Minutes of the third housing meeting held at 3 North Street, Lewes, on Tuesday 12th December 2017 at 7.30 p.m.
Present: Chris Smith, Jane Foot, Debbie Twitchen, Penny Jones, Jennifer Chibnall, Louis Blair, Annie Hailey, Emily Clarke (Chair), Maggie Symons (Minutes).
Apologies: Caroline Pick, Tony Rowell, Ruth O’Keefe, Chelsea Renton, Liz Thomas, Lin Heyworth
Introduction to L.A.S.H.
EC asked everyone to visit Lewes Action for Social Housing website https://lewesaction4socialhousing.com There are links to both Community Land Trust and Acorn. (tenants union started in Bristol to campaign against unfair rents with a message board on Facebook to offer advice to tenants.)
Leaflets and social media videos
EC introduced the leaflet taken from the website and used at The Housing Summit and House of Commons.
Aims for video to be ready at end of Jan and is aimed at both private and council tenants and those who’ve had to move out of the area for housing.
Sussex Community Housing Launch
JC talked about the Community Housing Hub which has just started but aims to bring people together with over 100 people present including Action for Rural Sussex, good video footage from Co-op and Co Housing which produces affordable housing and others who share the same common values. Co-Housing is one example of producing affordable housing but there are many others e.g. Laughton Lodge although this is privately owned, examples of self-building on small sites. An interesting meeting but no further meetings scheduled yet.
TOLD (Tenants of Lewes District) DT
DC showed the presentation (on website) of the plans (including garage sites) for 2017 – 2022. The sites to be used are out for consultation and can be found on the Council Website. The plans have been available to Residents associations for some time but there is a lot of discontent particularly from Malling residents who object to the development of their green spaces.
DT meeting Ian Fitzpatrick (Head of services for Lewes and Eastbourne and MD of Eastbourne Homes Ltd) are there questions we wish DT to ask him?
Lewes CLT LB
The CLT was formed out of a bid from Santon (now Artisan) to take over 15 homes on shared equity as affordable homes. At the public meeting there was lots of interest with 40-50 people outside Lewes establishing a connection with the town who do not qualify for social housing but cannot afford high rents.
The CLT would like to keep properties genuinely affordable by looking at local average income rather than land values.
The Council are developing homes on the garage sites and they will be much easier to rent at 65% of market values.
The CLT is still interested in St Anne’s site and LB will keep the group updated. The CLT needs members with housing and construction knowledge.
The CLT has been reconstructed as a Community Development Society and will have to recruit members with voting rights, have an AGM. As the main concerns at the St Anne’s site are environmental it is essential that there is an environmentalist on the board. EC has received an email about unique wildlife which needs protection. A member of Sussex Wildlife Trust is interested in being involved.
We need to argue for housing (council and affordable) as well as a community facility and keep local support.
Next to St Anne’s 2 pods could be erected over the carpark. Chelsea Renton is very keen on modular housing and The National Park likes them. Is this part of the development? Can she attend next meeting?
Rural CLTs JF
There is a range of ways of doing this from small to whole village development. We need to talk to Council about how other councils are doing this and to find out the numbers in different counties.
Is there a need for an event to bring people together who might want this type of development?
Council homes are being built in Wealdon, Eastbourne, and 22 in Lewes but there are few sites available for Lewes District Council.
EC to draft a letter to ESCC about publication of the report of the consultation on St Anne’s which still hasn’t been published, despite being overdue.
Axe the Housing Act meeting at The House of Commons. EC
There were people from a variety of different campaigning groups, tenants associations and housing workers from all over the country to attend a meeting chaired by Eileen Short of Defend Council Housing and Axe the Housing Act, to discuss the budget and implications of housing. The Labour MP for Stroud listened to the discussion and answered questions. when asked by EC he talked about building council housing using CLTs in his constituencies as councils are unable to borrow against stock to build more. There was a report back from the FBU in relation to Grenfell. EC spoke about UC in relation to housing and fears around evictions due to delayed benefits payments and rent arrears.
National Housing Summit report EC
This was very well run, supported by workshops with action points at the end of every session. EC attended Universal Credit and private renters and ACORN Union workshops.
Acorn Union is trying to get landlords to commit to not evicting people on Universal Credit when they run into debt. (Universal Credit is to be introduced here in June) Councillors and will be trained to help tenants. Southwark was a pilot area for UC and have produced a booklet with advice for those making a claim for and receiving UC – Universal Credit a Factual Guide (order from Southwark) EC to put this on website.
Plans for a UC Day of Action. EC will attend planning meeting with Axe the Housing Act in London in 13th Jan.
Action Points
DT to send figures to Emily for the website.
LB to send contact details and info to EC for website as it becomes available.
JC to liaisse with Community Housing Hub and send info to EC for website.
DT to contact Ian Fitzpatrick so he can give a presentation at next meeting and Q&A.
DT to provide details of presentation from TOLD meeting for website.
LT to find out if z pods over carpark by St Anne’s is part of the development plan.
EC to draft letter asking for results of consultation at St Anne’s.
EC to put Universal Credit – a factual guide on website
A.O.B none
Date of next meeting – January 18th at 3, North Street at 7.30 p.m.
L.A.S.H 