Dorset Council unveils new plans to address housing crisis in Swanage

Dorset Council has announced renewed efforts to tackle the housing crisis, with a particular focus on providing affordable homes for key workers in Swanage. This initiative is part of a broader strategy to prevent the county, especially the Purbeck area, from becoming predominantly a retirement community.

Gill Taylor, Dorset's new cabinet member for housing, emphasised the urgency of addressing housing shortages, highlighting the county's significant housing waiting list, which currently includes 6,000 families—200 of whom are in Swanage alone.

Dorset Council has launched a housing advice campaign in collaboration with Shelter and Citizens Advice. The campaign aims to prevent homelessness by helping residents stay in their homes and offering support to those worried about housing costs. Advertising banners on waste collection lorries across the county will promote a helpline that provides free and confidential assistance to tenants, mortgage holders, landlords, and letting agents. This service is designed to intervene early, whether people are facing eviction, struggling with repayments due to the cost of living, or experiencing conflicts with landlords, friends, or family.

In Swanage, the council is working closely with community land trusts (CLTs) to develop affordable housing on council-owned land. This approach is expected to reduce construction costs, making homes more affordable for local residents. Robin Sutcliffe, chair of Swanage Community Housing, welcomed this new focus and revealed that plans are well underway for the development of affordable rental properties in the town.

One project involves building 7 to 10 affordable homes on a plot of land at the corner of Ulwell Road and Washpond Lane, with construction potentially starting as early as 2026. Additionally, a second site has been identified, where up to 20 more homes could be built, with land surveys to assess the suitability of this site set to begin soon.

Robin Sutcliffe said:

“A lot of people would say that the Washpond Lane scheme has been terribly slow to date, which is true, but it is moving very steadily forward and we are getting a lot of cooperation from Dorset Council, and it is very positive.

“Washpond Lane is at the moment in a pre-planning stage, we are still negotiating the final legalities of transferring the site to us, which I am convinced will happen because there is a will in Dorset to make it happen.

“That is exciting, and we are also starting to talk about a second site. Washpond Lane will probably take another 18 months before we start building by the time planning and public consultation has happened, so we need to get a second site moving into the pipeline.

“I am not saying publicly where the second site is yet, as there are still commercial tenants to talk to, and it will be a complex site, but it is one that can be done, I am sure, and Dorset Council is again very much supporting us.

“The other thing to talk about is our aspiration to provide houses for key workers, especially in Swanage which really suffers, as does all of Purbeck.

“We have been negotiating with Dorset Council to try to ensure that the people we are going to house are the people that Swanage really needs to be housed, which is a very important platform.

“We have a very strong board which is making progress month by month, progressing legal documents on the first site and planning surveys on the second site.

“We have appointed Hastoe Housing Association to develop the first site and everything is going in the right direction.

“Given the commitment that the new government is now giving to community housing, I think that we are here at the right time.”

At the housing initiative launch in Wareham, Dorset Council cabinet member for health and housing, Gill Taylor said:

“We know there’s a huge housing problem in Dorset, it was something that was mentioned on the doorstep time and time again across the county during the election campaign.

“We need affordable housing, our economy is going to struggle to grow unless we can house the people who need to live here – for example, we know that people who work within the care industry, who are often lower paid, struggle to actually live in Dorset.

“Swanage Community Housing has been in touch with me and I’m very aware that there are people in Swanage who want to get building.

“Using Dorset Council land is ideal for that because quite often we can put the land in, which is otherwise a huge cost for developers.”

“Within the new administration, we are really ambitious for housing. Dorset Council has a lot of assets that could potentially be used for housing and we want to increase the amount of housing stock we have.

“Money from second home taxes will be put into housing, we are conscious that we need all types of housing and at the moment there’s major work going on to see what the best way would be for Dorset Council to provide that.

“I think we have to take a pragmatic view on green belt development. We need houses and there is a lot of green belt land across Dorset that is probably not as high in quality as elsewhere.

“There’s also agricultural land that isn’t as high value as other agricultural land and I think we need a slightly more relaxed approach to be able to find places for houses.

“We have very few brownfield sites in Dorset, so I think we do have to bite the bullet at some time and decide what we want most – if we want our children to live here, if we want Dorset to thrive, then this is what we have to do.

“I don’t want to see Purbeck, or Dorset as a whole, become a retirement area, but the amount of people who object to housing does make it difficult.”