any settlement West-of-Stonehouse and will be issuing a press release shortly making that point abundantly clear.
   

2. •David has suggested that the Labour group are of the view that new census information will suggest a downward adjustment of housing numbers to a figure closer 8,500.
   

3. •The Labour group are committed to a policy of limited dispersal which responds to the needs of Stroud's growth in the elderly population, as this group reflects the entire forecast growth in the population over the next twenty years.
   

4. •The Conservative group support these lower numbers and the principles of localism. 
   

Planning applications have been reported in the press and are expected in a number of areas:

1. •    Slad Valley, Baxters Field (300 houses)
   

2. •    West of Stonehouse (1500 houses)
   

3. •    Rodborough Fields (100 houses)
   

4. •    Eastington, Swollowcroft (34-300 houses)
   

5. •    Hardwick (200 houses)
   

Our neighbours in Hardwick are still reeling from the planning approval of the 200 houses at Sellars Farm.

These planning applications are in part being encouraged by the inflated housing numbers that are being set by Stroud District Council. These larger numbers have encouraged the developer feeding-frenzy which is now concerning so much of our district.

The chart below shows how our district is being 'padded out' with housing compared to our neighbours: Our planners wish to build more housing than in any previous targets. In contrast, our neighbours have chosen lower figures and successfully agreed them with the Government Planning Inspector. 

We wish to work with SDC and other communities opposed to this developer frenzy, but to be successful SDC must have realistic plans and a sensible housing requirement for the future.

We think those plans should include:

1. 1.Recognising that the forecast growth in population (11,000 people by 2031) is exclusively the over 65's.
   

2. 2.Accepting the need for each local community to respond to its particular needs and population change.
   

3. 3.Regenerating brownfield first e.g. the canal corridor and semi derelict mills.
   

4. 4.Targeting jobs and the economic growth of our towns: especially Stroud, Stonehouse and Dursley. 
   

5. 5.Avoiding large commuter/dormitory estates that achieve nothing for our local communities and fail to meet any of the needs of our ageing population.
   

6. Considering Community Land Trusts, especially for affordable starter homes and           the elderly.

The data supporting the graph is expanded and explained in the next Tab - Understanding the Housing Numbers

Dont Strangle Stroud

 NEWSLETTER

Dear supporter,

On Thursday 13th December, there is another key meeting at 7:00 pm in Ebley Mill to accept the consultation report for the Preferred Strategy.

This is the consultation to which you made an input, some ten months ago now, and, as you can see in the press release below, it looks like there will be an attempt to ignore your contribution in favour of the views of developers. The officers are still focussed on mass housing, even though the housing numbers are no longer justified.

Many will be attending in the public gallery, come along and watch your councillor at work for you.

The briefing below has been sent to all district councillors. 

It covers issues from the census that you may have seen in the national news, and local issues too.

Dont Strangle Stroud

CONSULTATION

The DSS mathematician has been working on the consultation response raw data set of 70,000 items, which formed the basis of the SDC report which has just been published.

The following is a summary:

1. •The consultation response was a massive 1,973. The largest response Stroud has ever seen, due in the main to the involvement generated by community groups. 
   

2. •75% of the electorate (70% of total responses) responded as follows:-
   

1. ◦They rejected the proposed strategy of concentrated building.
   

2. ◦They voted against dormitory towns.
   

3. ◦They felt that the previous consultation was unsound.
   

4. ◦They want to see more planning decided at the local parish level.
   

5. ◦They want development to be dispersed.
   

3. •Only 240 responses (12%) supported the proposed strategy in some way, and only 135 (7%) fully supported it.
   

4. •58 of these 240 responses were from developers. So 25% of those that supported the strategy, in full or in part, were developers.This was not declared anywhere in the report.
   

The consultation feedback attempts to exclude 1,472 of the electorate because they filled in a standard questionnaire. Instead, the author gives pride of place to the views of 58 developers who represented only 3% of the total response.

The analysis of the consultation is being manipulated to produce a particular result. Officers may well also set aside the new census evidence, below, because doing so supports the concentration strategy that they favour.

HOUSING NEED - ONS Latest Release

The census release now confirms the need  for 7,500 houses instead of 9,260:

1. •The Average Household Size (AHS) from December's release from the ONS is confirmed at 2.33 (DSS indicated this 2.33 from an earlier census release), not the 2.29 used by officers. This alone makes a difference of over 1,000 houses.
   

2. •The key single-occupancy picture for Stroud is presented in the latest ONS data. It confirms the DSS view previously denied by officers.
   

1. ◦in 10 years there has been an increase in single occupancy of 0.9 %
   

2. ◦This is dramatically lower than the 4% factored-in by the SDC
   

3. ◦The detail in Stroud:
   

1. ■2001, there were 12189 sole occupancy houses in Stroud – this made up 27.3% of the housing.
   

2. ■2011, there were 13472 sole occupancy houses in Stroud – this makes up 28.2% of the housing.
   

3. •DSS said that the Household Representation Rate changes (HRR is household formation by age group) , suggested by SDC , were not happening. The census confirms the DSS view. The expected fall created by the ageing population has been more than compensated for by the increase in the 20 to 34's living in the family home (1 in 3 men and 1 in 6 women now live with parents, a figure that has increased by 6% over the last year). In addition an increased birth rate for the over 30's has further contributed.
   

HOMELESS IN STROUD

Background

1. •Housing is required in Stroud, to create jobs, to provide downsized homes for the elderly and affordable accommodation for the sons and daughters of our district.
   

2. •The 3,099 people on the housing waiting list have recently been described (on the SDC webcast) by senior councillors as 'homeless' and 'without homes'.
   

The Facts 

1. •3,099 people are on the housing waiting list, as at the end of November 2012 and these breakdown as follows:
   

2. •1,893 of these are designated as 'adequately housed' but would like to move to a new area, or a different style of house.
   

3. •963    of the total are overcrowded, by one person. Predominantly children under 16 sharing a room. 
   

4. •166   are seriously overcrowded (say 4-5 children in a 2-3 bed property) or are subject to anti-social behaviour from neighbours.
   

1. ◦where families have over 7 children, the council has a clear permanent policy not to provide such accommodation.
   

5. •75   are either subject to risk of serious domestic violence or have been accommodated in bed-and-breakfast accommodation as homeless.
   

6. •2    are homeless, rough sleepers. Despite council efforts, they choose not to take up B&B accommodation.
   

1. •SDC professionals have much to be proud of, ensuring that true homelessness is not a problem in Stroud:
   

1. ◦Recycling a proportion of the 1500 houses declared as 'empty properties' in Stroud.
   

2. ◦Rebuilding derelict council owned garage-block sites as new council owned housing.
   

3. ◦Demolishing, and rebuilding more densely, the semi derelict housing stock.
   

4. ◦Attempts to downsize the elderly living in family size council homes.
   

5. ◦Supporting Community Land Trusts for affordable rent and the elderly
   

2. 
   

3. •Land bankers and developers have over 4,000 outstanding permissions granted already and not built. There is no need to swell this artificially.