HOUSES UNAFORDABLE FOR MANY
The latest house price figures (2016/17)
have just been published and prove what we all know, that for many people in
our region the chance of affording a home is getting less and less. In Kirklees
the average income is £11,153 per year short of being enough to secure a mortgage
on the average priced house.
Property speculators are not willing to
build affordable housing and use every rouse they can to avoid even the meagre
percentages advised in planning guidance. Council building has all but been
eliminated and Housing Associations have seen their stock diminished by the
extension of Right to Buy, nothing but Government theft, subsidised by the
forced sale of council houses. Money is taken off Northern Councils to pay for handouts
in the South of England that lead to individuals making a fortune and houses
being left empty as they are snapped up by Russian investors. Is it any wonder that they subsidise the Conservative Party. We also have to subsidise Wakefield, Calderdale and Bradford who transferred their Council Houses to Housing Associations.
The distribution of Housing association
affordable homes across West Yorkshire does not help Kirklees residents. Whereas
Wakefield have 35,834, Bradford 32,249, Leeds 18,138, Calderdale 14,317,
Kirklees has only 6,122
This is why the Development Plan is so
important, we need to ensure the building of affordable homes, either to buy or
rent, it is unfortunate that Nationally it is proven that market forces cannot,
or do not wish to, deliver the houses the country needs.
Not
helping the problem, there are 1,932 long term empty homes and 871 Second Homes
in Kirklees.
Thanks to the National Housing Federation
for these numbers.
