Families on Bath and North East Somerset Council’s housing list hoping to get a four bedroom home face a wait of 200 years, the council’s head of housing has warned.
As of the end of 2023, there were 4,923 families on the council’s housing list competing for the 500-600 social homes which become available each year. Households classed as non-priority could expect to be housed in just under four and a half years, as of 2024 — but for families needing a home with four or more bedrooms, the wait is much much longer.
Speaking at a council scrutiny panel discussing its housing plan on January 22, head of housing Graham Sabourn said: “If you take a simple average, […] how many people are on the list and how often four bed properties come up, you will be waiting around 200 years — quite a long time —so absolutely it is an issue.”
A total of 371 households in Bath and North East Somerset are currently waiting for a four bedroom social home. But in the last three years, only 16 have become available.
There are 31 registered providers in Bath and North East Somerset managing 11,935 social homes. Over the last 10 years, 935 new social homes have been added to the housing stock and, in recent years, Bath and North East Somerset Council itself has started building council homes again under its £12m B&NES Homes programme.
But for decades, the area was dependent on housing associations to build social housing. All the while, the stock of four bedroom council homes was depleted and not replenished by housing associations.
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Mr Sabourn told the panel: “Historically four bed properties have been very attractive to right to buy so a disproportionate number of those large family homes were sold through the right to buy process, and the flipside is that four bed properties are very expensive to build. […] So therefore there is not that incentive for RPs [registered providers — also called housing associations to build four bed properties.”
Meanwhile, some four bedroom social homes are now occupied by just one person, which Mr Sabourn said was “perfectly understandable” as they may have brought their family up there and get on well their their neighbours. He said the council could look at incentives to encourage them to move, such as financial incentives or other attractive properties and letting policies.
Meanwhile, Bath and North East Somerset Council is working with housing associations to build more four bedroom social homes. The council mandates that a proportion of new social housing are four bedroom homes, funded housing associations to convert their stock to larger homes, and has aided families needing extensions to their social homes.
The council is also building its first council homes for a generation — with a unique approach focussing on unused council assets. Council leader Kevin Guy said in a statement: “This administration is working tirelessly to find and develop every possible brownfield site, no matter how small, so that we can provide multiple-use accommodation.”
Its first new council homes — completed in 2023 — were seven one and two bedroom flats at 117 Newbridge Hill, a Victorian villa near the RUH which had previously been council offices. Meanwhile work is currently underway to build a total of 18 new social rent flats at Argyle Works, a former council highways maintenance depot on the Lower London Road in Bath, and at Danes Lane, some council-owned land opposite the big Tesco in Keynsham previously used for informal parking.
Mr Guy said: “After decades of underdevelopment in the national housing sector, Bath and North East Somerset Council is playing its part to tackle the affordable housing crisis. It was great to see how we are making the most of smaller sites such as these, both of which had been ignored historically because they posed challenges.”
He added: “We are making good progress on our commitment to provide the affordable homes that are so badly needed in our area. Our B&NES Home programme currently comprises 66 units in operation, with a further 48 units under construction or due to start construction within the next 12-18 months.”
The homes are being built by Aequus, the council’s wholly owned building company. Company chair Sally Higham said: “Both when finished will be energy efficient and therefore more affordable to run for residents. I look forward to returning when they are completed.”
But with the B&NES Homes programme making use of small parcels of brownfield land, it has not yet led to more four bedroom social housing being built. Mr Sabourn told the scrutiny panel: “Where we will have an opportunity, we will do that. It is an absolute challenge. There is no silver bullet to this.”