Affordable Housing?

Are more houses needed in Hastings? YES!!

There are over 1400 people listed as homeless in the Hastings area, many are children.

However, in 2023, over 1000 properties were listed as empty in the Hastings area.

Gladman plans for 16 of its houses to be ‘affordable’. The other 49 will be ‘market value.’ Their Socio-economic report states that... “The delivery of up to 65 homes is likely to be home to a total of 138 NEW residents,” and that... Assuming that 61.8% of the population is of working age (corresponding with Nomis official labour market statistics 2021 for HBC23), the delivery of 65 homes could result in an additional 85 people of working age residing in Hastings.”

That is NEW residents from outside the area, putting more strain on our over-stretched infrastructure (and what has happened to the 16 affordable houses in this calculation?). Could the motivation be not entirely to house the homeless??

A national newspaper has drawn attention to the controversial methods used by developer Gladman, particularly their focus on building on greenfield land, which is often cheaper and more profitable. Interestingly, even the Daily Mail, a paper not typically aligned with environmental concerns, has criticised these tactics.

Their article describes how the company has repeatedly secured planning permission for developments on countryside land next to towns and villages, often by offering to cover the high costs of planning applications. This approach has reportedly led to a high success rate, and profits are then shared between the developer and the landowner.

 Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2876845/Despoiling-England-ruthless-no-win-no-fee-developers-exploiting-new-planning-rules-threaten-historic-countryside.html