Thursday, January 29, 2015

'We musn't build a mini Ingleby Barwick on outskirts of Marton and Nunthorpe': Election candidates give their views on Middlesbrough housing plans


Building more houses in Middlesbrough is essential to the future of the town, Mayor Ray Mallon has said.


Thousands more homes must be built to safeguard the town’s future and help tackle a predicted budget black hole of £145m by 2020, Mr Mallon believes.


To help achieve this, the mayor wants to see 7,500 new homes built on greenfield sites like Nunthorpe and Marton as well as brownfield sites by 2029 - an average of 440 per year.


The call for more homes, particularly on greenfield sites, is likely to prove controversial. Thousands of residents protested against the Grey Towers Farm housing development at Nunthorpe before it was approved by Middlesbrough Council in 2012.


And last month plans for 164 homes at Low Gill, off Gypsy Lane, were approved by the council despite a petition against the scheme.


Mr Mallon will leave his post in May. In this feature, the candidates for the town’s top job in May’s election give Sarah Dale their views on development in Middlesbrough.


Cllr Dave Budd who is standing as the Labour candidate for Middlesbrough Mayor Cllr Dave Budd


Dave Budd - Labour’s mayoral candidate


“Funding to help renew the older housing stock in places like Middlesbrough was abandoned by the current government. At the same time the housing construction market stalled, though it is now flourishing in Middlesbrough.


“One of the reasons for this improvement is the development of houses which people want, in places they want, in a town which is reinventing itself.


“Another change in housing is the rapid growth of the private rented sector. The impact of welfare cuts and the introduction of the bedroom tax continues to have a marked effect on housing.


“So the town needs houses in many parts of the town with different tenures as people have different requirements and different incomes.


“Middlesbrough has a very good record of developing brownfield sites. Each site is different and some brownfield sites are difficult for developers. To state the obvious, they will build where they perceive there is a market for their product.


“The disproportionate reduction in government funding for Middlesbrough is well documented, but the effect of the application of the New Homes Bonus (NHB) is sometimes ignored.


"In effect the government takes away £2.9m from our grant and gives us back £1.5m in NHB - a net cost of £22.23 for each dwelling. Therefore even with record numbers of houses being built we lose out to a system which benefits the south east.”


Len Junier


Len Junier - Independent


“We need more social housing, as such we need a more joined up, responsive housing offer that sees the local authority working much closer with social landlords like the Thirteen Group (Erimus) and others such as Coast & Country and Accent.


"We also need closer relationships with some of the more specialist housing providers that work with young people, as to our detriment we currently have zero open access accommodation for homeless young people unless they have specific needs such as addictive behaviours.


“We need a much more ‘village’ creation approach to building houses where we are part of a wider and supportive movement that adds to existing areas rather than seeking to create whole swathes of new housing.


“It is hugely important that we bring back into use as many of the currently abandoned homes that we have across various parts of the town as a part of our housing offer.


"We need to make use of limited funding from Homes and Communities Agency/European monies to better consider the Empty Homes Programme and work closer with owners of empty properties.


"It needs to be ‘selective demolition’ rather than the failed wholesale destruction of areas that could have opened up street houses to make them more attractive to young people and/or first time buyers.


“As a part of this programme we should be looking to fund the buying up of eyesore properties, setting up of land trusts and rent/buy opportunities, community co-ops giving people options.”


Andy Preston


Andy Preston - Independent


“Middlesbrough is in tough financial straits and there is proven demand for executive housing, so it does make sense to increase the town’s council tax revenues and halt population decline by building some new executive housing.


“What we mustn’t do, however, is build a mini Ingleby Barwick on the outskirts of Marton and Nunthorpe.


“What we definitely can do is use existing housing stock like bombed out Gresham to generate new income from council tax receipts and at the same time boost the vibrancy of the town centre by having first-time buyers moving in.


“The town has suffered over decades because of knee-jerk reactions to problems. We do need more housing and we need more money but let’s tackle these problems intelligently for the benefit of the whole of Middlesbrough.


“Based on national trends Middlesbrough’s population should now be 180,000. Bad politics and planning means we have 40,000 fewer people than that - and therefore tens of millions of pounds of lost income.”


Former Boro commentator Dave Roberts has confirmed he is to stand as Mayor for Middlesbrough Former Boro commentator Dave Roberts has confirmed he is to stand as Mayor for Middlesbrough


Dave Roberts - Independent


“Houses alone will not attract people as much as offering an entire package - good jobs, key infrastructure and good education go together with quality housing.


“If we want Middlesbrough to grow and prosper, and not stagnate, the town needs more houses, but the challenge is to find the right places to build.


“Middlesbrough is less than a quarter of the size of Redcar and Cleveland and its small size means we are already tightly packed, so much so the town already has three times the number of people per square mile than Stockton.


“A creative focus must be placed on all available areas within the urban area, whether Grove Hill, St Hilda’s, Gresham or even Middlehaven.


"The 700 existing empty houses in the town need a quick new lease of life and small pockets of land off the likes of Cargo Fleet Lane developed.


“However, if after this there is simply not enough brownfield site to satisfy the scale of development needed, the southern stretch of greenfield from Acklam through to Nunthorpe has to be considered.


"However, this has to be done only as part of an extremely sensitive planning process that will also deliver key infrastructure such as the East Middlesbrough Bypass, additional school places, etc.”


* David Masterman, Green Party candidate, was contacted by the Gazette to take part but declined to respond.



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