Housing problems
Perhaps the solution to the local housing shortage lies closer to home than we like to admit....
Discuss.
The number of vacant properties in Scotland has soared to a four-year high of 103,000, (4.2% of the total), a Bank of Scotland survey has shown.[...]Yes, they may be the family homes that Mary in Glasgow (or Brisbane, or Texas) was born and brought up in, but if they are empty 11 months of the year, they are not helping the local situation except by the smallest margins.
In the Western Isles 1,850 homes were unoccupied - 13.2% of all properties.
Discuss.
18 comments:
I believe the issue is the grants that are handed out for housing.
Why buy a house when you can build your own cheaper at the expense of the taxpayer?
The sooner a level playing field with the mainland is installed the better. Crofters get away with murder and cream the tax payer time and time again.
What do they actually contribute to the natonal GDP?
Is there a shortage of housing or a shortage of money to buy/build housing? I imagine its the later in which case "empty" houses are not really the problem.
Admittedly, if those second homes were to come onto the market the price of housing might fall, alleviating the problem of a shortage of money somewhat ... however income and interest rates are a much bigger factor I expect. The current building standards also make the costs of a new house more expensive that the existing stock.
The whole thing is a bit out of balance.
Here's a really funny thing. I have a 'family home' that my parents built themselves, and which I was born and brought up in, and where I spent my whole childhood.
It's incredibly dear to me; and it's tied up with my whole sense of being. I'd love to return there one day, but my work keeps me in a place where I'm forever a stranger.
When my parents pass away, I'd love to get tax relief on keeping it empty but habitable so that my kids and I can spend our summer holidays there, and so that my kids can understand something about their ethnic identity.
My family home is in Sussex. Discuss.
Anon 7.40
Not to mention the sheer unattractiveness of the new builds.
Everyone just wants a house quick and up, so 95% of the new builds are pebble dash monstrosities.
Although you have to be careful about being romantic about the traditional houses, the fact is there is a vernacular building style on these islands. I'm not saying move back into smoky blackhouses, but preserve what we have, stop houses falling into decay. The traditional croft houses are at the very least worth preserving, they have character, and they are polite and austere, not big and in your face like the hideous new builds.
Plus, instead of letting private individuals just build their own houses here and there, there needs to be more co-ordinated construction. Whole streets of new houses, with news roads, playparks etc is far better for a sense of community and is more cost effiecient. Basically an organised and pre planned building project.
Its not just private housing. I know of social housing stock here in Pairc that is used as second homes or a week end retreat. How many on the HHP housing list - hundreds!!?*
Wiff of the communist this thread...get labour to repossess them all, or draft in Robert Mugabee ;-)
I'm not sure how you would convince someone to rent their holiday home out to the homeless of the Western Isles. They will fear that their beloved house would become a den of iniquity.
Its not holiday homes, and where are the homeless? I dont see many occupied cardboard boxes on Francis Street of an evening.
Lots of homes, some of the cheapest in the UK, in Estate Agent windows for all to see. But no, folk want to bulk carbuncles. How about at least modernising the traditional old croft houses like on Tiree?
One of the factors contributing to the housing shortage in the Uists, don't know about Lewis and Harris, is the decrofting of grant aided croft houses which then become holday homes for the ex islanders who have moved to the mainland.
The house is essentially lost to the community, and very often the croft then becomes moribund.
Either live on a croft, or renounce the tenancy.
I'm not going to get involved in the debate as to whether crofting is even remotely viable, but one thing for sure is that village communities die when they are filled with holiday homes. More insiduous is that the decrofting lark effectively prevents new blood coming in.
"Either live on a croft, or renounce the tenancy"
Here, Here. Look in Ness. What a mess, crofting has died because people cling onto the land and don't work it. Criminal.
Villages also die when they become full of bare-land crofts. People talk about crofting being the heart of the community but croft after croft of sheep with no people is the death of a place. People are the heart of a community whether they are from here or from there.
Have the community buyouts actually done anything positive for crofting? Here they have simply introduced another level of bickering and bitching. Our new landlords are pretty much hated, whereas we hardly knew the old ones.
Was that a good use of public money?
Living in the Pairc said...
Its not just private housing. I know of social housing stock here in Pairc that is used as second homes or a week end retreat. How many on the HHP housing list - hundreds!!?*
11:34 AM
If you know that this happens, let HHP know. By not doing so, through perhaps a false sense of loyalty, you are in effect condoning such behaviour. Those houses should be homes for folk who are a part of the community.
4.50 Anonymous said...
Its not holiday homes, and where are the homeless? I dont see many occupied cardboard boxes on Francis Street of an evening.....
You don't need to be roofless to be homeless. Consequently, you and others, might not be aware of the number of people who are homeless or potentially homeless
10.33- Plus, instead of letting private individuals just build their own houses here and there, there needs to be more co-ordinated construction. Whole streets of new houses, with news roads, playparks etc is far better for a sense of community and is more cost effiecient. Basically an organised and pre planned building project.
How does that fit in with our culture, diverse communities etc. Its a non starter if you think about it instead of giving a knee jerk reaction.
4.50 Lots of homes, some of the cheapest in the UK, in Estate Agent windows for all to see. But no, folk want to bulk carbuncles. How about at least modernising the traditional old croft houses like on Tiree?
You need to consider the issues in renovating a croft house (not comprehensive but including-overcoming all Below Tolerable Standard defects and keeping the house warm at reasonable cost) and the costs of renovation compared to new built.
7.40:
"I believe the issue is the grants that are handed out for housing.
Why buy a house when you can build your own cheaper at the expense of the taxpayer?"
Remember we have fragile communities and a proud culure and heritage. Crofting is part of that.
Remember also that building costs on Lewis are approx 20% higher than the mainland. Look at the VAT issues.
How do you think that we can "install" a level playing field with the mainland?
I wonder how and why things continue to be like these when there are conferences, workshops and seminars about housing solutions in every state going on almost everyday? Words good be good but we need to act now. Thanks for sharing your interesting post. Good luck.
No words are bad, especially when people are getting paid for them. The main occupation of policy makers is now consultation, all of which is ignored, and meetings and seminars to construct wish lists for them to implement if there is enough public money to be accessed. This is all rubbish.
Look at the community buy-outs, all the trusts basically talking though the same problems, competing for the same funds, and now spawning an umbrella organisation where more talking about the common issues can go on, and more lobbying for cash. Of course, all the new rulers can meet up and have big buffets on expenses and feel much more 'responsible' than the rest of us, many of whom are actually trying to get real projects going on the ground.
Not wishing to pick on buy-outs though, a look through the posts shows just how much money and opportunity is squandered by committees in sealed rooms, thinking about a "good idea".
I agree with 10:33, too many of the aesthetically pleasing two-up, two-downs are left to moulder and rot before being knocked down for one of the new monstrosities. When a traditional house has a good foundation and four good walls intact, does it really cost that much more to renovate it to modern standards than it does to build an ugly monstrosity in its place? And of course each new house has to be bigger than the one most recently built nearby...can't have the Joneses ahead of us. Great if you're expecting to have 16 kids but...
Someone in the know about these things told me a couple of years back that roughly 97% of planning applications submitted to the council are approved (windfactories are 100% of course), whereas the average elsewhere in Scotland is about 85%. I don't know if that's actually true (Angus?), but the architectural mess many Lewis villages are in now appears to back up his statement.
When I lived on Mull a survey showed that there were around 20 families living permanently in caravans because of a lack of available property, yet there were numerous houses lying empty or occupied for just a few weeks of the year. This, in my mind, is criminal.
I can understand the sentimental connection someone may feel to a family home that they grew up in and have now inherited, but are unable to occupy on a full time basis, but set that aside - sell it and let a family come in from the cold and make a full contribution to the local community.
Empty homes are just nails in the coffin for so many of our remote communities.
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