HPCP discussion Report

A discussion meeting was held on 19th January in the Locus Centre to discuss the Housing Survey and identify areas of common concern across Highland Perthshire. This was fed back to P&K

Is the Strategy well presented and easy to understand?

 Community councils get a lot of consultative and other mail. Not every group has someone prepared to devote the time to wading through to find the important information in the huge quantity of paperwork.  

 onsultations come thick and fast often with short turn around time scales and community councils do not have the time or resources to deal with the important tasks they are given to do.

 Community Councillors are very keen to participate and see it as important but often struggle with this task. This is actually a much more important point for consideration than whether it looks nice.

 Are our objectives and priorities correct? 

With a greater understanding of the causes and effects of climate change and peak oil, it is vital that houses are built near jobs and that the creation of employment opportunities is a factor in housing development. People must not have to travel far to work. Those days are past! This is a very important priority.

There must be a balance in development between housing, schools, jobs, transport and utility infrastructure. Where one is developed all must move together so that people are not housed where there is no work and need transport and other services that are not available.

 Local housing for local people is an essential priority. The national guidelines say that there can be no weight given to local people’s needs. Surely P&K does not have to commit to this policy! It is vital that the authority looks at the factors surrounding the loss of our young people because they cannot get housing near their home. This leads to a loss of skills to area as young people have to move away from the family businesses to be able to live. This also leads to an unbalanced age dynamic within the community and augments the loss of intergenerational interaction and support.

 It is important to give priority to people who live in the area to allow people to stay and work in their own environment, but also important to attract people who can work live here and work remotely. This enriches local communities and economies

 Core accommodation for core workers in rural communities where houses prices are high should be a real priority. Teachers, nurses, care workers, police need this provision so that they can afford to live and work in these areas. It is much healthier to have these people living as part of the communities they serve. This housing support is particularly important for those in the 16-34 age-group who are in the early stages of their careers. A good batch of housing should be reserved and allocated specially to this group. The local schools find it hard to recruit teachers due to the high cost of housing in the area.

 We need an industrial plan to provide work for the people to be housed in the new housing. Industrial units often sit empty long term (Pitlochry 3.5 years!). The rents of these often out-price local businesses and act as a deterrent to people setting up in business. Surely it is better to have these units used and supporting the local community and economy than have them sitting empty, providing no income and supporting nothing. The people of HP need jobs, especially those in the 16-34 age group.

It is important to address expectation. People expect 2-3 bedroomed houses with insulation and en suite facilities where once they expected simple houses with 1-2 bedrooms. The current housing stock is in need of improvement and upgrade. Private landlords are often not able to undertake the level of upgrade needed. There must be grants to undertake this or to knock down and replace when that is the best option. Single skin houses will be cold however much insulation is added.

 Many old houses could be upgraded rather than just building new ones.

 Are there any potential actions missing which may help us achieve our objectives

Have any major developments (Sainsbury say they will employ 150 people.) been taken into account when allocating numbers of housing, care homes, etc.?

 The infrastructure (Water, etc) is only ever worked out on existing house numbers not projections or plans. There should be a master plan that identifies areas for development of services in advance of housing .

 School capacity: Housing has a big impact on schooling requirements. Highland Perthshire consistently exceeds the national average numbers of children attracted to new developments and requirements for school places are often underestimated.

Landowners and forestry owners can be encouraged to make small pockets of land available for small developments with the land ownership being retained by the landowner.  One landowner said he has such a parcel of land that is allocated for this purpose. The local authority knows about it but no action ha been taken. He cannot afford to build the houses himself and wants to rent to local people rather than sell. This type of small rural development, mirroring the type formerly built by the Forestry Commission, was always very successful and still work very well as little communities.

A local survey of need had helped in the past to convince the local authority to buy some houses to protect them from the open market. This safeguarded their availability as low cost housing. If one asks a group of people if they know anyone who needs local low cost housing there are always several hidden customers showing that true demand for local housing so often underestimated.

Land Banks: land had been offered but no response or action taken by local authority. The land is still available. Limited water and drainage need to be put right in advance of potential building projects to encourage low cost development. Major private developers could provide extra capacity for small low cost public housing projects.

Is there anything else missing from the Strategy?

Schools: Pitlochry High School has several classes that are full with children living nearby having to travel to Ballinluig for schooling. How can extra housing be built if there is no school capacity?

Aberfeldy community school: despite not being completed, does not appear to have capacity for growing population. There are concerns about whether it is big enough to cope with a large increase in numbers of houses in the area.

Schools policy is to allocate place on the basis of being closest to the school rather than whether the family are integrated member of the community or new to the area. This can be destructive to a child’s social and family groups and lead to them being isolated from their friends in much the same way as a child sent to public school becomes disassociated from the other children living nearby.

 Please use this space to add any other views you have 

Each location has needs specific to that community. It is essential to look at the small local picture rather than centralise everything and try for a one size fits all. Losing the Highland area of the Local Plan is just one example of the loss due to centralisation. It is easy for a community to get lost in the pages of a big report.

Rents must really be affordable. The average wage in Highland Perthshire is based on the minimum wage. Those who make the decisions about rents are on much higher wages. Do they actually understand? Affordable needs to be affordable!

Statistics show that there are more dwellings here than households. Why is there such a need for more housing?

Must keep the balance with planning. Need a designated planning officer for a designated town or area who is in tune with the local ideas and aspirations of the people who live in that community. These feelings and aspirations could be seen as an areas’ special needs under question 4 of the consultation!

The numbers of proposed houses are significant for a small area. More could be built out of the towns where there is land available.

 Quality of life is important. Use the space available rather then building cramped little flats that are out of keeping for rural development and not good living spaces. Move away from building flats to cottage style (like Grandtully)

We really need houses in small communities that can house families to strengthen our communities and safeguards services and facilities such as post offices, shops, schools, etc.

Landowners with available land prefer not to sell land so that others may profiteer from selling on.

Need to control futures of developments so that they cannot be sold on as holiday houses or a simple profiteering

It was felt that the housing associations tend to be against on private landlords.