Call To Alms: the modern case for almshouses
St Oswald's Hospital, Worcester
5 min read
They’ve been a model of social housing since the Middle Ages but almshouses are suffering from the unintended consequences of legislation, Tali Fraser reports
It’s hard to think of a service more likely to win local communities’ support: small charities that provide high-quality housing, typically to older people who need shelter after a lifetime of service.
But those that run almshouses are being treated as potential rogue landlords and – if they want to expand – as commercial developers.
It’s a set of challenges very different from their origins. The oldest almshouse in existence is thought to have been founded around 990 when the Bishop of Worcester created 21 homes in St Oswald’s Hospital, Worcester.
Their golden age was the Victorian era – about one in three of today’s almshouses are from the period – as philanthropy met the need to house those unable to work, often because of old age.
The advent of the welfare state might have reduced that demand but there are still around 30,000 almshouses that provide homes for more than 36,000 people.
It’s a model that works: research carried out by Bayes Business School suggests that almshouse living is shown to increase life expectancy, with the best giving residents nearly an extra 2.5 years compared with the wider population of the same socio-economic group.
Recent policy making, however, has seen almshouses fall through the cracks of the legislative system. Their backers say that almshouses – technically charities who are regulated by the Charity Commission and bound by governing documents, which give some discretion over who qualifies to be housed by them – face inappropriate regulations that trap them from expanding.
They are as affordable as affordable housing could be
Affordable housing funding won’t be released by the government unless the small-scale charities turn themselves into housing associations.
This is despite almshouses not being rented for profit, instead being run by dedicated volunteers, often connected with a church, and designed to be held in perpetuity by the charity in the interest of local people.
“Even though almshouses have been providing affordable housing in the community for thousands of years, they’re not recognised in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). That means that they can’t then access funding to develop further,” Nick Phillips, CEO of Almshouse Association, says.
As charities, almshouses already operate under standards of management that provide guidance on how to treat residents, Phillips says, meaning the extra regulation upon becoming a housing association would be “disproportionate to the scale of the almshouses model”.
He wants the government to amend the NPPF to recognise almshouses as affordable housing, as that “would free up an opportunity to build”.
Member of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee Will Forster, Liberal Democrat MP for Woking, tells The House: “The government’s recent National Planning Policy Framework consultation once again failed to classify almshouses as social housing. That means these vital charities could be shackled by rules designed for the private rental sector – pushing them into financial difficulty and making it harder for them to provide homes.”
Forster says they face an “uphill battle” as “policymakers overlook them”.
When almshouses are built, some local councils are able – because of the broad-brush approach to legislation – to treat the charities as normal property developers. In these cases, additional levies are applied, including the affordable housing tax required by Section 106 planning obligations – even though affordable housing is exactly what they are supplying.
“They actually take the strain off local councils,” Phillips says, so it is “inappropriate for the charity model”.
“Imagine you’re an almshouse charity and you’re trying to build 20 new almshouses. Because of the way the planning policy is written, they are then required to contribute to an affordable housing tax in the Section 106 levy. It’s ludicrous, really, because they are often operating at Local Housing Allowance [rates] so they are as affordable as affordable housing could be,” he adds.
We can’t unlock this potential unless we can unlock these barriers
Labour MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire Lee Barron similarly says: “It is clear that almshouses have a role to play in our national housebuilding mission, using their local and rural knowledge to add affordable houses at the heart of our close-knit communities.
“And for almshouses to expand it is critical that there is some degree of change to legislation.”
Indeed almshouses are also coming under financial pressure from selective licensing, a system councils can introduce to tackle rogue landlords. Only registered housing providers are automatically exempt from the scheme.
Almshouses were not intended to be subject to selective licensing, Phillips says: “When selective licensing was first introduced we spoke to the team who introduced it... and the team said almshouses were never meant to be included in this legislation because they’re small scale. We need government to recognise the almshouse model as being one which should not be caught up in the selective licensing.”
Forster adds: “Instead of hindering almshouses, we should be making it easier for them to build and expand. A simple step would be removing almshouses from selective licensing, cutting unnecessary delays and allowing them to work more closely with councils.”
It has meant developers wanting to build almshouses as part of their Section 106 obligations are dissuaded in the face of the selective licensing, housing association-style regulation and a failure to recognise their existence as affordable housing.
Phillips adds: “They’re almost trapped from expanding. We can’t unlock this potential unless we can unlock these barriers.”
Barron agrees: “Amends to certain policy areas, such as selective licensing and certain provisions in the National Policy Framework would speed up the process. This would allow for more almshouses and therefore more affordable and community-focused housing for thousands in the UK.”
As Forster puts it, “if we’re serious about fixing the housing crisis”, the government needs to look to “support almshouses, cut the red tape, and build more homes now”.
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