Peterborough City and its housing strategy

As a city, Peterborough has aspirations for growth, raising the overall skill level within the city and attracting more influx of workers, residents and students. In particular, the city is working towards becoming the centre for cleantech and environment and has just received £3 from the Technology Strategy Board to assist its Future City ideas (http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2013/april/peterborough_secures_%C2%A33million.aspx). The city’s aspirations are summarised in the comprehensive Peterborough Core Strategy Development Plan Document (2011) at http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/pdf/Plan-policy-ldf-cs-adoptedCS.pdf.

Photo: Peterborough Hampton

Peterborough conducts a regular Strategic Housing Market Assessment.  The first one was published in 2008 and an update was completed in 2010.: http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/pdf/housing-shma-peterboroughhna_part1.pdf.

With the help of this and similar documents, Peterborough can identify the needs for successful housing growth and development. Current planning is over 15 years, with a review planned in 2014/2015 to take the city up to 2031.

Affordable homes UK

According to the UK Housing Survey, 2012 briefing paper, the UK construction market is still behind the target for new housing to fulfil housing needs. (http://www.york.ac.uk/res/ukhr/ukhr1112/UKHRbriefing2012.pdf). This is also reflected in a continued deficit in the construction of affordable housing where there is a 7 year low. Cuts in public spending have not been compensated by rises in private construction. The Homes and Communities Agency has an Affordable Homes Program (2011-2015) that attempts to address this with an investment of £4.5bn (http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/affordable-homes). The objective is to achieve 170,000 new affordable homes by 2015, primarily through housing associations.

Affordable Homes Peterborough

Anne Keogh, Housing Strategy Manager for Peterborough City Council, gave me some of her time to fill me in on the approach to housing in Peterborough, with particular reference to affordable homes.

In line with the rest of the UK, Peterborough has to tackle a lack of affordable housing. According to the finding of the 2010 SHMA update the city currently requires 1008 new affordable homes per year to meet current and newly arising housing need. Peterborough City Council itself does not own any stock; 10,000 properties had been transferred to the Cross Keys Homes housing association in 2004 following a ballot of tenants to decide on their landlord. The construction of affordable homes therefore has to come from the housing association sector.

Peterborough City Council influences the provision of affordable homes through its requirement, that new developments of 15 dwellings or more should contain 30% affordable homes. However, this is viewed pragmatically and with a certain degree of flexibility so that the overall ratio is achieved. Housing associations can also benefit from recycled capital grant funding, where the proceeds of sales of existing properties built with funding in the past are used to build new affordable homes.

In 2011-2012, 767 (gross) houses were built in Peterborough, of which 114 were affordable homes and suggested figures for 2012-2013 are circa 770 homes in total of which 276 homes have been confirmed as  affordable homes. Present and future figures (i.e. after this article) can be found at http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/housing/housing_strategy_team/affordable_housing_delivery.aspx.

One of the upcoming developments is the “Vista” development by Morris Homes, a Carbon Challenge Site at Code 6 where 256 homes are to be built. Forty per cent of the homes – 72 houses and 48 apartments – will be offered under social rented or shared ownership terms to people on the housing needs list. This is enabled by a grant of £7.8 million from the HCA’s National Affordable Housing Programme 2009/10. http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2011/february/peterborough_leads_%E2%80%98zero_carbo.aspx.

A recent change making an impact on affordable rental homes is that, where these were previously set as “social rents” or “target rents”, the calculation has now been replaced with “affordable rents”. Affordable rents can be set  at a maximum of 80% of the market value and are therefore higher than previously. An illustration is given here http://www.guinnesspartnership.com/~/media/files/Publications/Guinness%20South/Leaflets/Affordable_Rents_explained_Fact_Sheet_Final.ashx.

Peterborough City Council was one of the first to adopt the Local Authority Mortgage Scheme. In partnership with the local Lloyds TSB, they set aside £1m for the “Local Lend a Hand” Scheme. In this scheme, subject to Lloyds TSB's usual lending criteria, borrowers are able to select any property within the local area, up to a maximum loan size of £123,500.  First time buyers put down five per cent of the property price instead of the standard 25%. Peterborough Council provides a cash-backed indemnity of up to 20% as additional security. The local authority then earns interest on this amount. The first time buyer thus owns the property in its entirety and has access to a range of products at a lower rate of interest than would normally be available (http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/housing/local_lend_a_hand.aspx).

Housing for Students and Senior Citizens in Peterborough

Peterborough is up-skilling itself. In August 2008 a joint venture between Anglia Ruskin University and Peterborough Regional College was formally established to create University Centre Peterborough. http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/your_university/anglia_ruskin_campuses/associates_east/university_centre_peterborough.html. It offers degrees from Accounting to Archaeology, Computer Science to Criminology.

Currently most of the students are existing residents of Peterborough. The first privately built student’s residence is Taverners Hall with 54 units (http://www.tavernershall.co.uk/). As Peterborough becomes established, demand by an influx of students from beyond Peterborough will expand.

For those looking towards enjoying retirement, there is also the thought about the additional needs and care that may arise with increasing years. One of the solutions is Extra Care which offers self contained  apartments within a designated complex. The ideal is to ensure that these include a mix of social spaces, shops, restaurants and activities near the accommodation. There are currently five extra care schemes in Peterborough providing a total of 231 units of accommodation. A further scheme for 79 units of extra care is currently under construction and should be completed in the early part of 2014/15.

Summary

Peterborough is an aspiring city, striving to up-skill itself, both in education and in becoming a future green city. The city’s housing strategy also looks to address the deficit in affordable homes. It is achieving this through flexible planning policies that ensure affordable housing is built by the local private developers and housing associations.