Glasgow City Council
Housing Development Committee
Report by Director of Development and Regeneration Services
Contact: Jennifer Sheddan Ext: 78449
Operation of the Homestake Scheme in Glasgow
Purpose of Report:
The purpose of this report is to seek approval for priority groups for housing developments through the new Homestake scheme, and for other aspects of operation of the scheme.
Recommendations: Committee is requested to: - (a) approve the priority groups for housing developments through the new Homestake scheme; (b) approve that in general, the Council’s attitude to whether the RSL should take a ‘golden share’ in Homestake properties is flexible, with the exception of Homestake development in ‘hotspot’ areas where the Housing Association, in most circumstances, will retain a ‘golden share’; (c) approve that applications for Homestake properties should normally be open to all eligible households, with preference given to existing RSL tenants to free up other existing affordable housing options; (d) approve that net capital receipts to RSLs through the sale of Homestake properties will be returned to the Council as grant provider to be recycled in further affordable housing developments.
Ward No(s): Citywide:
Local member(s) advised: Yes No Consulted: Yes No
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Housing Development Committee on 10 November 2005 considered a report on the new Homestake scheme and approved arrangements for its introduction in Glasgow. The report noted that further discussions were required to agree priorities in respect of locations and client groups to be targeted.
1.2 The purpose of this report is to seek approval for priority groups for housing developments through the new Homestake scheme, and for other aspects of operation of the scheme.
2. CONSULTATION
2.1 The Homestake Guidance issued by Communities Scotland requires local authorities to consult with partners on priorities for implementation of the scheme and to relate priorities to the Local Housing Strategy. The citywide Housing Investment Forum which includes representation from the Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations and Communities Scotland considered initial draft proposals at its meeting on 16 November 2005. Detailed feedback is awaited from the Forum. Representations regarding Homestake have been made by Glasgow Council for Inclusive Living and Ownership Options, and by Link Group. The proposals made here reflect all these discussions.
3. ELEMENTS OF THE HOMESTAKE SCHEME
3.1 The Homestake scheme is being introduced to assist households on low incomes who cannot afford to purchase a suitable property in the local housing market. Homestake is another mechanism with which RSLs can develop or purchase properties for householders who cannot afford the full price of the property. This shared equity scheme allows the householder to purchase a stake in the property and the RSL to retain the remaining stake in the property. Distinguishing the scheme from shared ownership, there is no rent to be paid to the RSL for the stake in the property held by the RSL. A key advantage of the scheme, in comparison to low cost home ownership schemes, is that when the property is sold, the RSL stake in the property can be recycled and used in further Homestake schemes.
3.2 There are no fixed income eligibility figures, but applicants would have to demonstrate that they cannot afford to buy suitable housing on the open market, after allowing for retention of £5,000 savings. In the first instance, the expectation is that most households will purchase a stake of between 60% and 80% of the property with the RSL purchasing the remaining stake with Homestake grant from the development funding budget, which will formally be HAG. The minimum percentage stake that a householder can take in the property is 51% and the maximum percentage at the time of initial purchase is 80%. The householder can increase their stake to 100% unless the RSL takes a 20% ‘golden share’.
3.3 Separate criteria apply to households who own property which is scheduled to be demolished for regeneration purposes. There is no minimum percentage stake in the property required to be purchased by these households. However, the householder is required to invest the full sum returned from the demolition/ clearance property in the Homestake property.
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3.4 The property must be newly built for the specific purpose of the Homestake scheme, or bought new from a housing developer. Currently, a pilot Homestake scheme is operating in the Edinburgh housing market under which Homestake applicants can pursue and buy property on the open market and so are not restricted to developments with RSLs. This will not be available in Glasgow, at least for the time being.
4. STRATEGIC CONTEXT
4.1 The assessment of the LHS Update (May 2005) was that Glasgow does not have a general problem of affordability, but that there are serious hotspots, particularly in the West End and inner South Side. It stated that the Council would use Homestake to meet priority needs for affordable housing, and continue to fund Low Cost Home Ownership (on a full and shared equity and shared ownership basis) by RSLs through HAG on the basis of locally justified demand. The full statement relating to affordability of owner occupation is in Appendix 1.
4.2 House price analysis updated to 2004/05 indicates that the affordability position in Glasgow has grown more difficult. There has been a ripple effect whereby many of the less popular areas have now had substantial price increases, and the proportion of homes which are affordable on a three times income basis has fallen. In 2003, 43.3% of second hand sales were ‘affordable’ on the basis of three times workplace Glasgow average income; in 2004/05, this fell to 30.7%. Nevertheless the contrast between the West End and inner South Side on the one hand, and the rest of the city on the other, remains strong. In 2004/05, over 40% of homes were affordable on the three times median resident income basis in 30 postcode sectors, while the median second hand price was £70,000 or less in 36 postcode sectors. Fuller details of house price changes in Glasgow are in Appendix 2. Further work on affordability in Glasgow is ongoing, including an update of the Glen Bramley work commissioned for all of Scotland by Communities Scotland.
4.3 Homestake can support a range of Glasgow’s Local Housing Strategy (LHS) Objectives, particularly in relation to: • LHS Aim A: To promote the regeneration of the city: to retain and attract population, particularly families, by ensuring that a full range of house types, sizes and tenure options is provided within the city • LHS Aim B: To raise the city’s housing in all tenures to satisfactory standards, with affordable costs: to ensure affordability of housing in all tenures • LHS Aim C: To meet people’s changing housing needs: to improve access to suitable housing for people with particular needs.
4.4 The recycling of resources will support the LHS Objective of maximizing available resources by all possible means whilst allocating housing investment based on housing need.
5. RESOURCES
5.1 The Scottish Executive is not making any additional funding available to Glasgow for Homestake. Homestake will be a component of the existing development funding programme, competing with existing streams.
5.2 Recent spend on low cost home ownership schemes may be used as indicative of possible future spend on Homestake. Spend averaged £1.26m in 2002-2003 to 2004- 2005. The average spend on GRO over these three years was an additional £2.01m and some of this might be regarded as available.
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5.3 In addition, the Financial Services Committee on 30 November decided to reduce the Council Tax discount on second homes from 50% to 10%. The projected revenue is £0.22m per year, and is required to be used to finance affordable housing provision by RSLs. The first funds under this provision will become available by June 2007.
5.4 All of these sources together would put an overall ceiling on low cost home ownership programmes in Glasgow of £3.62m per year. On the (very rough) assumption that the average unit cost for Homestake would be of the order of £30,000-40,000, this suggests that the initial Homestake programme would be quite small. It could eventually build up as resale proceeds become available for recycling.
6. SUGGESTED PRIORITY GROUPS
6.1 Taking the above into account, the following groups are proposed as priorities for Homestake funding.
(i) Affordable housing for families In recognition of the LHS priority to increase family housing options and increase the population within Glasgow, the Homestake scheme should be targeted at family households who cannot afford to purchase in their local area or alternative neighbouring areas. The rationale for this would be that while the city still has plenty of affordable housing if size of house is disregarded, many families with children are likely to have considerable difficulty in finding an adequately sized affordable house. It is desirable that construction of larger family houses for owner occupation should be promoted. Another significant grouping could be families living in over-expensive private rented accommodation, as highlighted at the lone parents consultation in March 2005. It is suggested that, as far as possible, homes provided under this element of the scheme should be situated in areas of lower housing pressure.
(ii) Mixed Tenure Development in High Price Areas The viability of mixed tenure developments in the ‘hotspot’ areas could benefit from the presence of Homestake along with social rented housing development. At the same time the Homestake element would make a greater contribution to affordability than open market sale for owner occupation.
It is recommended that in ‘hotspot’ areas, a key aspect of Homestake developments would be the retention of a ‘golden share’ by the Housing Association. This would mean that in areas where there may be issues of land supply to develop new affordable housing provision, the Homestake development would remain a more affordable option within the housing market.
(iii) Householders with particular housing needs Homestake could increase the housing options of households with particular housing needs. The scheme could make an important difference to individuals who would otherwise be unable to find a suitable independent living solution. Consideration was given to whether, in the development of particular needs housing delivered through Homestake, a ‘golden share’ should be retained by the Housing Association. Although there are sound reasons for the use of the ‘golden share’ in order to ensure that the properties will be targeted on re-sale towards individuals with particular housing needs, this could be considered discriminatory and therefore, the ‘golden share’ option is not recommended for individual properties within a larger development.
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(iv) Owner occupiers in clearance and redevelopment areas This group would include ‘type 3’ projects which grant fund RSLs to develop new properties for sale on a shared equity basis to owner occupiers whose homes are scheduled for demolition and who wish to participate in an agreed area redevelopment plan. This priority would assist in progressing regeneration projects and increasing housing options by providing an additional housing solution for households who are required to move house.
In these circumstances, no minimum stake is required to be taken by households. This could exert a significant demand on development funding with high investment needs per Homestake unit. On the other hand, a key criterion in the Homestake scheme is that households should not be able to meet their housing needs in the area on the open market. Therefore, Homestake could not be used if there were alternative affordable housing opportunities in the area. Due to the nature of many of the key regeneration areas, it is likely that there will be alternative affordable private housing already available.
The Council cannot give HAG to the GHA. If owners in GHA clearances are included in this category, they would have to be served by a partner RSL in the same way as for the RSL half of the new build Reprovisioning programme. The GHA’s large clearance programme could generate significant demand for Homestake.
7. OTHER DECISION ON OPERATION OF HOMESTAKE
Onward Sale of Homestake Properties 7.1 There are a number of options for the onward sale of a Homestake property.
(i) Where the RSL retains a share of the equity, it can buy back the Homestake property and sell it onto another Homestake owner or the Homestake property can be sold directly to another Homestake owner. Alternatively, the Homestake owner can sell on the open market, keeping their % capital stake in the property with the housing association realising their % capital stake in the property.
(ii) If the Homestake householder has 100% ownership they are entitled to sell on the open market.
7.2 In all cases, any net capital receipt to the RSL will be returned to the Council as grant provider. This will then be recycled into the Development Funding programme. It is recommended that the Council should state that such receipts will normally be recycled into Homestake or similar low cost home ownership programmes.
7.3 Whether the RSL has control of the resale of the property may depend on whether it has taken a ‘golden share’ of 20%. In general it is suggested that the Council’s attitude to whether the RSL should take a ‘golden share’ should be flexible.
Application Procedures 7.4 It is suggested that application for Homestake properties should normally be open to all eligible households, rather than limited to those already on the RSL’s waiting list. But preference should be given to existing tenants of RSLs where this would free up a house for reletting to another household in housing need.
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8. RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 Committee is requested to: -
(a) approve the priority groups for housing developments through the new Homestake scheme (b) approve that in general, the Council’s attitude to whether the RSL should take a ‘golden share’ in Homestake properties is flexible, with the exception of Homestake development in ‘hotspot’ areas where the Housing Association, in most circumstances, will retain a ‘golden share’ (c) approve that applications for Homestake properties should normally be open to all eligible households, with preference given to existing RSL tenants to free up other existing affordable housing options (d) approve that net capital receipts to RSLs through the sale of Homestake properties will be returned to the Council as grant provider to be recycled in further affordable housing developments.
9. SERVICE IMPLICATIONS
Financial – Homestake does not involve any additional financial commitment by the Council. It will generate receipts in future years. Legal – None Personnel – None Service Plan - None
Development and Regeneration Services JS 13 January 2006
L:\Cmtserv\HOUSING\PARENT\Meetings\2006\190106\Item 04.doc APPENDIX 1: EXTRACT FROM THE LHS INVESTMENT STRATEGY, May 2005
The Council’s approach to affordability of owner occupation comprises the following: