21^st May 2017

The Housing and Finance Institute said that the housing market is experiencing a ‘spiral of decline’ for many coastal communities.

It has blamed the lack of employment opportunities available leading to high numbers of renters, poor quality housing, and the communities having to pay over the odds to rent a 'home', for the areas' decline.

The Housing and Finance Institute has suggested that the government should introduce localised and time-limited rent controls for the seaside communities that are suffering the most. It wants a ‘fair value rent regime’ for each particular area that could be assessed by the standard of the property and its location.

The Institute wants greater assistance from the government for those councils that have communities with failed house building markets. It also calls for central government to set up a ‘one-stop shop’ that would make it easier for councils to prosecute rogue landlords, and therefore increase standards across the private rented accommodation.

Natalie Elphicke, chief executive of The Housing & Finance Institute, said: “There is a toxic trio of abnormally high proportions of rented housing, for that rented housing to be of poor quality, and a lack of job creation. Dysfunctional housing markets are proving fundamental to the spiral of decline in many of Britain’s coastal communities – and something radical must be done to turn the tide.

“The proposals in this paper can help to break up the concentration of housing poverty and attract new high quality building and investment. Housing can be pivotal to securing jobs, growth and reversing entrenched deprivation.

“In particularly, a new fair rents regime would significantly speed up the renewal of the most deprived areas, drive a fairer deal for tenants and taxpayers – and kick-start much needed regeneration.”

News Archive »