Council housing in crisis

WAITING lists for council houses in Arun have more than quadrupled since 1997, leading to long waits for families in unsuitable and often over-crowded accommodation.

According to statistics released by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Arun district has the highest rise in waiting list numbers across Sussex, with 2,309 families currently awaiting re-allocation or their first allocation, up 324 per cent on the 544 on the list in 1997.

The crisis is highlighted by the plight of Nicola Waghorne and her three sons, who live in cramped conditions in a two-bedroom flat in Littlehampton.

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Arun District council has a current stock of 3,400 properties '“ all occupied.

Frank Hickson, head of housing management at Arun, said the dramatic rise in applications was not just due to the increase in demand for housing and the shortage of affordable housing in the area but also due to a change in the council's housing allocation policy.

In August 2003, the government introduced new guidelines on council housing allocation as part of the Homelessness Act 2002.

Before these new guidelines were enforced, the council identified local priority groups for council housing, such as low-income families and the elderly.

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Under the new guidelines the list is open to anybody, whether local or not.

"The difficulty," said Mr Hickson, "is that we don't have enough housing stock to readily meet these needs and a number of people will have to wait for a considerable amount of time before they can be considered for housing."

One major factor in the housing shortfall is the under-occupancy of the council's current housing stock.

When a family's children leave home and their bedrooms are no longer being used, there is no enforceable policy for allocating the parents more suitable accommodation and allowing another family to move into their house.

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"Our tenants have a secure tenancy with the council," said Mr Hickson. "We cannot force them to vacate these family properties so we can use them for families that need them.

"We don't want to force people out of the homes they'be been living in for years and possibly far away from their friends and families.

"The fact is that we don't have enough of these types of houses. We do have a scheme to try and encourage people to downsize and our allocation policy gives priority to people wishing to do so."

But the threat of more and more houses being built in the district is not a popular goal for many Arun residents.

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When plans were unveiled for 400 new homes in Toddington, public opinion was firmly against the idea and concerns were raised over how the area's infrastructure, such as the roads, would cope.

"The council are working with housing associations to try and build more affordable housing on suitable on appropriate sites," said Mr Hickson."

One family struggling to cope with the effect of the housing shortage is the Waghorne's of Greenfields in Wick.

Nicola Waghorne, a single-mother lives with her three sons, aged 6, 18 months and two months, in a cramped two-bedroom flat.

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Arun council has told Mrs Waghorne that her family faces a long wait to be re-homed due to the shortage of suitable housing.

Her six-year-old son sleeps in the second bedroom and the other two boys share a bedroom with their mum.

"I appreciate I'm not the only person in this situation but I think it's disgusting," she said. "I know lots of people who are living in larger houses than they should be.

"All I want to do is be able to give a better quality of life to my children.

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"There's one woman round where I live who's in a three-bedroom family home but her kids have left now and so she's on her own.

"She should be offered a flat and let a family move into the house there needs to be a system in place to move these people on to more suitable houses.

"The council haven't even once offered to come out and have a look at my flat.

"They even said I should convert my living room into another bedroom but then where will the kids be able to play and where can I get some space?"

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"The council keep saying 'there's a housing shortage', that seems to be their easy answer.

"If there's such a housing shortage then why are only 20 per cent of the homes at Toddington going to be designated as affordable housing?

"It just seems crazy to me."