Plan to tackle housing affordability crisis backed

Plans to tackle a housing affordability crisis in an area where more than 5,500 people are waiting for a suitable place to live, have been approved.

Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council has said it wants to turn all the council land and buildings it can into housing to help tackle the issue.

The district is one of the most unaffordable places to live in the UK, with many homes out of budget for most first time buyers.

"Each temporary unit that we can build is a life rescued; each supported unit is a life enhanced in often difficult circumstances; and each social unit is someone else off the housing waiting list and into their new home," councillor Matt McCabe said.

Work is under way on a number of schemes, including 18 social rent flats at the former council highways maintenance depot in Bath, 16 supported living homes on the city's Tufa Field, and also at Danes Lane in Keynsham.

However, there remains a shortage of larger homes, with 371 households in the BANES area waiting for a four bedroom property.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, only 16 such properties have become available in the last three years.

When presenting the housing plan to the council on 13 February, McCabe warned the authority had lost stock under the right to buy scheme.

"Four bedroom houses are very popular under right to buy — and of course councils have not been funded to replace them.

"So, we remain dependent on the market, which consistently fails to build enough houses — but we also rely on the market model.

"It is the profit from market sales that subsidises our affordable and social units," he said.

The cabinet voted unanimously to approve the plan.

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