AFFORDABLE HOMES

There was a great deal of pre-General Election fluff about the need for - among other forms of domestic habitation - affordable homes. But in my case, this sudden and new-found Coalition desire to provide such facilities for the young and less-well-off had a more than hollow ring.
What cannot be contradicted is the actual need for affordable homes which is as great, or even greater, than it was before. What had changed, hopefully, was the attitude of the political parties, because two years' ago, and for nearly a decade before that, many of them would have manned the barricades at the very thought of affordable homes coming to their village. One reason, it became clear to see, was widespread concern that they would affect their own property and site values.
Until a couple of years' ago we part-owned a small field in south Norfolk, bordered by a roadway, the village school, a row of houses and bungalows, and farm fields, much of it hidden behind hedges and a small shrubbery. Then, knowing that we would within a few years be looking into the possibility of down-sizing, and thus leaving the village, we began to ponder the legacy of the field. Affordable homes seemed the right solution.
The financial rewards would not have been great (not as great as that from the construction of 'ordinary' or 'luxury' homes, anyway), but it seemed to us to be right for the village as there was little prospect of hardly any of its young ever being able to afford the £300,000-plus homes which were popping up on other bits of land.
So we put a scheme in train. A survey was carried out which demonstrated a genuine need for cheaper housing, a Housing Association happily became involved, and architects' plans were produced. Then the fun started.
There were protests, and a meeting at the parish hall where fears materialised that villagers might not be given the priority, 'people from away' might move in, and some of them might be on drugs, and the planned homes were too close to the school. Newcomers, some said, would need to be vetted, apparently. Not that those buying the £300,000-plus homes were vetted, of course.
The parish council, with its high percentage of local landowners, prevaricated and kept forgetting to put the matter on the agenda, and then, finally and furiously, they decided to oppose the plan. Local elections came and the Conservatives gained control of the district council. They also opposed affordable homes, and anyway, they were about to carry out their own surveys in order to produce their own housing plans for the area.
Ultimately, another Housing Association picked up the idea. More prevarication, more protests and bad feeling, more foot-dragging. And so a second scheme for affordable homes, and then a third (the cost! the waste!) fell by the wayside.
Eleven years went by. At which point, and largely because of our impatience and because of the hostility, political and otherwise, we decided to give us the quest.
The field, I should add, was subsequently sold, but the village, and the village's young, still do not have any affordable housing.