Tower block ‘excludes people on waiting list’
Councillor slams tenancy decision
A CITY councillor has slammed a decision to exclude people on the housing waiting list from living in a new 22-storey tower block, saying it is ‘not good enough’.
Planning permission was recently granted for Portsmouth City Council’s Arundel Street building but none of the 76 flats will be handed to anyone currently on the waiting list.
Instead 19 out of 76 flats will be rented at affordable rates, while the rest will be privately rented.
Councillor Claire Udy expressed concerns about the lack of social housing.
She questioned why the flat building isn’t going to accommodate any of the 2,258 households on the waiting list, and said: ‘We can’t hark on as a council about the need for people to have housing and not take them off the list.’
The council has defended the decision, saying the £22m building needs to pay for itself.
Cllr Udy said: ‘This (building) is not about regeneration – it is about gentrification. If we are going to be building more housing, it is our duty to take people off the housing waiting list. It is already slow moving and we know our city is overcrowded.’
The building, on the site of the Shopmobility store, was approved by eight councillors with only Cllr Udy against.
Cllr Udy, who represents Charles Dickens ward where the city centre high-rise will be built, said the flats’ rent could be as high as £600-£800 a month.
As reported, each flat will cost approximately £300,000 on a build-to-rent basis.
Affordable flats will be rented at 80 per cent of the market value.
‘It feels like it’s targeting a market of some metropolitan elite and commuters who would take advantage of the great transport links,’ said Cllr Udy.
‘It is build to rent there but it could be build to part rent and part buy. With rents that high, it is already excluding those on benefits.’
Cllr Luke Stubbs previously said the numbers did not add up when planning was at an early stage in February. He was among those who approved the application on September 9.
Defending the new building, cabinet member for planning policy and city development, Cllr Hugh Mason, said: ‘It is on a very expensive site in the middle of the city centre where the only way to build is up and it will be very high quality.
‘My view is that the city needs all kinds of housing.’