Report of a special meeting held on Tuesday, 13^th July 2004

Alison Thompson of The Rural Housing Trust attended a special meeting to discuss affordable housing in Nonington and expressed her pleasure at the large turn out.

The Rural Housing Trust is a charity established in the mid 1970’s, their client base was mainly agricultural workers who had ceased work and therefore lost the tied house they were living in. The client base has now changed to younger people and families who are unable to afford to buy or rent a house in the village they have lived and worked in for some years. The Trust is the main provider of affordable housing in small villages with a population of less than 1,000. If younger people cannot afford to live in the villages then the community will begin to decline as will amenities so the housing situation in villages must be addressed. The Rural Housing Trust will only work in conjunction with the Parish Council.

There are four criteria for an affordable house:

The applicant must have been a current resident for 4/5 years.

The applicant used to live in the village but had to move away because of costs.

The applicant must have close family in the village to which they give/receive support.

The applicant must be employed in the village.

The houses the Charity build stay for the benefit of villagers in perpetuity. Tenants of the homes will not be able to buy more than an 80% share but this is more usually 50% and they can only sell back to the Trust. The houses built will be some shared ownership and some will be available for rent usually in the ratio of 40% and 60%.

To see if there is a need in Nonington a survey will be carried out, the first step will be a questionnaire delivered to every householder in Nonington. The forms are anonymous and confidential and will have a prepaid envelope enclosed. The questionnaire will be analysed by the Trust and the results discussed with the Parish council. If a need is identified by the survey then the Trust would compile a register of suitable applicants and rely on the Parish Council to confirm they conform to the criteria. The Trust would then obtain the funding, land and design for the houses. The Parish Council would be consulted and would need to approve each stage. The allocation of the homes would be totally determined by the Trust.

The land involved would be outside the village envelope of land, which would not normally be considered for building permission, this would include agricultural land. The amount of land could probably be approximately half an acre with a view to building (say) six properties.

Funding for the building work would come from the Government under a Rural Programme but might not be immediate as a lot of other Charities apply. Even if a grant were awarded it would still take up to 3 years to build the properties.

The approximate rent per week for a property would be £75/£83, and the tenancy would be forever, if needed, and not come up for renewal every 6 months or yearly.

A shared ownership on a 2-bed property worth approximately £150,000 would require a mortgage in the sum of £75,000 as a 50% share in the property. If the house sold for (say) £180,000 5 years on, then the profit would be split between the Housing Trust and the occupier. This £15,000 might be used for a deposit on another house in the area.

The Housing Trust has a list of Mortgage Lenders who are quite happy to lend money on this type of house.

Houses cannot be extended and there is no minimum time before the house can be sold.

The maintenance of the shared property is down to the occupiers but rented property would have an external agency to do the maintenance. A housing association would manage all the properties.

Wingham built 12 properties with the Trust taking 3 years to complete and there are 60 people on the register. They now have the go ahead to build a further 25 houses but still cannot satisfy everybody. The Parish Council does not allocate the housing only confirms the fact that the people on the register conform to the criteria.

Cllr Barnett asked for a motion proposing the Parish council should arrange a survey in the Village.

Proposed by Cllr Holt to proceed as outlined above

Seconded by Cllr Craggy

Passed unanimously

The Chairman declared the meeting closed at 8.30 p.m.

An informative leaflet produced by the Trust is available from the Clerk, Mrs Linda Player, on 01304 840410. Further information is available on the website www.nonington.com

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