Shelter blast Thanet Council
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by
Martin Jefferies
A housing charity has slammed Thanet council as one of the worst
performing areas in the country for providing affordable homes.
Shelter claims the authority built
an average of just 63 affordable homes per annum over the last
three years - four per cent of the annual requirement for the area
of 1,544.
The results suggest Thanet is one of the worst performing areas
in the country, although a spokesman for Thanet council said it
actually provided 90 homes in 2008/9 - six per cent of the number
required.
The council ranks in the bottom 10 per cent of English
authorities for affordable housing delivery, even when using its
own figures.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: "These figures
are extremely worrying. With around 4,700 households on the housing
waiting list in Thanet, the council must work far harder to ensure
more desperately needed affordable homes are provided if it ever
hopes to meet the housing needs of the local population."
Thanet council defended its performance in a statement issued
today.
It insisted that the authority had exceeded its 2008/9
target of delivering 70 affordable homes, adding that Shelter’s
figures for the following 12 months would show it had doubled the
number of homes provided in one year to 176.
Cllr Zita Wiltshire, cabinet member for community services at
Thanet council, said the survey automatically favoured areas with
less housing need.
She said: "We’re aware that we’ve not delivered as many
affordable homes as we’d like to but this survey isn’t giving the
true picture of the work we’re doing.
"In somewhere like Thanet, which has a huge housing need, it’s
almost impossible to deliver all the houses required, especially in
a single year."
Shelter said it would take more than nine years to clear the
number of Thanet households on council and housing association
waiting lists, if the rate of lettings continued at its current
pace.
The average selling price of a home in Thanet is £150,000. The
annual income needed to buy an average home in the area is £34,200
- more than double the local average gross yearly salary of
£15,600.
Thursday, March 18 2010
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