District is facing homes shortage
FIGURES SHOW NEED FOR MORE HOUSES AND USE OF EMPTY PROPERTIES
MORE homes needs to be built if a Nottinghamshire district is to avoid a housing shortage in years to come, new figures have revealed.
The latest Government data show that just 173 new homes – including new builds, conversions and changes of use – were created in Ashfield in 2019/20.
That means there were an estimated 56,495 homes in the area as of March 2020 – enough for the 56,261 households living there at the time.
However, many of the properties are standing empty, with 1,418 vacant properties in Ashfield as of October 2019 – the latest figures available.
Meanwhile, predictions on population growth by the Office for National Statistics suggest that the area may already be seeing a shortage of housing this year that will only get worse if building is not ramped up.
The ONS estimates that the number of households living in Ashfield in 2021 has increased to 56,941.
The increase, it is understood, has been driven both by “natural” factors – more births than deaths – and immigration from other parts of the UK and abroad.
If the number of houses and flats has continued to increase at the rate seen in the last year, there will be 56,668 homes available in Ashfield – 273 short of the number needed.
The gap will then increase year on year as the population continues to grow, reaching a huge deficit of 7,888 homes by 2043.
Addressing the figures and the concerns over the number of homes being built, however, Ashfield District Council says it is updating its housing sites and has unimplemented planning permission for more than 2,000 homes.
“The council has a track record of delivering housing in the district, successfully developing most of our available brownfield sites,” says
Councillor Kier Barsby, cabinet member for housing.
“The council is not required by the Government to produce an action plan to improve on housing delivery in Ashfield.
“Housing delivery is substantially reliant on the private sector and as of April 2020, Ashfield had unimplemented housing permissions in excess of 2,000 dwellings.
“Some of these will be on sites where development has commenced, but many are yet to be started.
“Understandably, the effect of restrictions associated with the Covid pandemic will have had an effect, and its impacts are expected to continue into the near future.
“We are currently working on updating our available housing sites through the emerging local plan, in accordance with the Government’s identified housing need for Ashfield.
“We have undertaken, and will continue to undertake, active measures to bringing empty homes back into use for the benefit of local people.”
In previous years Ashfield has seen more homes created, with 439 net additions built on average every year since 2001/02.
However, even if that long-term trend continues, the area would still see a shortage of 2,215 homes by 2043.
These figures also assume that all the houses and flats currently empty in Ashfield will be brought back into use.
Unless more vacant homes are occupied, it could mean the housing market will be even more squeezed by that time.
Ashfield is also one of few areas in Nottinghamshire to currently have no official local plan, after the Ashfield Independents scrapped Labour’s plan when the party took office in 2018.
No official plan has been adopted by the council since the decision was taken, with the council currently drawing up papers for the emerging local plan.