Birmingham<\/a>, to create higher density housing.<\/p>\nIn total, 1,800 homes will be demolished to make way for 3,500 new ones, 400 (11%) of which will be designated as affordable, according to the planning documents \u2013 800 fewer than there are now.<\/p>\n
This was the main point of contention at the planning committee meeting in which dozens of Druids Heath residents crammed into the room and adjoining corridor to voice their anger \u2013 shouts of \u201cthese are our homes\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s not enough\u201d could be heard throughout.<\/p>\n
In the end, the committee was split and the application was narrowly approved by a majority of just one vote.<\/p>\n
\u2018For me to afford something of my own now, I\u2019d have to move out of Birmingham\u2019 \u2026 Xylia Legonas. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
The council insists it is committed to ensuring there will eventually be 1,785 affordable homes created through a partnership agreement with the developer and Homes England, and that the 400 already approved will be for social rent, although the planning documents do not specifically state this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scheme will not go ahead without those remaining affordable homes being delivered,\u201d Nicky Brennan, the cabinet member for housing and homelessness said.<\/p>\n
But residents are concerned that outline planning permission has been granted without this set in stone, and are worried the promise may be reneged down the line due to financial pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of \u2018potentially\u2019 and \u2018in the future\u2019. \u2018We hope\u2019 does a lot of heavy lifting,\u201d said Corin Ennis, who lives with his girlfriend and two-year-old son in the house they bought seven years ago.<\/p>\n
Back then, only the nearby 13-storey tower blocks were earmarked for demolition \u2013 then the red line was extended to encompass a much larger area. All affected homeowners have been offered market value plus 10% for their properties, which for Ennis equates to \u00a3180,000 for his three-bedroom home.<\/p>\n
\u2018It feels like whatever we do it\u2019s the wrong option\u2019 \u2026 Corin Ennis. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the best will in the world, \u00a3180k is not going to touch the sides of what these new houses are going to cost,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to really buy anything for that in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what to do; it feels like whatever we do it\u2019s the wrong option.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents say the council has offered shared ownership options for homeowners who want to return, but many \u2013 especially those who own their homes outright \u2013 aren\u2019t keen on the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve moved the goalposts so many times, so why would I trust that information that they\u2019re giving me?\u201d said Legonas, who previously worked as a live-in carer and has returned to college to study welding. \u201cMy plan was to be rent-free, mortgage-free, and just me and my daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me to afford something of my own now I\u2019d have to move out of Birmingham, but my family is here and I like it in Druids Heath. There\u2019s a reason why I bought my house up here. I like the air. It\u2019s not like down in the city where the air feels thick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Druids Heath sits on one of the highest points in Birmingham, making it colder and windier than the rest of the city.<\/p>\n
It is also home to the most deprived part of the city, and the area has barely been touched since it was built in the 1960s, when it was the biggest industrialised housing scheme in the country.<\/p>\n
Almost all residents agree change is needed, and some welcome the chance to move away. Others feel they haven\u2019t been consulted.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone says Druids Heath has been underinvested in and that\u2019s why this needs to happen. But who has underinvested? The council. The government. The people up there, not the people living here,\u201d said Rita Patel, one of more than 1,200 council tenants in the area. She has an accessible two-bedroom property that she has specially adapted over the 16 years she has lived there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree something needs to happen. But I don\u2019t think that all of the properties need knocking down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rita Patel is one of the 1,200 council tenants in Druids Heath and lives in a specially adapted property. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
She has been told all council tenants who wish to remain in the area will be given somewhere new to live under a right to return scheme, but her house is in one of the final phases of the project, meaning she has about 15-20 years to wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could be living here in a building site for a very long time, with the looming thought of eventually having to move,\u201d she said. \u201cMy life is getting harder as I\u2019m getting older \u2013 10 years ago I had a lot more energy than I do now. So it\u2019s going to be a massive upheaval for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m finding it really, really scary \u2013 the reality of it for the people here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jayne Murray, the lead artist at a Druids Heath arts centre who has helped campaign on the issue, said: \u201cInvestment is a completely different thing to demolition. It is really extreme and harmful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so shortsighted. They\u2019re doing it all over the city; it\u2019s not just here. They\u2019re just not valuing what\u2019s here and the people who are here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other areas including Ladywood, Digbeth and the city\u2019s markets are all earmarked for large-scale demolition as part of regeneration plans.<\/p>\n
At the heart of people\u2019s concerns in Druids Heath is what \u2018affordable\u2019 really means when it comes to the new houses. The national government\u2019s push to build rapidly, and the new housing secretary\u2019s decision to cut affordable housing targets in the capital<\/a> to get things moving, have done nothing to ease fears.<\/p>\nPatel said: \u201cThe attitude is: \u2018We just need to get this through.\u2019 And I\u2019m guessing some of that comes from central government. Whatever happens in London, it filters down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you building? Who are you building it for? And are you building communities or are you just building houses?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xylia Legonas was just a few years off fully repaying her mortgage, and had just finished refurbishing her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-567931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115543242443874904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}