Building together for a strong future:
Stoke-on-Trent Housing Strategy 2016 - 2021
DRAFT
July 2016
Building together for a strong future:
Stoke-on-Trent Housing Strategy
DRAFT
The City of Stoke-on-Trent-is a city on the move.
It is rediscovering and reframing those things that have made it great in the past – in particular its world-renowned ceramics industry. It is planning on making much more of its unique features and natural assets. It is exploiting its geography – between north and south – and its regional and national connectivity. It is growing as a place of learning with Staffordshire University concentrating its facilities in the city centre. And it is embracing new opportunities to expand its economy and generate thousands of new jobs, giving the City momentum to become a critical economic driver for Staffordshire and Cheshire.
The City Council is looking at itself as a facilitator of change. It is becoming more commercial in its outlook and improving its governance and efficiency. With the support of its residents the Council will make this happen, staying true to the city’s motto Vis Unita Fortior,which translates as:Stronger Together.
To make Stoke-on-Trent a place where people actively choose to live and work, we are looking carefully at what needs to happen in our housing and residential areas. We are looking at all the accommodation available within the city – its size, design, location, quality and attractiveness – and its ability to meet the aspirations and needs of both Stoke-on-Trent residents and new residents who may be attracted to live and work in the city. Our overall aim is to enhance the ‘housing offer’ alongside other improvements so that people can find a home they want in a place they like and will build a life in our city.
We believe Stoke-on-Trent has a lot to offer people and that it can enhance this offer further. This powerful blend of action will bring energy and interest and, in time, will make Stoke-on-Trent a thriving and modern core[1] UK City. It will be a great place to live where people can fulfil their potential, businesses can thrive, and more vulnerable citizens can live happily[2].
Contents
1.A city for living in
2.A home for every stage of life
3.Making development viable
4.A focus on people
5.Locality Plans
Appendix 1: Evidence-base underpinning this strategy
Appendix 2: Summary of anticipated impact of relevant sections of Housing and Planning Act 2016
Appendix 3: Evidence underpinning locality plans
- A city for living in
Stoke-on-Trent has an abundance of assets – physical such as green spaces and cultural such as our heritage in fine porcelain. We are going to employ and enhance them to make a much more liveable city. Here’s a flavour of what we’re doing.
Green Stoke-on-Trent: a system of healthy green transport corridors throughout the city
Stoke-on-Trent is one of the greenest cities in the UK. This abundance of parks and green spaces is appreciated by Stoke-on-Trent’s citizens who come out in force to help maintain and improve them.It also has many canals, rivers and brooks that flow through several of Stoke-on-Trent’s towns, criss-crossing the city. Stoke-on-Trent is a perfect size for people who like to get around by bicycle, scooter and even on foot.
Stoke-on-Trent has an extensive network of green transport routes through parks and along waterways, connecting popular places with each other for use by cyclists, walkers and buggy-users. This inspired the CycleStoke programme that ran from 2008-11 file:///C:/Users/Merron/Downloads/CycleStokeend_of_programme_report_final.pdf . We intend to enhance further these transport routes to make it easy to get around using healthy modes of transport.
Connected Stoke-on-Trent: quick and easy access to just about everywhere
Stoke-on-Trent is already well-connected by Intercity rail links to London,Manchester, Birmingham,Wolverhampton, Stafford and to Lichfield and Burton by road.It is just 45 minutes to Manchester Airport and less than 30 minutes to the Peak District and Alton Towers.
The plannedHigh Speed (HS2)station in Crewe will enhance this connectivity further. The accompanying housing and transport development planned for the ‘corridor’ linking Stoke-on-Trent to Crewe will provide more residential opportunities for those who need national connectivity.
Unique history and heritage: a stage for creative industries and alternative cultural experiences
Stoke-on-Trent has many attractive industrial buildings from many eras, the canal network, and other unique features associated with potteries. We will retain and renovate, and build sensitively around them to maximise peoples enjoyment of an urban landscape that is truly unique. We have already embarked on developing new aesthetically pleasing homes and converted warehouse residences. With our partners we intend to continue developing the Spode factory and other sites.
Alongside new homes, new infrastructure is coming to support the creative industries; artist studios, low-cost workspace, co-working possibilities, exhibition spaces – all at a fraction of the cost of similar spaces in London, yet accessible for artists who want to build their profile in the capital. The spaces we design will have a strong artistic/cultural theme, reinforcing Stoke-on-Trent’s reputation as a nationally significant creative hub. We are proud to have been a location of choice for the BBC’s Great pottery throwdown: will build on this, going from strength to strength. Stoke-on-Trent will become a setting of choice for high profile and innovative theatreproductions, concerts, independent cinema, photography and food experiences. Our bid for the European City of Culture shows our level of ambition[3].
Outstanding countryside: for all to enjoy
Stoke-on-Trent is close to some very attractive countryside that draws walkers, cyclists, sailors and other outdoor enthusiasts from miles around. Yes, sailors!
The Staffordshire Moorlands has stunning gritstone outcrops – TheRoaches, Coombe Hill, Cheeks Hill and Axe Edge Moor – as well as Rudyard Lake[4], Churnet Valley also known as ‘The Rhineland of Staffordshire’ and some unique features such as the Churnet Valley Railway. Not much further afield is the Peak District with a great many walks, bike rides, beautiful scenery and visitor attractions. And for those who prefer staying closer to the city, there is Park Hall, a national nature reserve and geological special interest site with woodlands, heathland, ponds to enjoy.
A centre of excellence for sport
Stoke-on-Trent has been awarded the prestigious status of European City of Sport 2016. Inspired by the cycling and football heroes Stoke-on-Trent produced, this accolade has increased the commitment of the city to providing high level sporting opportunities, including cycling and running events as well as table tennis, gymnastics and darts. For people of any age, Stoke-on-Trent is a place to excel in sport.
Affordable Stoke-on-Trent: some of the most affordable housing in the country
In most places, getting a foot on the property ladder has become a pipe dream for many young and not-so-young people as house prices have risen faster than incomes. Stoke-on-Trent bucks this trend. The relative affordability of the housing here – 2-bed terraces valued at £75k – is in stark contrast to many of the surrounding areas and as the economy strengthens and incomes rise the affordability will improve further. We are committed to helping young people access a mortgage without having to draw on the bank of Mum and Dad, which means there are great opportunities for those who don’t see themselves as ‘Generation Rent’.
- A home for every stage of life
Stoke-on-Trent’s population is growing steadily and will grow over the next 20-25 years, meaning more new households who will need accommodation. So across the City:
- Recent growth has been mainly due to births, international migration, students coming to study and people living longer. Expansion of the universities and NHS teaching hospital will drive further increases in the number of students and the older population is also expected to grow significantly.
- Stoke-on-Trent does not typically attract new graduates emerging from other universities, nor retain young people who graduate locally, due to a shortage of both employment and housing opportunities
- Young economically active people can’t always get access to a mortgage to buy their first home due to complexities around lending criteria and affordability (although some could afford to service a loan if they were able to access one). Some choose to rent privately in the long-term while others are saving for a deposit and hoping that they will at some point be able to buy their own home.
- Economically active people who can afford to tend to move out of the City; we believe this is partly because there are too few homes that meet their aspirations.
- A significant number of people who work in the City stay in hotels during the week, returning home for weekends.
- There are probably already sufficient affordable homes for rent. However, changes in welfare entitlement has increased the demand for 1 and 2 bedroom homes in the social housing sector.
[See Appendix 1- full statistics to be supplied in final doc]
Stoke-on-Trent has more than enough of some types of dwelling and aninsufficient number of others. Compared to neighbouring areas and the national average, it has:
- more semi-detached homes and pre-1919 terraces and fewer larger detached homes and flats
- more than average 2 and 3 bedroom dwellings and insufficient 4 and 5 bedroom dwellings
- significantly more social rented homes (also more than the regional average)
- insufficient good quality private renting options for temporary and permanent renters
- below average but improving conditions in private housing (both rented and owned).
81% of all dwellings are valued within Council Tax Bands A and B (the lowest bands) compared to 44% of dwellings nationally.
What this imbalance means is that as households evolve, from a single person to a couple, a young then growing family or even ‘empty nesters’, they can’t always find the sort of home they want.
Over the next few years, we want the balance of housing in the cityto change, so that there are enough homes of different types, sizes and quality for people at all stages in their lives to aspire to. We consider it to be critical to Stoke-on-Trent’s economic future to increase the number of larger homes in attractive environments so that people who make up the skilled workforce, and who can support economic growth, are not compelled to look outside the city for a suitable home. Doing this should support a higher wage economy, enabling wealth to spread to more people, which will in time enable more people to afford to buy a home. This strategy sets out how this will be done.
Stoke-on-Trent’s private rented sector has grown in size over the past 15 years but the quality has not kept pace so the sector is currently detracting from our vision for a thriving city. We want to increase the stakes and we will do this by both increasing the quantity of new good quality homes and compelling private landlords to raise their game. We want a sector where both the homes and the residential environments are up to scratch; better homes, better managed, better maintained.
While there are probably sufficient affordable (social rented) homes already, they are not always of a type or quality to meet modern expectations. We anticipate the numbers of council homes reducing over the coming years, due to (1) Right to Buy sales and (2) forced sales of higher value council homes (see Housing and Planning Act 2016). We intend to provide some new social homes to replace those that are sold and to improve the balance and quality in particular locations. In doing so, we aim to be more flexible than in the past, so that the supply can adapt as the housing market and demand for homes changes. For example, we could provide time-limited affordable housing that could be sold on the open market after, say, 5 or 10 years, if the housing market dynamics support this course of action.
We have identified five stages of life, each of which brings with it different needs and aspirations for housing: students, young people, people who want to settle down, maturing families, older people. We are focused on making sure there are suitable homes and support available for people in all these life stages.
Students studying at the university: The university campus and teaching facilities in Stafford are closing in the summer of 2016 and relocating to Stoke-on-Trent. This will increase the requirement for more student accommodation. It will also increase the number of new graduates emerging with qualifications who could be persuaded to stay on and eventually settle in the city. We:
will work with the University on projections for the student population and what this means for accommodation requirements. We will also encourage and support the University to adopt an accreditation system specifically for students choosing to rent privately
are looking for some new student accommodation in line with those projections
Young people: We want all young people to have routes to independence and to choose to stay living in Stoke-on-Trent, including those going through the apprenticeship route to learn a trade or profession within a company, new graduates emerging from the university and those leaving the care system. We are looking:
for new studios and flats for rent on the private market
to widen the choice through innovative options such as co-living, where young people live ‘independently together’ having their own private space as well as shared facilities
to offer a scheme that would incentivise 20-32 year olds to purchase an existing dwelling in Stoke-on-Trent. This could be a rent to purchase product that provides an incentive for every year the individual remains renting a home in Stoke-on-Trent (with an upper limit) and could only be cashed in towards a deposit for a mortgage to purchase a home in the City. This would be a means of enabling young people to build a deposit to access a mortgage and purchase a reasonably priced home in Stoke-on-Trent.
to upgrade the quality of private rented housing available in the city and to increase the range available
build some 1 bed council homes to let social homes on short-term tenancies, typically 2 or 5 years
for ideas from partners how best to supportour more vulnerable 16-25 year olds to find their own routes to independence in a safe environment – those for whom mainstream adult housing options are not the answer. We know there are successful models of supported accommodation that support young care leavers and others to develop life skills and to grow and mature in their own way[5]and we are looking to learn from them and make sure these routes are available within Stoke-on-Trent.
People wanting to settle down: We want people – individuals and young families – to be able to find a home of choice to settle down in Stoke-on-Trent, that they can afford to buy or rent. We are looking:
for some additional new, high quality 2 and 3 bed homes for sale, shared ownership and market, and mainly 2 bed affordable/social rent (due to spare room housing benefit limits)
to offer deals and mortgages to people who want to buy a poor quality dwelling in a regeneration area at a low price and refurbish it to a high standard
to offer ‘access’ products to help unlock mortgage finance to enable those who want to buy a home for the first time to do so
to upgrade the quality and quantity of private rented housing available in the city, so that it becomes a tenure of choice for those who want to rent in the long-term
to offer self-build options for those who want to off-set the cost of labour by participating in building their own home.
Identify the potential demand for different models of community housing such as through a Community Land Trust or cooperative model, with a view to making these options happen if the demand is there
Maturing families: We want maturing families to be able to find a place they want to live in Stoke-on-Trent as their families grow in size and age. We are looking:
for new 3, 4 and 5 bed homes in attractive locations in Stoke-on-Trent, with adequate parking facilities and not too far from good secondary schools and bus routes
offer products that help to make mortgages for second-time movers affordable
to offer custom-build options for 4 and 5 bedroom homes for those who want to take charge of developing a home in a location they want to live in.
Older people: The number of older people is set to increase – particularly those in the over 79+ age group; this includes those with a physical and/or mental frailty as well as other long term health conditions. There is a need for better designed homes which are flexible enough to support the changing needs of people as they age. We are looking: