'Why I spent £85k of my own money to help fix Britain's housing crisis'

Hastings was specified a lively municipality successful the 1980s that London bands would travel to play a gig and ne'er spell home, says Dr Jess Steele.

Today it is 1 of the astir deprived successful England with a lodging shortage truthful terrible the council was told past twelvemonth it mightiness spell bankrupt.

She leads a assemblage radical which was precocious awarded £1.5m by the assembly to make 12 flats successful an abandoned publishing house.

But its efforts to hole the town's lodging situation began successful 2014, successful a rundown bureau artifact adjacent doorway called Rock House. Jess enactment successful £85,000 of her ain money.

Hastings is surrounded by the High Weald, an country of outstanding earthy beauty, and situated among cliffs connected the Sussex coast. It means municipality planners person little of the unfastened onshore typically chosen for ample lodging developments.

Local radical began to fearfulness they were soon going to beryllium priced retired of White Rock, a neighbourhood located down the Hastings seafront, says Jess.

"There was this feeling that gentrification was going to beryllium a occupation – and by gentrification I mean the replacement of existing radical connected little incomes by radical with higher incomes," she says.

At the clip astir 35% of households successful Hastings were surviving successful comparative poverty, a importantly higher fig than the mean for south-east England.

Rock House, a nine-storey bureau block, was fractional bare and alternatively shabby by the clip Jess and her assemblage group, present known arsenic Hastings Commons, rented a tiny portion determination successful 2014 for £200 per month.

Out of the bluish they were offered the accidental to bargain the full gathering for £400,000, a heavy discounted price, and with it the accidental to assistance a neglected municipality and its people.

Jess thought by bringing buildings, specified arsenic Rock House, into assemblage ownership, they would beryllium capable to "cap the rents forever" and springiness section radical determination they could spend to live.

Rents would beryllium offered astatine 1 3rd of the median section income and emergence lone with inflation.

The assemblage radical didn't person the currency to bargain Rock House but Jess knew of a societal endeavor capitalist who had £235,000 to walk connected converting an bare gathering into affordable flats and offices. She convinced them to effort it successful Hastings.

"I was truthful naive astatine that signifier and not precise bully astatine negotiating," says Jess. "I was excessively embarrassed to connection the letting cause fractional the asking price, arsenic I had been advised, truthful I offered the £235,000 assistance – helium instantly said yes!"

With each the assistance wealth utilized to acquisition the gathering determination was thing near to wage stamp work – fto unsocial renovate its 9 floors.

Jess, who happened to beryllium re-mortgaging her home, made the woody imaginable by agreeing to enactment £85,000 into the project.

Work astatine Rock House began successful October 2014 with the assistance of volunteers and a section builder.

"We had a study saying it was going to outgo £1.9m to renovate the full building," Jess recalls. "So we threw it distant and got connected with turning the archetypal 2 floors into workspaces for section businesses that we knew wanted to rent them."

The gathering was partially reopened a fewer months aboriginal successful 2015 and a 3rd level was fixed to an creation schoolhouse to usage for a twelvemonth astatine nary charge.

"They started bringing the gathering to beingness and, you know, being ambassadors for it. So much and much radical were coming to spot it and proposing ideas astir however to usage the bare space," says Jess. "It was astir similar escaped selling but they were besides shaping the aboriginal of it."

The adjacent measurement was to crook 2 floors into six flats, utilizing a indebtedness from the founders of the Big Issue, that would beryllium rented retired astatine the affordable rate.

Jess credits the builder, Chris Dodwell, for having the accomplishment and patience to enactment with the gathering arsenic it was due to the fact that the assemblage radical couldn't spend an architect.

In March 2016 the archetypal residential tenants moved successful and the radical was awarded much grants to decorativeness converting the remaining floors into assorted workspaces, commercialized units and communal areas. The renovation was wholly finished successful 2019.

"Housing is truly important but radical request much than conscionable a bedroom, bath and kitchen," says Jess. "They request abstraction to meet, abstraction to work, abstraction for leisure, abstraction for action.

"It is truthful important that we physique homes… And we bash that with a neighbourhood focus, alternatively than conscionable lodging units."

One of the beneficiaries is Sue Fellows. The 69-year-old moved to Hastings to beryllium nearer her girl but recovered herself struggling to spend renting privately aft she retired from enactment arsenic a carer.

The grandmother-of-10 has been a Hastings Commons tenant for 5 years and volunteers successful their enactment radical for young mums.

"It's a truly affirmative experience," she tells us. "It's a bully societal beingness present and it was truly important aft Covid - erstwhile it each felt a spot horrible."

The lodging situation goes beyond Hastings and is simply a nationwide problem. The authorities person committed to "delivering the biggest summation successful affordable housebuilding successful a generation".

Lisa Tye, a spot lawyer who helped constitute a study for the Radix Housing Commission connected however to conscionable gathering targets, thinks projects similar those by Hastings Commons cannot lick the situation wholly but are portion of the solution.

Big housebuilding firms are amended capable to present ample numbers of lodging units, she says, but assemblage groups tin marque a quality successful places without overmuch disposable onshore – and if determination are capable of them.

"When you commencement to adhd it up, it tin supply thing that's a spot antithetic and is genuinely community-led."

The wealth to instal affordable flats astatine the Observer Building was granted to Hastings Commons by the assembly successful October.

The gathering was location to a printing institution that utilized to employment hundreds of section radical until it closed successful the 1980s – the terracotta-glazed facade a acquainted show to residents since its operation 100 years ago.

The backing is for 12 affordable homes, 8 of which volition beryllium utilized by the assembly to location families presently successful impermanent accommodation.

Jess describes however erstwhile she archetypal toured the building, it's 7 floors were infested with pigeons and had streams of rainwater moving done them – the "rotting heart" of White Rock.

She explains Hastings Commons took ownership of the gathering successful 2019 and person already installed workspaces, an events venue, a exertion hub and a Crossfit gym.

It was purchased utilizing a owe connected Rock House – past valued astatine £1.6 million.

"Like idiots, we decided to hazard each of our bully enactment to bargain the derelict wreck adjacent door!" She adds: "But that's our mission, to bring hard and derelict buildings backmost into assemblage use."

BBC Radio 4 - The Affordable Housing Crisis

The UK has a superior shortage of affordable homes. We inquire whether the existent strategy - wherever councils bash deals with developers to supply cheaper homes - is working.

Are developers being allowed to duck their obligations to supply affordable homes? Are councils excessively under-resourced and under-skilled to negociate with these ample companies?