WTTM
Head of Council Anna Bailey berated those who used social media to comment on delays by first-time buyers to move into £ 100,000 homes in Fordham.
Cllr Bailey was being asked at an East Cambs council meeting about what happened to buyers who should have moved into their homes last Christmas.
She said she wanted to “remind everyone” that home sales are for first-time buyers trying to climb that real estate ladder.
And she criticized “especially those who seem to like to cast doubt on social media about sales.”
Best, she said, that “everyone would do well to remember this when they go to social media to make comments” because these were real people moving into their first home. .
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“I am confident that the completions will move forward,” she said. “And that proud new owners will move to Fordham.
“I look forward to the day when the first people move in. ”
Lib Dem Cllr Simon Harries had asked Cllr Bailey “to confirm how many sales have been made for £ 100,000 homes in this area.”
“And please also explain the action taken by the council to resolve the mortgage approval issues encountered with the £ 100,000 houses.”
Cllr Bailey said she was “somewhat surprised” that Cllr Harries did not seem to know the matter would be better addressed to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.
She said the £ 100,000 Homes Policy initiative “is a project of the Combined Authority and not of this Council.
“Of course we have, as a board and constituent member of the combined authority, fully supported £ 100,000 Homes.
“This gives our residents – usually residents who are so often completely excluded from the housing market – the opportunity to access the property ladder at an affordable price.”
And there was the benefit that the shed remained with the property throughout its lifespan “allowing many more people in the future to benefit from it as well.”
“So East Cambs supported the policy, but East Cambs is not the authority responsible for involvement in the sale process itself.”
Cllr Bailey said: “To try to be helpful, moving on to the first part of the question: I realize that while no one has moved in yet, buyers are making progress in the selling process.
“To answer the second part of the question, the council did not take any action with respect to the sales process because, and I repeat, this is not the responsibility of the East Cambs District Council; it is a combined authority project.
She added: “I am aware, however, that the agents of the Combined Authorities are working hard to do what they can to make the sales possible.”
The £ 100,000 houses policy was devised by the former head of East Cambs and, more recently, metro mayor James Palmer.
The new mayor, Dr Nik Johnson, abandoned him when he won the May election.
Speaking on a BBC Look East broadcast ahead of the poll, he said: “James Palmer has said he will be able to solve the affordable housing crisis using his £ 100,000 housing program.
‘He said he would be able to build enough housing to meet all the demand for those in need of affordable housing in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough using this scheme, providing housing at a guaranteed maximum of £ 100,000 per accommodation.
“Is it too good to be true? Unfortunately it is. Mr. Palmer has been mayor for four years, so what’s his track record in delivering these homes?”
“The answer is eight houses in Fordham in four years. Two houses per year. The waiting list for homes in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is over two thousand families.
At the rate of two houses a year, it would take Mr Palmer’s £ 100,000 program a thousand years to house these families.
Dr Johnson said his predecessor’s action as mayor “has significantly hampered the
construction of an affordable building in Greater Cambridgeshire /
“And he wasted money from the central government, including the government paying no more than £ 45million to fund 1,000 affordable homes, not eight!”