Bath rent rises may force people into social housing

“No one noticed this article then...
http://tinyurl.com/cto5olk”

“My husband and I moved to Newport South Wales 8 years ago because high rent and council tax and average/low wages forced us out of Bath. Moving here has shown me what Bath is really about. No concern by the council about the people who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Its all about the tourist's students and people with money. Working class and low income families are being pushed out of the city not only by sky high rent etc but as my parents found out in Oldfield Park after 35 years of being there, allowing what used to be family housing to be used to cram as many students into them as possible. Each student owning a car which has created a severe lack of parking. Where do families live If houses are being rented to students? We had enough, my parent's had enough and my siblings all moved out of Bath too. As I say to every Welsh person who says how lucky I am to come from Bath....Its a beautiful place to visit, but a horrendous place to live!”

“Or we could just blame the students...”

“Rightmove suggests HMO's are spreading throughout Bath http://tinyurl.com/agga4kf

I don't suggest student house shares are all of the problem, the only option being to privately rent is the major problem. As Shelter said, it's a vast amount of dead money being paid by people who can ill afford it to line the pockets of far fewer. In many cases its all of us paying to subsidise rent that has risen to ridiculous levels over the past years.

Build more homes that people can afford to rent, less will be paid out in Housing Benefit, people will have more disposable income to spend here and you won't see people uprooted, turfed out and sleeping on our streets. How important is the odd agricultural field to us when the alternative will be a developer lead free for all?

B&NES has lost us the option to be sensible about where homes are built by being over cautious and listening to the few Nimbys who would protest loud about anything from a telegraph pole to a garage extension. In doing so our Core strategy will be consigned to the dustbin. Clearly a council failing. The benefit reforms, caps and wage freezes are only adding to a problem that has been brewing in our region for the past decades.”

“I don't think there is a comparable issue with students in all of those places. Kingsmead, for instance, doesn't have the sort of properties that suit student landlords. It's largely one or, less often, two-bedroom flats. The other places are mostly too expensive. Just not the return on investment that you can get from an Oldfield Park property.”

“Of the 15,137 students enrolled in 2011/12 at Bath University more than 25% were from overseas thanks to a big drive approx. four years ago to attract students in particular from China and is in addition to the students from outside the region plus those in the College and Bath Spa University. This represents a doubling in numbers this century. There are problems not only in Oldfield Park but also in Kingsmead, Larkhall, Widcombe and Bathwick. Pressure should be placed upon the University to provide halls of residence, if necessary in Swindon; this could be achieved by making planning applications for expansion conditional upon the provision of accommodation.

Instead of emphasising protection of development on green belt land which is an important limiting factor i think the emphasis in the Core Strategy should reflect the reality of a shortage of homes for the low income groups. I recognise that because Bath is an attractive location market forces will favour those trading down from London but i refuse to be defeatist and see no reason why a dirigiste policy such as green belt should not incorporate housing.”

“Thank god for mankinds progress!
Are all the caves around Bath sealed off?”

“I cannot abide the "just supply and demand" nonsense - it's an explanation, but it's certainly not an excuse. This is not a free market, by anyone's definition.

On the supply side, you cannot simply build a new house when someone wants one; and even if you could, why would you want to when you can just increase the income from your existing properties? As rents increase way beyond mortgage costs, landlords have the spare cash to buy up the new builds, pushing up prices still further, barring entry to the market for owner-occupiers, and forcing everyone to rent at an artificially-high price. In other words, they are manipulating the market for their own ends.

On the demand side, in a truly free market, people would simply move somewhere cheap as Malcolm simplistically suggests. But reality is a lot more complicated than that: people need to live where their job is, or where their family is, or where they grew up. Also, moving is very expensive; it's not like switching gas suppliers.

Consequently, there is no consumer choice in this market. Unless he/she inherits a small fortune, the consumer has no choice but to rent at artificially-high prices, or get out. The only dynamic market going on is between the sellers and the landlords.

I don't think Bath will die off, I think it'll just end up as one of those depressingly expensive, soulless cities populated only by the rich and served by a disillusioned, bitter workforce shipped in every day from elsewhere.”

“Student housing is only a small part of the problem, largely concentrated in specific areas, notably Oldfield Park. Bath basically suffers from unusually high demand but low supply. High demand for second homes, holiday lets, rich retired, long-distance commuters (London wages inflating Bath prices) and, of course, the buy-to-let market. Low supply largely because public sector housing has been decimated since the late '70s. Prior to that the two main parties competed with each other to promise the largest number of new council houses; now both favour deregulation - leaving the rented sector to the private market but with none of the security or affordability that is common for rented housing on the Continent. Just another fine example of the disaster that is neo-liberal political dogma.”

“If you can't afford to live in Bath, move somewhere else...."

Interesting. I have never been able to afford a house in bath. That's because you get better value for money everywhere else. Even 3 decades ago, the rent quoted for a smelly, georgian pit that masqueraded as a 'flat' was 100gbp more per month than 3 year-old, 2 bed-semi in south glos. That had the benefit of being minutes walk from open countryside. Add to that, 4 buses per hour to Bristol and 1 per hour to bath...

What on earth would you do if you have the same challenges as Bristol, London or any other city? At least, you can't blame us 'johnny foreigners', for we number about 2 per cent of your population. I was reminded of that recently when subjected to racial abuse - again- while waiting for a bus on the outskirts of bath. If you have a closed mind on things like that, how on earth are you going to deal with issues like housing?”