The meeting started with a presentation about the needs for social housing in the District led by Councillor Pip Hazelton and Paul Williamson of Canterbury Housing Advice Centre (“CHAC”). Both spoke of the growing need for affordable housing and a shortage of supply. Canterbury’s council area is one of relatively low incomes and high housing prices.
They shared some alarming statistics. The housing needs register has about 1,200 names on it with 220 applications per month. In 2023 some 2,000 households had discussions with the council about homelessness. The council does not have enough homes to house those in need. It has had to resort to temporary housing for many which led to an unrecovered cost of around £800,000 in the last year.
Councillor Hazelton talked of the Housing Needs assessment showing a need for nearly 500 affordable homes a year in the District. The council confronts issues with Right to Buy where houses are taken out of council ownership at a discount to value while it does not have access to funds to construct new properties as housing revenue is capped by law and must be self-funding. The council also confronts a large bill in annual maintenance having taken back management of the housing. They have managed to acquire some new homes in the year from a developer.
CHAC talked of the work they do helping people stay in accommodation. They described a situation where rental costs are growing beyond the means of people to pay them. Their work is focused on keeping people in their homes and saving council resources.
Both shared an alarming view of an area with high and growing levels of housing problems, only partially addressed by the New Plan. We did not however get a deeper analysis of the particular challenges we face in CT5 which may need further attention by the Forum. In the questions, attendees raised the issue of Airbnbs in Whitstable taking up housing stock. Councillor Hazelton talked of the limited powers the council has to regulate this. She also mentioned the Short-term Let Accommodation Bill in Parliament which will tighten rules over this area. The issue of local access to local housing was also raised. The council does have influence over allocation of its properties but not over Housing Associations who depend on selling to outside buyers to make their projects viable. Outsourcing housing development appears to bring problems with control of the shape and direction of developments.
Finally the council’s plan to retrofit houses was covered. The council took back management from East Kent Housing and does not have the survey of all properties which is needed to access government grants. Accordingly, the council has won none. Councillor Hazelton reported that this is being rectified.
The Forum then moved to discuss its next steps. We talked of the Forum’s role to promote good governance and to involve local people in discussions of local issues and decisions. We also serve as a meeting place for the public and their councillors on issues facing our area and the whole District. We also provide an umbrella and support services (such as a bank account, insurance and website) for our subgroups including the Eco Group with its Wild about Whitstable event, the Traffic and Active Travel Group which raises attention to issues involving traffic speed, crossings, accessibility and local public transport, and the Town Council Group. We are discussing a further group that wants to work on accessibility in our towns. We also facilitate the work of other groups such as Plastic Free Whitstable.
We discussed upcoming plans to take the Forum on the road to meetings in Tankerton, Seasalter and Swalecliffe. We also discussed work being performed on delivery of a community group website for local sporting, welfare, artistic and pastime groups to share their details and activities. The Forum is working on a Community Day event for next year where local community groups can showcase their activities and seek new members.
In response the audience raised the issue of how our area used to have a sense of togetherness which has been lost – partly because of the influx of residents from outside the town. Some raised the issue of how we had become rather “town-centric” with an over-emphasis on the town centre. The need for a more active business promotion organisation was noted in Gorrell, with folks noting how Tankerton’s traders seemed very coordinated.
The sub-groups reported on their activities. The Traffic and Active Travel Group discussed its activities including its speed watch campaigns and a plan to expand on its survey concerning the public’s desires for transport improvements. Harbour Day was discussed as well as the Forum’s commitment to support a proposal for a mural in Swalecliffe that has been approved in principle by the council. Finally, we raised a request by the trustees of the Whitstable Improvement Trust for new members. The Trust gives grants to deserving local project and social activities – last year it helped Wild about Whitstable and this year helped fund projects for the economically disadvantaged.
The meeting ended with a discussion of the campaign to save the Brooklands Farm site from development. Ali Tappenden from the Save Brooklands Farmland campaign spoke and shared information. The Forum committed to discussing with the campaign how we could help promote and share debate on the issue.
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