The annual cost of housing benefit in Eastbourne is more than £30 million, while rents continue to rise and limited numbers of new homes are built.
The lack of housing is the driving force behind the Eastbourne Community Land Trust, which plans initially to build five houses for key workers and their families.
Conservative MP Caroline Ansell spoke at its annual meeting this week, highlighting the widening disparity between incomes and property prices.
More than 25 years ago, Ms Ansell bought her first property in the town as a newly-qualified teacher earning £10,000 in her mid-20s.
The one-bedroom flat on Gore Park Road (above) in the Old Town with a small garden cost £22,000 – about double the salary.
The starting salary for a teacher will be £30,000 next year, but the price of a one-bedroom flat in Eastbourne on RightMove is now at least £180,000 – about six times the salary.
“Can you imagine their delight if they could buy their home for three times their salary?” she asked members of the trust at their meeting in Gildredge Bowls Club last night (October 11).
She said that, as a teacher, she saw at first hand the effect housing problems had on children. “When they do not have that continuity and security of a home, they struggle to thrive.”
Ms Ansell (above) went on to point out that the average house price in Eastbourne is £277,000 and the average monthly rental on a one-bedroom flat is £700.
She voiced concerns that the £30 million a year paid out in Eastbourne in housing benefits to cover people’s rent might be adding to the inflationary effect on those rents.
“That is how much that’s going into this circular economy,” she said, adding that the cost of housing was changing society by affecting people’s decision to start a family and build their lives.
There is a need for 560 new homes every year in Eastbourne, but the actual number constructed is about 200, she said.
The MP said that the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill going through Parliament is aimed at streamlining planning to help communities build the homes they need.
She told the trust’s members: “You have a really important part to play in housing, the most important thing we can do in our own town.”
The trust is aiming to raise £1.25 million to build the homes in Biddenden Close, Langney, (above) on the site of an old garage block. It received planning permission in August.
They will be available on a shared ownership basis, with people paying part rent, part mortgage, likely to be about £800-900 a month for a three-bedroom house.
Trust chair Sandy Medway told the meeting: “They will be for hard-working keyworkers’ families who aspire to buy their own home. It makes them affordable because they only need a small deposit.”
It is hoped most of the money will be raised by a mortgage, a Homes England grant, the part-sale of the houses and a community share offer.
There are more than 500 Community Land Trusts in England and Wales. They are not-for-profit organisations that own and develop land and buildings for the benefit of the community.
Meanwhile, the BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service has reported that Liberal Democrat-controlled borough council leader Stephen Holt has written to leaders of other local authorities, inviting them to an online summit at the end of this month.
Coun Holt wants to present a ‘unified case’ to the government, asking for more resources to relieve rising homelessness costs.
In his letter, Coun Holt (above) said: “Like so many other borough and district councils, the situation in Eastbourne is most serious. I am currently working with my senior team to navigate a way through the acute financial pressures created by unprecedented demand from people presenting as homeless.
“These are people who are clearly without the means to access privately rented accommodation — and when you consider that the average rent in East Sussex is estimated to reach £1,383 by 2025, it is hardly a surprise.
“Putting all politics aside, there is no doubt that the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated the recent and rapid increases in homelessness. Whilst I know that this situation is experienced severely in coastal areas, I also know that this problem is shared by almost all councils in the UK.”
The Local Democracy Service reported that in 2022/23, the cost of temporary and emergency housing in Eastbourne was £4.6m. The council reclaimed a £2m subsidy from the government towards this.
This year, the council expects spending to rise to £5.8m, against a £2.2m subsidy, leaving a £3.6m hole in its budget.
The summit is expected to be held on October 31.
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I can never understand why the old BT building in Moy Avenue hasn’t been redeveloped? I would have thought that the building itself could be turned into flats, and the huge carpark at the rear could provide off-road parking and a garden area.