Middlezoy Housing Need Assessment 2021
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Middlezoy Somerset, England HOUSING NEED ASSESSMENT REPORT MAY 2021 THIS PAGE HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY LEFT BLANK 1 Parish of Middlezoy Housing Need Assessment 2021 Draft Report April 2021 Final Report May 2021 Duncan Harvey – Service Manager (Housing Development) Service Manager Tel: 01278 436440 Email: [email protected] Researcher Rebekah Wood, Housing Development Assistant Organisation Sedgemoor District Council (SDC) The SDC Affordable Housing Delivery Team (AFHDT) is a specialist team responsible for the delivery of new affordable housing and build new council homes. The team sits within the SDC Housing, Communities & Wellbeing Service. The AFHDT provides support and advice to parish council(s), landowner(s), developer(s), and registered provider(s) with the aim of developing new affordable housing. The AFHDT has developed its own housing need assessment processes. Housing Development Team, Sedgemoor District Council, Address Bridgwater House, King Square, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3AR E-mail [email protected] REPORT STRUCTURE PAGE Introduction – Middlezoy 2021 Housing Need Assessment 3 Process and Methodology 4 Middlezoy– The Place – Living in Middlezoy 5 Assessment of Housing Need in Middlezoy 2020-2021 6 Appendix 1 – Affordable Housing Definition 8 Appendix 2 – Policy Considerations for Future Housing 8 Further Information 10 2 Introduction - Middlezoy 2020-2021 Housing Need Assessment From the outset, it is important to appreciate that establishing the future need for housing is not exact science. There is no definitive clinical approach to assessing a person’s future housing need. At best, it is subjective opinion based on the facts in front of you, knowledge of housing market and the professional experience of working in the housing sector over many years. This report offers a snapshot in time insight into the potential immediate housing needs across the parish of Middlezoy in Somerset, England. The Housing Need Assessment (HNA) was undertaken during Spring 2021 (with the support of the parish council) and was conducted to provide an up to date insight into what (if any) unmet local housing need existed in Middlezoy. Purpose of the Middlezoy Housing Need Assessment Identify additional local housing need that is currently not being recognised by housing registers or other secondary data sources. Investigate and identify whether there is any additional local affordable housing need that is currently not being recognised by housing registers or other secondary data sources. Some households may not know how to register of affordable housing. Identify concealed housing need. This includes residents who are unable to afford to rent or buy a home in the parish and are living within another household. Identify households who have been forced out of the parish due to problems finding a suitable home in Middlezoy at a price they can afford. Provide an insight into why local people are struggling to secure a home in Middlezoy. Help inform the Parish Council and the wider community understand what local housing demand exists. Raise awareness of the prevailing housing issues in Middlezoy. Provide an impartial and balanced source of robust primary evidence into possible unmet local housing need In 2017, Sedgemoor District Council’s Affordable Housing Development Team (AFHDT) completed a housing need assessment in Middlezoy. This report highlighted the simple fact that a meaningful number of local people needed assistance finding a suitable home, at a price they could afford, in the Middlezoy parish where they had strong connections such existing residency, family or support needs and employment. High local house prices, along with a lack of smaller affordable homes across all housing tenures was the overwhelming problem facing this cohort of local people. Whilst there is no definitive guidance on the shelf-life of a housing need assessment, the council has always taken the view that any HNA is a credible evidence base for about three years. Other local authorities suggest a five-year period, whilst others do not even call for HNA evidence and choose to rely solely on the basic waiting list data. It could be argued that the 2017 HNA is still valid, albeit nearing the end of its shelf-life. The conclusions of this report will supersede the 2017 HNA and provide the latest snapshot of possible unmet need. For the purposes of the HNA exercise, housing need has been defined as the need of an individual or household to obtain housing which is suitable to their circumstances. It implies that there are problems or limitations with the household’s current housing arrangements and that the household is unable to afford or to access suitable accommodation in the private sector. Such problems may be due to housing costs, size, location, layout, state of repair or security of tenure. This need may be immediate or anticipated soon. 3 Process and Methodology The Middlezoy HNA was an online survey. Letters were sent out, covering every property in the parish. Anyone wishing to respond to the HNA were able to do so digitally. Help was available to those who felt unable to use or needed help to use the online survey portal. Letters were also sent to the eleven (11) households who were registered on Homefinder Somerset Housing Register (housing waiting list) who had indicated that Middlezoy was as their preferred area of choice (all claimed to have a local connection to Middlezoy). The HNA survey requested information about the household, current housing circumstances and the households future housing needs. The personal data provided from each survey has been assessed individually to ascertain each respondent’s personal need/requirement. When assessing a respondent’s ability to solve their own housing requirements, several basic assumptions have been made. Factors such as a person’s current living conditions, their personal needs and future family requirements, the cost and availability of private sector housing and their financial circumstances have all be factored in. In terms of accessing homeownership, it has been assumed the purchase price of a home will not exceed three times their gross annual income plus available deposit (minimum of 10% of purchase price). In terms of renting, the annual cost of their home (rent and any service charge) should not exceed 30% of their disposal income. Respondents who are unable access the open market (buy or rent) are assessed against eligibility for affordable rented or intermediate home ownership product. The respondent’s income, savings and size of family are key factors for assessing their need for affordable housing. The assessment of affordability looks at household incomes and savings, which are then measured against property prices, which suit the size and type, whether rented, or home ownership. Depending on tenure, additional factors are checked that will affect the cost of acquiring the property. The HNA was aimed at people who were struggling to find a suitable home in the parish. Put simply, the HNA sought to identify just how many local people were faced with this challenge and what new housing might be required for these people. It is important to note that the HNA exercise was not a survey of local opinion into the future provision of housing across the parish. The Housing Need Survey analysis used primary data from online survey submission, as well as secondary data from local house prices and income data (web based), Office for National Statistics (2011) and Homefinder Somerset (Housing Register) system to inform this report. The results of the survey will alter with increasing/decreasing values of housing, lenders policies, economic climate, and demographic changes in the community as individual’s situations change. The conclusions provided offer a snapshot in time insight into potential unmet local housing need in Middlezoy in early 2021. Headline Messages 43 survey responses were submitted. The personal data provided from each survey response has been assessed individually to ascertain each respondent’s personal need/requirement. 26 respondents were assessed as being in housing need of an affordable home, all of whom were considered to have a strong local connection with the parish of Middlezoy. 17 respondents were assessed as being able to resolve their future housing requirements in the private sector or did not have a housing need. 4 Middlezoy – The Place - Living in Middlezoy Middlezoy parish has a population of 725 according to the 2011 census. The Parish of Middlezoy is in the heart of rural Somerset, on the edge of the Somerset Levels. The parish includes the village of Middlezoy at its centre of the parish and community. The 2011 census tells us that there were 315 properties across the parish of Middlezoy, with owner occupation being the dominant tenure at 83.7% of all homes (257 households). This is higher than the Sedgemoor district average of 71.3%. With just 27 private rented homes across the parish, accounting for 8.8% of the homes. This below the Sedgemoor district average of 14.5%. There were a further 12 affordable homes across the parish, accounting for a mere 3.9% of the overall housing stock. The vast majority of these do not have any form of local person priority allocation policy attached to them. This means that when they become available, local people are not given any automatic priority for them. In theory, anyone on the county wide housing register could apply for a vacant property. This means that when vacancies arise, local people must compete with others from outside the village. A review of sold house prices in Middlezoy (Rightmove) confirmed an overall average price of £311,000 over the last year. Most sales during the last year were semi-detached properties, selling for an average price of £254,500. Across Sedgemoor, there are a growing number of young adults unable to access the housing ladder and continue to live with parents or relatives.