Cambridge had just under 7350 council homes in September 20231 but, by March this year, there were still almost 28002 people on the waiting list, indicating that the City needs some 40% more social housing to give everyone a roof over their head. Cambridge City Council prides itself on the speed with which it is building new homes and indeed, thanks to an injection of funding through the Greater Cambridge Partnership, it has built more than some local authorities: 316 council houses in the 4-year period 2013/14 to 2017/18, with plans and funding in place for 500 more3. But that still leaves many people stuck on the waiting list.
However, the City Council’s focus is now almost entirely on the misguided policy of ‘affordable’ housing. The Office of National Statistics deems a property ‘affordable’ if a householder has to spend only 30% of their gross income on rent, whilst acknowledging that there is no widely accepted standard on this4. In fact, the term ‘affordable’ is being used for a ragbag of situations encompassing social rented housing (council homes), affordable rent, subsidised home ownership, starter homes, discounted market sale housing and shared ownership5. The proposed 2024-2029 Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy7, the consultation on which closed last month, barely mentions social housing, stating only that the City Council will ‘provide some new council homes at 80% of market rents targeted at local workers’, although national guidance is that these should have rents at no more than 40-50% of the market rent6.
Sarah Nicmanis, Green Party candidate for Coleridge in the upcoming City Council elections, says: “Let’s be clear: affordable housing does not equate to social housing. The rush to provide it, without making enough available for those on council home waiting lists, will lead to growing homelessness. In Cambridge, developers’ profits appear too often to over-ride community needs. We urgently need a massive increase in the supply of genuine social housing. Radical solutions at national level are needed but, until then, we can be much more vigilant locally. Replacing social housing at 40% of market rent with so-called affordable housing at 80% might seem like a short-term solution for older homes with spiralling repair costs. However, it’s destroying the safety net for our most vulnerable families and building a major headache: councils will end up with soaring temporary accommodation bills, thus increasing pressure for cuts in council services, with every resident ultimately losing out.”
With the current astronomical rental prices in Cambridge (often over £1500 a month8), a vast number of new homes will be out of reach for local people; in Cambridge about four out of five people who rent properties cannot afford the average rent9. Cllr Elliot Tong (Abbey) says: “For those people who have had to move out of their council homes temporarily, because of demolition prior to re-building, the new rents may make their return impossible. This will further disrupt long-established local communities, the existence of which is so often overlooked by the wealthier, more itinerant, university and technology -based component of the city’s population.”
The Green Party considers that median local rents should take up no more than about 27% of gross income, for a one-income household on a median salary – this would be a ‘Living Rent’. At present, in Cambridge, as in other apparently wealthy cities such as Bristol11, this is far from possible. As we point out in our consultation response to the proposed new Housing Strategy12, commitment to the Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price charter13 would ensure that all new homes are built to the highest environmental standards, prioritising brownfield sites, while requiring all new developments to come with investment in local services.
The Housing Strategy is not yet approved, but planning applications have been submitted for the demolition of old council homes and their replacement with so-called affordable housing, such as the Ekin Road and recently approved Fanshawe Road developments. We can expect to see many more. The reasons why this is happening are many and not immediately resolvable: lack of suitable building space, the Right to Buy scheme (now widely recognised as disastrous)10, and the increasingly dilapidated council housing stock. But there are key steps we can take: the Housing Strategy must be more transparent about the current housing crisis; clearer policies should be set out for new social housing, with urgent discussion initiated on funding shortfalls; and current planning applications need much better scrutiny.