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Letter
Homes are a human right
Dear HIP
I write with regard to your story Report Prompts Council Sell-Off in HIP 232.
I was saddened and disappointed that this is happening, and am worried about more sell-offs and cuts that the people of Hastings cannot afford. However, I am sympathetic to the Council in this situation, and not only because I am an ex-councillor. The requirement to provide temporary housing for homeless people is absolutely right, but the costs have been rising exponentially and are the major cause of the financial problems faced by Hastings – and many other – councils.
The government rightly expects councils to do this but does not back this up with the resources needed and, possibly even worse, they operate policies and support economic practice that have created the housing problem in the first place – and, indeed many other problems. They have backed the gig economy with huge insecurities for workers, driven down wages such that many public service workers and others are struggling to make ends meet despite working hard – and then being blamed for inflation, which clearly does not add up. This also fuels the housing problems, as council housing is not available and private sector rents have risen in a frightening way. We should stop talking about “housing” and refer to secure and decent homes, the essential foundation for living and being able to raise children and contribute to the wider society. Providing homes cannot be left to “the market” which has clearly failed dismally to provide those secure and decent homes that everyone needs to live a fulfilled life. Yet private landlords – good and bad – have been encouraged, eg through Buy to Let mortgages, to rent out property, usually on six or 12 month contracts. And if they are encouraged to see this as a way to make money, we can hardly blame them for getting out or raising rents when there is more money to be made that way. Homes for all is, surely a human right – decent and genuinely affordable.
In 1945, at the end of a devastating war, with a bankrupt country, with many cities suffering extensive bomb damage, the government initiated a mass house-building programme, mainly of prefab houses, to provide the emergency housing people needed. If there was the political will from the government, we could do this now, and we have even better and excellent quality system homes available that can be erected very quickly. (reference the article by Kent Barker – Housing Crisis Solved – elsewhere in HIP 232 making similar points) And there is plenty of land – Crown land for example – that could be used for these homes, which would not only make the financial situation for councils easier but would reduce the stress and provide the security for people who are made homeless, so often through no-fault evictions (eg under Section 21 of the Housing Act).
As well as being better for the people concerned, think of the money that would be saved for the public purse if individuals and families had that security; think in terms of educational achievement and future earnings, of improved physical and mental health, lower levels of illness requiring fewer NHS resources and so on. So yes, the Council could make decisions more swiftly and that would probably help, but that is placing the blame in the wrong place. The financial difficulties faced by Hastings and many other Councils are mainly caused by the massive cuts imposed by the Tory government at a time when there is increased pressure on the services which councils – and the NHS – still try to provide. That’s especially because those in poverty, who have borne the brunt of the brutal Tory government attacks on all public services and on in-work and out-of-work benefits, need that support more than ever before.
Most councils – of all political shades – and certainly Hastings Borough Council want to do more for the people of the town, but they are operating with their hands tied behind their backs, and with the same government that has tied the rope looking over their shoulders, ready to pounce, especially on Labour councils. Sadly we need much bolder social and economic policies from Labour nationally to make the difference that is needed to improve people’s lives and councils’ bank balances.
Leah Levane
From our website
Shame about the Azur
I refer to your brief news item on the Azur in HIP 232
Such a shame that a prominent building on the sea front looks so tired, serves below standard food, and has tacky plastic decorations when hosting weddings.
St Leonards is a vibrant town with so much to offer. Sea Change should put the lease out for tender and find an independent who will turn it into something special.
Francesca Rowe
From our website
An Alternative for the Marina
There is a better outcome for Hastings and St. Leonards than having housing built all over the Old Bathing Pool site. Far more value would be added to the Borough if, from Grosvenor Gardens to the car wash site, it were made into West St. Leonards’ answer to California’s Venice Beach. No kidding.
There could be an art-surfaced basketball court, a beach volleyball court, the existing popular children’s playground, a children’s bike pump track, a beach garden, a cafe-on-the-beach, loos and showers, bike hire, a paddle board/surf hire shop and a ‘Marina Shard’ – high-rise residential tower on the old carwash site.
If indeed environmental and substrate conditions allow for a ‘Shard’ tower to be built, it could contain all the developer’s 152 new homes. The rest of the site, with its problematic pipes and wires lying underneath, would then only have to carry the lightweight recreational park. And people would love it. It’s easy to get to from three directions by bus, train, bike and foot and would be very worth the journey, unlike a low-rise estate of other people’s residential flats.
If the licence period of ten months is now wildly overrun, Hastings Borough Council should terminate it and then rewrite it, grabbing the chance of a very much lovelier and more profitable development.
Anna Sabin
From our website
Counter-productive
With reference to the article Just Stop Protests in HIP 232, I belong to the Independent Network group of local councillors. Our group includes the founder of the Climate Party and many of us are environmentalists. The reports from the recent by-elections were that the actions of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion were turning people away from the Greens and reducing the environmental vote. We’re doing our tenth protest this weekend. It’s important to respect the community, not to attack it.
Nigel Jacklin
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