In an endless echo of worries highlighted repeatedly over the last ten years, a housing charity has brought up the issue of affordable accommodation in Challaid. A recent survey has shown that rates of homelessness are continuing to rise, with the average house price in the city now exceeding £210,000, with the increase being driven by rocketing prices on the west side of the loch where average prices are now approaching £400,000.
The survey of house prices has again raised the issue of availability on the east side, with particularly acute problems in Earmam and Whisper Hill. Rates of homelessness there continue to be high, with the city council under increasing fire regarding its housing policy. With so few new properties being developed in those areas, landlords have been able to raise prices unchallenged, knowing demand vastly outstrips supply.
When we reached out to the council for a response to the survey they released a statement saying, “Challaid City Council takes seriously its obligation to improve housing availability and conditions for all residents in the city. We have already instigated a policy encouraging owners of brownfield sites to develop them for housing and this will begin to show results in the coming year. We have also made clear our determination to ensure that landlords charge fair rent for their properties, but do not accept that a rent cap will help solve a complex problem. Finally, we will soon put forward new plans to expand developments in Heilam as part of a long-term strategy for increasing housing stock and improving housing conditions in the city.”
It has already been pointed out that this statement bears a striking resemblance to one released in the wake of a similar survey carried out two years ago. The problem of housing on the east side is one that has rumbled within Challaid for generations, too many people living in cramped conditions with the only people benefiting being the landlords. Solutions have repeatedly been sought but not delivered, and Fair Housing Challaid, the charity who carried out the latest survey, has stated that it expects nothing to change. There is no will among large developers to build on land they own on the east side while there are sites on the south bank and west side that can provide far greater returns, with the marina development on the south bank a notable example.
There is another, less often mentioned, problem exacerbating the issue. With house prices going ever upward on the west side, the Barton district has become something of a super-rich ghetto, and the mere rich have been pushed further south. This has the knock-on effect of pushing up prices around the south bank, making it impossible for anyone on average incomes to think about moving off the east side. As prices continue to rise the inevitable consequence will be a creeping unaffordability, with Bakers Moor the next area to rise out of reach for most, and the crisis in Earmam and Whisper Hill will become even more acute.