Housing, Homelessness and Benefits Strategy - Basingstoke and ...

Return to ContentsResearch shows that someone aged between 20 and 39 whois on average earnings for Basingstoke and Deane will have toborrow 4.31 times their salary to obtain a mortgage large enoughto purchase a two or three bedroomed property in the borough.Buying a property becomes more difficult when you factor inthe increased size of deposits being sought by the majority ofmortgage lenders, with many seeking a deposit of between 20%and 25% of the purchase price.Private sector rent for a two bed property in the borough is atleast £650 per month.Based on 25% of income being used for rent, the annual incomerequired in Basingstoke and Deane to rent in the private sector is£33,000. This means that 41% or 27,000 households are unableto rent as their income is too low.In light of this, it is expected that many residents will continueto be unable to afford their own home either to buy or to rentprivately. As such it is of the utmost importance that a range ofaffordable/subsidised housing options are available locally.The demand for affordable housing locallyStatisticsOver 66,000homes in the borough74%privately owned18% rentedfrom housingassociations9%privately rentedThere are currently 5,633 people registered for housing on thecouncil’s Housing Register, of which 3,867 (69%) are consideredto be in need, as defined by the Department for Communities andLocal Government (CLG). Assuming that the borough council willaim to meet this need over a five year period, there is a currentannual demand for affordable housing of 773 units.In addition to the existing demand for housing, research hasshown that 59% of all newly forming households in the borough(920) will have insufficient income to access market housing.Consequently, the council and its partners must make availablean additional 1,693 units of accommodation for each of the nextfive years if it is to meet the anticipated housing need.It is anticipated that around 740 homes will be made availablethrough social housing re-lets in the borough, resulting in theneed for the development of 953 new homes.Recent trends in the development of new affordable housing inthe borough show that the number of units delivered each yearhas remained stable at between 264 and 276 units. In 2007 /2008 the council was able to deliver 420 new affordable homes,due in part to the completion of a large scale scheme with 100Demandaffordability11