Homesteading in the wild, wild West Country

There was a very interesting article in the Guardian last week, written by Anita Pati regarding the practice of Homesteading. And this time the staking of land is happening here in the wild, wild West Country!

Bristol city council launched a homesteading pilot scheme in 2011 with the aim of eventually releasing up to 12 pre-1919 empty properties, in urgent need of modernisation, to homesteaders each year. The idea is that the new owner, or homesteader, will acquire the property by purchasing it from the council at a reduced price of 50% of its potential value and then carrying out modernisation to the property themselves, supported by low interest loans and grants, such as the Green Deal and Wessex Reinvestment Trust loans, to fund their renovation work.

It’s a win-win as the homesteaders are first-time buyers who would otherwise not be able to afford to get on the property ladder and the council will be entitled to 50% of the property value when it is subsequently sold.

It has political support too. November's government housing strategy mentioned homesteading in its bidding guidance. Under the affordable homes framework, it said that "properties may be brought back into use as part of a homesteading scheme, where residents (or future residents) contribute their labour in exchange for a reduced rent or (in a shared ownership scheme) an increase in the share they own in the property".

The idea was also mooted at the Liberal Democrat conference last autumn, when communities minister, Andrew Stunell announced the government was working with councils to identify where homesteading schemes could rejuvenate local communities.

Here at Aquarian Cladding Systems we will be able to provide a perfect solution to the homesteaders should they wish to insulate and overclad their property with a long term, durable facade such as natural brick, whilst keeping wall thickness to a minimum. As the UK distributor of Gebrik, which is the only prefabricated brick slip cladding system in the UK, we see the potential benefit to the homesteaders (who are likely to be semi-skilled) being the ability to clad their buildings themselves, with support from our site support team.

We can help them assess their requirements, supply all parts of the system (which has a current BBA certificate) and provide guidance to ensure it is applied correctly. It is unlikely that any other external wall insulation solution will be as simple to install and provide such long term performance.

The one condition for buyers is that they must remain in the house for five years, which will encourage the homesteaders to become part of the community that they have helped to improve. Surely a small price to pay?

Where Good Ideas Come From...

In recent newsletters, we’ve concluded with links to videos of people doing some fairly odd things with bricks!  Here we’ve had a slight change of tack.  You may have come across Steven Johnson before, but this video encapsulates some really interesting approaches to innovation and struck a real chord with us.  There aren’t as many laughs, but nevertheless, Steven has an entertaining  style - we hope you enjoy his approach…..

Fuel poverty is bad for your health and the economy...

A couple of weeks ago, John Healey one of Labour’s (many) former Housing Ministers spoke at the National Housing Federation conference – sharing with the audience some of his thoughts on the state of the housing sector and the impact of the coalition’s policies.

As you would expect, there were some pretty clear criticisms in his speech of the spending cuts and the impact they will have on the housing sector in particular and the economy in general.

Party politics to one side though, I thought that he made some interesting observations about the links between health and housing, making the point for example that poorly heated or insulated homes can lead to hypothermia and ultimately to deaths and how overcrowded homes can lead to the rapid spread of infectious diseases.
Consequently the quality of our housing stock has a direct causal link with the health of the nation, a link which not only has social implications but also economic consequences. For example, the Audit Commission calculated that for every £1 spent on housing support for vulnerable people, £2 would be saved in the reduced costs of health services, tenancy failure, crime and residential care. To coin a well worn cliché then, if a cross-department view were taken, such spending could be seen as sensible investment rather than as a pure cost. Supporting this view, the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health reported that health costs of £600 million arise every year directly from poor housing.

Healey asserts that the economic benefits go wider than this though and that for every £1m of public investment in housing refurbishment, 17 jobs are created and that completing the Decent Homes programme would support 54,000 jobs.

He also argues that the separation of health and housing responsibilities makes it much harder for governments to make sound and sensible policies, but does say that the last Labour government was effective in more closely linking the two areas - with the Decent Homes programme affecting more than 1.4 million homes and the encouragement of closer local working between housing and health providers (citing as an example the recent ‘Healthy Homes’ initiative launched jointly by Liverpool Council and Liverpool PCT which targets the health and housing needs of families living in 25,000 homes across the city).

Furthermore, a report released this week states that between 2004 and 2009 domestic electricity prices increased by over 75%, while gas prices increased by over 122% over the same period. This suggests to me that it’s not just our existing housing stock to be concerned with but in future all houses will not only be valued by location and numbers of bedrooms but also their running costs.

As a company with close links to the social and private housing sector, we’d certainly endorse some of these views. Products such as our own Gebrik insulating brick cladding system not only deliver performance advantages (better insulation, improved aesthetics, reduced energy costs etc) but can also provide better living environments for home owners and tenants – with a consequent benefit to both short and long term health.

I have to confess that I don’t remember this argument being made by Labour when the party was in power, but it does make interesting reading – and it’s hard to argue with the logic of more closely linking health and housing. Interestingly when Aneurin Bevan led the legislation to set up the NHS through Parliament in 1946, he was Secretary of State for Health and Housing; maybe he was on to something….

Woah! Be careful...!!

This may be a bit of an urban myth but if only he’d used a lightweight brick system...?!