At Wednesday evening’s Isle of Wight full council meeting, Cllr Richard Quigley (Labour) highlighted the current housing emergency in relation to lack of availability of rental properties and affordable housing on the Island.
Cllr Quigley asked whether the Isle of Wight council should investigate a number of actions in relation to housing. He suggested:
- Using Section 106 powers to ensure all new builds are principle residence of the purchasers, as has been done in Salcombe rather than second or holiday homes
- Limit the number of air BnBs that offer a whole residence for rent.
- Introduce a private renters’ association and private renters’ charter
- Create a voluntary landlords’ register so private tenants can choose to rent from responsible landlords
- Tougher enforcement against rogue landlords.
Stephens: We’re taking all those elements forward
Deputy Leader, Cllr Ian Stephens, responded to the question,
“We’re going to work together on that and I can definitely say that we’re taking all those elements forward in a positive way.
“Which we will do, because we want to build housing, we want to rent housing, we want to house our Island homeless.”
Brodie: Give a written reply
Chairman of the council, Cllr Geoff Brodie said that he’s had a similar positive response to a question asked at Cabinet and said
“It doesn’t actually mean anything until you actually deliver and I suggest you give a written reply to Cllr Quigley and share it with the rest of the council.”
Image: Jana Knorr under CC BY 2.0
